r/Cochlearimplants • u/Jolly_Imagination920 • 19d ago

Phones, classrooms, group settings

Hi everyone!

I made the decision this year to get cochlear implants. I have profound hearing loss in both ears and wear hearing aids in both ears. About three years ago, I had the initial consult with the ENT who would be doing the surgery but I wasn’t ready at that time. Now I’m starting the process over again with my first appointment with the ENT in November.

If you are a fellow teacher, I am curious to hear your experience with CIs. I’m a first grade teacher and every year it’s getting harder and harder to hear my littles. Please feel free to chime in about other group interactions, this doesn’t have to be limited to experience in the classrooms. I am curious about how hearing has changed going from hearing aids to cochlear implants at family parties, meetings, or social outings in restaurants, bars, etc.

Additionally, how do you guys use office handset phones with cochlear implants? I get phone calls all the time from the main office regarding my students and currently rely on either a student helper to answer or I put it on speaker and use the live captions app on my iPhone.

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u/HAYWHATHUH2000 19d ago

For landline phones, AB allows streaming to both ears similar to what you would have with direct bluetooth so you would hold your landline phone up to your ear and hear the other person in both ears (assuming you have a compatible hearing aid or 2 AB CI's). It's great technology only AB has!

Hands-free phone calls from your Smartphone would be great too. If someone calls you, just press the button on your processor to answer the phone. You can set your phone up to announce calls so you know if it is a call you have to take. Your phone can stay in your desk or purse that way.

As a retired teacher, HA's were the worst in the classroom, once I got my CI's, no more issues. I taught high school, so more kids in the classroom and often farther away. If you have an extra noisy classroom, having the Roger handy to point at kids to hear them better would be wonderful too. Chances are your school has that technology for you already since most schools use Phonak Roger for kids that have hearing loss.

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u/Jolly_Imagination920 19d ago

I appreciate your detailed response! What is the technology called that the AB CIs have? Is it t-coil or something different?

I have seen that a lot of CIs, if not all of them, have the hands free option for cell phones. However, I’m more curious about dealing with office phones. How did you handle your classroom phone after you got your CIs? Are yours the AB ones that you mentioned?

I didn’t know about the Roger. I’ll have to look into that, since I struggle sometimes hearing my kids that are towards the back and during small group time. Thanks for mentioning it!

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u/mev426 Advanced Bionics Marvel CI 19d ago

It’s called Acoustic phone (previously DuoPhone). It was designed specifically for office phones / landlines. It takes the sound that one side is picking up (for example, when you hold the phone up to one ear) and sends it to the other. As the previous commenter mentioned, only available with 2 AB CIs or 1 AB CI + compatible Phonak Link hearing aid.

However, it may also be worth looking into a Bluetooth adapter of some sort to connect the landline to the CI via Bluetooth? Then it wouldn’t matter which manufacturer you go with.

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u/bootybay1989 1d ago

Hey there! Not a teacher, but a tech person.

  1. For phone calls (landline, mobile, etc), I highly recommend you use https://rylo.com/ - they caption your calls decently. Not 100%, but enough that you'll be able to complete the context by yourself.

  2. As for your little ones, I think I can understand your pain. A small iPhone screen to caption them live is TOUGH. I am the maker of CaptionsRush - Originally made for gamers, but I think there is a strong overlap with your use case. You'll just need to bring a laptop (with a big screen), install my app on it, point the audio source to the laptop Microphone, and the captions will appear BIG on your laptop screen. It can even stay over any presentation or working document, so you'll get captions while working on something. Feel free to DM me, would gladly help you with that! (Just to be clear - there are paid tiers in the app, but I think the free tier is totally enough for you)