tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37179429.post150160725390683308..comments2023-05-11T10:05:37.318-04:00Comments on Deaf Progressivism: In a response to a hearing mother of implanted childrenUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger95125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37179429.post-54619176929051788902007-09-18T10:26:00.000-04:002007-09-18T10:26:00.000-04:00I wanted to say one more thing. At the time of imp...I wanted to say one more thing. At the time of implantation for my daughter, we were told of the hard work that has to be done. You MUST be on board and available to do the hard work. At first I was just hopeful that she would hear environmental sounds for her safety. Now we have a non stop talker! BUT we worked very hard, EVERYTHING was a language lesson. And continues to be. I know how hard we worked now that I have a hearing son who picks up on everything.<BR/><BR/>I have seen a child that was implanted at 1 year of age, a year younger than my daughter. He was 7 at the time and she was 3, her language far surpassed his. I found out he was in and out of Foster Care his whole little life, thus resulting in the implant not working well for him as the support wasn't there. He is in the local TC program and signs quite well.<BR/><BR/>Every situation is different.Cochlearmomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07516824257704802063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37179429.post-63873316779638101702007-09-17T11:57:00.000-04:002007-09-17T11:57:00.000-04:00Hi Barb,My daughter does enjoy using sign language...Hi Barb,<BR/>My daughter does enjoy using sign language, and I have no problem with her learning ASL when she wants to. But the reason we got her implanted has more to do with giving her full access to the hearing world, not denying her access to the Deaf world. She now has the opportunity to fully integrate herself wherever she chooses. And that is the bottom line for me. Giving her the implant kept more doors open to her in her future.<BR/><BR/>KimAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37179429.post-8482587887471366122007-09-14T20:21:00.000-04:002007-09-14T20:21:00.000-04:00I am the parent of a five year old bilateral CI us...I am the parent of a five year old bilateral CI user. As most people have indicated in this blog, it is the choice of parents to decide what will work best for their family.<BR/><BR/>I had a hard time just getting my child diagnosed. She kept passing the hearing tests in the booth. I insisted that the ENT do an ABR which confirmed profound deafness. She was 18 months old when diagnosed.<BR/><BR/>Prior to diagnosis, I knew she was not hearing. I knew nothing about deafness, I didn't know any deaf people and had only heard about Rush Limbaugh receiving some "ear implant"! We lived in a small town and the nearest deaf community was 2½ hours away.<BR/><BR/>I jumped right into sign language and my daughter had a large sign vocab by 2years old. She received her implant and was activated at 26 months. The therapy we used was inclusive of her sign language. She already had language and picked up on the spoken word quickly. She started kindergarten this year and is well ahead of her hearing peers, she reads beyond first grade level. She even writes sentences.<BR/><BR/>Last summer she developed a massive cholesteatoma in her implanted ear and was left without access to sound for a month. We used sign language with her and she read lips, she is an excellent lip reader, but she always "spoke" back. She had to be re-implanted and received a simultaneous bilateral implant. She is doing incredible.<BR/><BR/>We do have her in an oral program, but we continue to use and learn sign language. I started signing with our now 2½ year old hearing son the day he was born. You would not beleive his language abilities. His language is well ahead of age level. And his sign vocab is very large.<BR/><BR/>This was our choice to implant, which was difficult. Nobody wants to see their baby/toddler go through surgery, and in our case three total implants before age 5.<BR/><BR/>I will never disrespect any parents choice one way or the other. It is a very delicate issue with so many emotions involved.Cochlearmomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07516824257704802063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37179429.post-59039540234895058822007-09-14T16:19:00.000-04:002007-09-14T16:19:00.000-04:00Hi Kim,Thanks for sharing your point of view. I to...Hi Kim,<BR/><BR/>Thanks for sharing your point of view. I totally understand about the path your deaf child has chosen to use speech instead of signs because of the environment she is in where I suppose not a lot of people are ASL users and that she is able to hear well enough to manage conversations. I am really glad to know that she is being successful with her academic progress and that is the most important thing to have also having the ability to interact with her family and peers in a close knitted style. I just hope that someday she will be able to experience ultimate interaction with deaf people that she may appreciate ASL. There are a lot of CI users who re-discovered themselves when they went to college with deaf students and I oftenly heard how they found themselves.