Manny will be receiving a second implant on his "other side" on 8/24/04. He will then have bilateral implants (implanted originally at 24 months of age.) He is currently a successful implant user, entering 2nd grade in a mainstream school. He has been mainstreamed successfully since Kindergarten. He will be receiving the "Hi Focus Electrode" from Advanced Bionics. In your opinion, at activation, should he be "mapped" using a Hi Res processing strategy or should he be using a processing strategy that simulates the MPS strategy that he currently uses on his first implanted side? Also, do you have any suggestions or experiences to share regarding how to best approach rehab. on this second side? (His unimplanted ear had not been aided since his first implant in 1998. He has been using a digital aide for about a week, mainly to get him used to wearing a device on that side. His audiograms show a response at low frequencies at about 90 dbs. I think that he is feeling the ear plug's vibration and not really detecting sound.) Thank You, Sandy.

Dear Mrs. Beck,
I wish I could answer your question, but I don't have the information. Since we are an educational facility, the mapping strategies are left to the capable abilities of our local implant centers. I inform them if one of our children isn't responding well, but then I leave it to them to determine the problem and remediate it.
However I can make a suggestion. Most implants in the Los Angeles area are done at the House Ear Institute. Their website is www.hei.org. If you contact them, I'm sure an audiologist who specializes in implant mappings can give you an answer.
Sincerely,
Kathleen Sutherland