The Cochlear Implant School Toolkit

2 - What is a Cochlear Implant?

How children wear cochlear implants

Children can have cochlear implants on one ear or both ears.

• If a child has an implant in one ear, that child has a unilateral implant.
• If a child has implants in both ears, that child has bilateral implants.

Research suggests that bilateral implants may enhance the overall quality of sound, and increase the person's capacity to determine the source of sounds and to hear sounds in noisy environments in comparison to unilateral implants.

As a result, increasing numbers of children have implants in both ears, though depending on the type of hearing loss a child may have a cochlear implant in one ear and a hearing aid in the other.