<BR/><BR/>However, please allow me to argue that it is not necessarily the case for a deaf individual to be isolated if he or she doesn't have a CI. You cannot possibily make that statement to describe deaf people without CI in general since I myself regardless coming from a deaf family happened to have a very close relationship with grandparents and relatives who are hearing and don't use sign language. I even grew up in a public school with no other deaf students not even with an interpreter. I thought I got along fine but as I got older I realized I have missed out especially in high school and in large groups. I just have this personality that I like to know everything what is said since I don't like to sit back and be quiet. I can't even stand to miss one thing but when using ASL with other people, I feel like everything is crystal clear and comfortable to express in it. I am profoundly deaf but I do wear a hearing aid only on one ear that helps me comprehend speech and produce speech. But not wearing hearing aids doesn't mean he or she is isolated as well. It all depends on the personality. For instance, my mother who is profoundly deaf and wears no listening devices interacts fairly well with her hearing family and relatives. She is popular in the family and she always get to talk with them. It also depends on how hearing people accept a deaf person and their attitude. In other words, it is their perception making them isolated!Barb DiGihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01782821203852989863noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37179429.post-14076926856688508692007-09-14T14:54:00.000-04:002007-09-14T14:54:00.000-04:00I am the hearing parent of a child deafened by men...I am the hearing parent of a child deafened by meningitis as an infant. She got an implant just after her first birthday. We used S.E.E. after she lost her hearing, and continued it for several years. We wanted her visual language and verbal language to be the same. After a while, she simply didn't need the sign. And we never got very proficient with it. She is mainstreamed and is at the top of her class in school. Yes, with only one implant, she does miss some things, but is good about asking for a repeat. She loves to talk, and is very social. Even if we had immersed ourselves in ASL, without the implant she would be isolated from her large extended family. We do not have a moment's regret over getting her implanted.<BR/><BR/>If you are going to implant a child, it needs to be done as early as possible so the brain can make the necessary development to understand verbal language. Most of the frustration occurs because the implant was done too late.<BR/><BR/>I believe that the parents are the best judge of what their child needs. AV therapy works amazingly well for hearing families, but would not work well for deaf families. My disappointment with the Deaf Community occurs when they don't respect my choices for my child. I believe that all options should be available for parents of newly diagnosed deaf children, without bias. The idea that the child should be allowed to "choose" an implant when they are old enough is absurd. Simply delaying implantation for 5 years means that it won't work well since the brain is not plastic enough at that age to make the necessary connections. Whether or not to implant should and must be a decision made by the parent. That is their job. We do not let children raise themselves. We are their advocates.<BR/><BR/>KimAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37179429.post-65073493278401679922007-08-13T16:57:00.000-04:002007-08-13T16:57:00.000-04:00In high school, I was very active in extra curricu...In high school, I was very active in extra curricular activities and social life. I was the president of French Club for two years, vice president of Film Club, and an active member of a few community service clubs. Basically, my social life was so busy that I had to BEG my parents for a car so that I could stop begging them to drive me to places. So, I was never alone in high school. I went out to restaurants with friends often, and certainly, most restaurants that I go to are noisy, but I always made sure that I sat in the “most middle” section of the table so that I could see everyone. Plus, my friends were always aware of my hearing impairment. For example, on a few occasions, if I had a hard time understanding the waiter, one of my friends would repeat for me without my asking. Having good friendships works by letting them know about my deafness and asking them politely if they will repeat what I did not hear. I also always make sure that I stick to a good crowd of friends who are understanding and respect my disability well. As soon as I find out that they’re not willing to accept me, which I usually find out right away, I just say “screw you” and know that these people are likely going to hurt other people as well. I have seen this happen – people who have hurt me have done it to others.