What’s your favorite sound?

Hundreds of teens wrote about their favorite sounds for a recent essay contest. Guess which sounds took top prize?

Not hip-hop music, not the school dismissal bell, and not the sound of a friend's voice on the phone. Instead, the L.A. Youth newspaper contest's top prize winner, a girl who was born deaf, wrote about loving the sound of a toy rattle. Why? Because it was the first sound she heard after having surgery to receive a cochlear implant, an electronic device that can provide a sense of sound to someone who is deaf or severely hard-of-hearing.

Second prize went to a child who moved to the United States as a kindergartner. She had trouble making new friends because she didn’t speak English well. She found an unexpected way to connect with herself and her new country, and a certain cartoon theme song always reminds her of that time in her childhood.

Another student wrote that his favorite sound is applause, which he thinks is "the sound of success."

Click here to read the three winning essays, and lots more from other thoughtful kids.

To read more about cochlear implants, click here: http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/hearing/coch.asp

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