Raising Kids with Cochlear Implants: Personal Narratives from a Family’s Journey

In her book, Raising Kids with Cochlear Implants, Amy Milani shares personal narratives about her experience raising a son and daughter with cochlear implants. Excerpts from a journal she wrote following her son’s surgery describe exactly how he began listening and learning language with a cochlear implant. Stories pulled from daily life as expatriates in Germany reveal how her son acquires a selection of favorite words. When her daughter is also born with hearing loss, the family moves back to the U.S. to find an appropriate preschool and support system for cochlear implants and to fully embrace oral deaf education. In alternate chapters, Amy discusses broader issues affecting family life such as the challenges a young child faces wearing equipment and the social implications of hearing in a way that’s unfamiliar to most people. Her narratives provide authentic evidence of the joys and struggles parents experience when helping children with cochlear implants transition into the hearing world. Speaking from thirteen years of experience, Amy addresses the commitment required by parents to help their children learn to listen and speak with cochlear implants. Her personal narratives are of a family ready to take on the responsibility for their children’s hearing well beyond surgery. She explains how her son and daughter are part of a new generation of kids identified early with hearing loss who grow up with cochlear implants, relying on parents to make it all happen. She calls these children “Generation CI”. In this book, she motivates new parents to get answers about their child’s hearing loss and hopes to reach those who are interested in learning more about what life is like for families with young children who have cochlear implants.