GOOD MORNING. My name is Caitlin Parton, and first of all I would like to thank the Food and Drug Administration for approving the Nucleus 22 device. I have been using it since I was two and a half. In July I will celebrate my 12th birthday. I am finishing the 6th grade. I've had my cochlear implant for nine and a half years, and I love it. It's helping me a lot.

I don't remember much about my early days: what it was like to hear; and then get sick before I was two, and not hear. I don't remember having to go to therapy instead of doing other things. I don't remember much about being angry or frustrated. My Mom said it took months for me to say the word "pumpkin" because I couldn't hear or see the "K" sound. I made friends at the League for Hard of Hearing, and the speech therapists made a lot of the hard work fun. The only thing I remember about the implant operation is the big black mask they put on my face to put me to sleep. That's all.

I think it's important to have the implant as a choice for people who are born deaf or lose their hearing. It brings you into the hearing world, the world of sound. I wear this miracle of modern science, and I'm a little different, but I'm a lot like everyone else too.

I hope you are all familiar with how the implant works. It's pretty amazing! My brain has learned to interpret the messages sent to it. I can tell you, it doesn't hurt! People often ask me if things sound different. But I can't answer that, because I don't know how things sound to everyone else. They also ask if I hear things right away or if sound is delayed. It's not like a foreign movie that has been dubbed, where the actor's lips are saying one thing, and the voice is saying another. I experience the sound and lip movements at the same time.

When my implant is off, I can't hear anything. Sometimes I like to watch TV without the sound. I imagine the character voices and make up the sounds in my head. I also love captioning, and it helps with TV and movies a lot.

I don't wear the implant when I sleep, so in the morning when I wake up it's a shock to put the magnet on. Whoa! It's like all these sounds come in. It's a blur of sound at first, and it takes me a second or two. Then my brain figures out what the different sounds are: the radio, music, Dad cooking breakfast, things dropping, the traffic outdoors, my parents asking if I remembered this or that, or all of us going over the plans for the day.

Sounds are really important to me. They give me something exciting to experience every day. Some of the sounds I enjoy most are my parents' voices, my friends' voices, hearing all of my family, and me talking to everybody! I love music. I play the piano and the flute, and I like hearing what I play. I hate hearing my mistakes! I have a boom box, and I love to read in my room and to listen to my CD's and tapes. I love listening to musicals and the Beatles.

I like talking on the phone. I can now use it without any special devices and get almost everything. The phone helps me get homework assignments and make plans with my friends. I like being able to talk with my grandparents. This spring I've started to travel home from school on the public bus by myself. It's really exciting. I can call and tell my parents where I am, or what I'm going to do. It's easy and then they don't worry as much.

I love the sound of waves crashing on the beach, seagulls cawing, and all the summer picnic sounds, everyone talking and having fun. I like the sounds of the school cafeteria. It's noisy but it sounds like a party to me. I love the sound of thunder, the wind in the trees, the birds, and sometimes I can hear the grass under my feet. Sometimes my parents let me go to the store by myself. I like being able to hear the cars and sirens. I feel safer. I like being able to ask the store clerk where something is. I like hearing the "specials" at a restaurant and ordering for myself. I love reading out loud to my little cousins.

Practically the only sounds I don't like are my parents' words, "It's time for bed!" I don't like hearing the screeching of brakes, or nails on the chalk board. When I was little I didn't like the sound of toilets flushing, and cars in the underground garage scared me.

I love my school, my teachers, my friends and activities. English, social studies and art are my favorite subjects. I am learning how to do stained glass right now, and writing a report on Franklin Delano Roosevelt. I think it's fun to learn. When I grow up, I want to be an author and illustrator of children's books. This winter I auditioned and was in our school musical, "Bye Bye Birdie." I had a great time. The League for the hard of Hearing and A.G. Bell have a Kids Club so I see and have friends that live all over who use implants and hearing aids. At the Bell conventions, I meet kids from all over the world and I have pen pals.

I am also a member of the National Dance Institute SWAT Team. Kids from all over New York's private and public schools dance together. There are some kids in the program from a school for the deaf who sign. I've made friends with two of the girls. I help them understand what is going on, and they are teaching me some ASL. My implant helps me hear the music, the director, and the beat that I have to dance to. When I practice piano I've started to use a metronome to help me with difficult rhythms.

One of the hardest things about the cochlear implant is not getting everything that's said, and sometimes missing the joke. Sometimes I feel left out and want to know what everyone is saying or laughing about. Slumber parties can be hard. Sometimes the girls talk in the dark after we're "supposed" to go to sleep, and I've taken my implant off. I hate it when people say, "It doesn't matter. It's not important." I feel like grabbing and shaking them, "Tell me what you said. I want to know!" I don't wear the implant when I swim or go canoeing or play around water. That's when lip reading comes in handy. I hope someday there will be a waterproof implant.

This technology is not perfect. I don't hear everything. Some situations are hard for me. I have to ask people to help or repeat things. But I think implants will keep getting better, and the fact that new kinds of implants are being developed will help all of us.

I don't wake up every day and say, "Oh, I'm deaf. Poor me." I like being deaf, I feel special. I've had to work very hard and I'm proud of what I've done. Sometimes I don't want to do the work but deep down inside I know it will help bring me further.

I've read some of the articles against the implant. I know some people say that kids like me will grow up and not really belong to the Deaf Culture world, and we won't belong to the hearing world either. They say implanted deaf kids don't fit in anywhere. Instead of separating us into little groups...or cliques...we need to learn to respect our differences because deep down we're all the same. I think we need to remember we have something in common. We're all part of one community.

Caitlin Parton, FDA Speech, May 21, 1997