May 17, 2007 Clinical research conducted in the Department of
Communication Disorders at the University of Haifa revealed that
some children who are born deaf "recover" from their deafness
and do not require surgical intervention. To date, most babies
who are born deaf are referred for a cochlear implant. "Many
parents will say to me: 'My child hears; if I call him, he
responds'. Nobody listens to them because diagnostic medical
equipment did not register any hearing. It seems that these
parents are smarter than our equipment," said Prof. Joseph
Attias, a neurophysiologist and audiologist in the Department of
Communication Disorders at the University of Haifa, who made the
discovery. There are two causes of congenital deafness among
children. One is the lack of hair cells, receptors in the inner
ear that convert sounds into pulse signals that activate the
auditory nerve. The second cause is a malfunction of the nerves.
A child may be born with what appears to be a normal inner ear,
but the hair cells do not "