Sign Language Alphabet

Learning sign language is a wonderful skill to have to communicate with a person who is hearing impaired. My son's best friend was profoundly deaf. He had a Cochlear implant, which is sometimes called a bionic ear. Pierce began deaf from a serious infection at the age of 8 months. His parents than began learning the sign language alphabet and sign language words to communicate with and teach their son to communciate with them and others.

Baby Sign Language can be taught to all children not just those who are deaf. I has great benefit to a young child who cannot speak. They can still communicate with you through learning sign language. They can tell you what they want and what is wrong using sign instead of words.

When my son's friend Pierce came over to play I would always have my sign language dictionary handy. I already knew the sign language alphabet but it was important for me to learn sign language words to communicate more with Pierce. My son learned very quickly all the important signs, like lets go ride our bikes or play on the playstation!

Learning sign language isn't just for those who are deaf!

A cochlear implant (Bionic Ear) is an artificial hearing device. It is made to produce sounds or sensations by electrically stimulating nerves inside the inner ear. The Bionic Ear pioneered in 1978 by Professor Graeme Clark and his team, in Melbourne, Australia.

The current multi-channel cochlear implants, has of 2 main components:

1) the cochlear implant package and electrode array (or receiver-stimulator) and 2) the speech processor and headset.

The speech processor combines sounds on different electrodes with different loudness, to build up something as close to the original sound as possible.

How a person can hear with a cochlear implant:

a. Sounds and speech are picked up by the microphone.

b. The information from the microphone is sent to the speech processor.

c. The speech processor analyses the information and converts it into an electrical code.

d. The coded signal travels via a cable to the transmitting coil in the headset. Radio waves from the transmitter coil carry the coded signal through the skin to the implant inside.

e. The implant package decodes the signal. The signal contains information that determines how much electrical current will be sent to the different electrodes.

f. The correct amount of electrical current passes down the lead wires to the chosen electrodes.

g. Where the stimulating electrodes are placed within the cochlea will determine the frequency or pitch of the sounds. The amount of electrical current will determine the loudness of the sounds.

h. Now the nerve endings in the cochlea are stimulated, the message is sent up to the brain along the hearing nerve. The brain interprets the stimulation as a meaningful sound.Professor Graeme Clark, born in New South Wales, Australia, pioneered the multiple-channel cochlear implant (bionic ear). It is the first cochlear implant to reliably give speech understanding to severely-to-profoundly deaf people, as well as allowing children, who are born deaf, the ability to speak spoken language. These people can communicate in a world of sound.

Graeme Clark was motivated by his father's deafness. Professor Clark's continued research, and skills lead to the cochlear implant for severely-to-profoundly deaf children. In 1985 operated on the first children at the Eye and Ear Hospital in Melbourne, Australia. After a world trial the cochlear implant was approved by a world regulatory body, and it became the first major advance in helping severely-to-profoundly deaf children to communicate.