<BR/> <BR/>This past first year in college, I was having a slow start as I was in a completely new and different atmosphere and, thus, I was only involved in the school newspaper. However, I plan on getting involved in more activities this coming school year which will broaden my social circle.<BR/> <BR/>I have always felt different from my hearing peers, but I took ADVANTAGE of it. It made me stand out MORE than other people. When I applied for college and scholarships, it was easy for me to write essays about my life because I had a unique story. I was able to speak about my obstacles and successes involving my hearing impairment. Also, I had a broader range of scholarship opportunities as I was able to apply based on disabilities and obstacles. If you ask any early pediatric cochlear implant pioneers, most will agree that they should take advantage of it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37179429.post-71520171023250258872007-08-02T12:00:00.000-04:002007-08-02T12:00:00.000-04:00This is in response to DeafParent - Yes, there are...This is in response to DeafParent - Yes, there are many older kids like Rachel out there. Those who were implanted as toddlers represent the beginning days of CIs in young children and so are fewer than the many coming along now. However, you only need to attend the Northeast CI convention in Sturbridge every other year to meet and interact with several of them. Many of these children come from NYU, which is where my girls were implanted, because NYU started doing CIs earlier during the FDA clinical trials. For years, we attended these conventions where large groups of these kids would have a great time together all weekend, staying up late at night in one of their rooms all TALKING to each other. These kids formed Rachel's deaf community. They weren't part of her everyday life in school, but with today's technology, they've easily kept in touch over the years and visited each other on the off convention years.MKChaikofhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01986056012049882257noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37179429.post-59997039584650887682007-08-02T11:55:00.000-04:002007-08-02T11:55:00.000-04:00One other point - Jessica was implanted in 1996 at...One other point - Jessica was implanted in 1996 at the age of 15 months, at the time the youngest congenitally deaf child in the U.S. to receive a CI but still older than today's kids. By age 6, she "graduated" from A-V therapy with language that tested 6 months to two years above age level in all areas. With results like this, I fail to see how ASL early on could have done any more for her cognitive skills. Today, she is an avid reader, having read 20 books already this summer, including the latest almost 800 page Harry Potter book in less than 2 days. Jessica is not an exception. Results such as hers are typical of the many A-V kids whom I know.<BR/><BR/>As I said before, Rachel has won foreign language competitions in spoken French and was the one student selected out of 800 juniors and seniors during her junior year of high school to win her school's foreign language award. At her high school graduation, she won her school's Faculty Cup award, an award given to one outstanding graduating senior voted on by the entire faculty and administration. This was in our regular neighborhood high school where she was fully mainstreamed. Again, where is the issue with intelligence or cognitive skills? I have a friend whose daughter was born deaf, has a CI and also has multiple physical disabilities. She also was raised A-V with no ASL. She consistently scores 99th percentile on standardized testing, in particular on the verbal portion. These are just a few examples. I could go on. <BR/><BR/>The key is the early and focused attention on immersion in language and is not something ASL has a monopoly on.MKChaikofhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01986056012049882257noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37179429.post-3246441496212650872007-08-02T10:34:00.000-04:002007-08-02T10:34:00.000-04:00Rachel is still out of the country with sporadic i...Rachel is still out of the country with sporadic internet access. I'm sure she will respond eventually, but I will chime in with a few comments of my own.<BR/><BR/>First, I never got the whole accepting deafness as part of an identity. It is very much a part of who my girls are, and they know and accept that, but it doesn't define them. They also make no attempts to hide their deafness or CIs. We have always raised them to be comfortable with who they are and to take pride in what they have accomplished. One of my favorite stories that exemplifies their attitudes occurred when Rachel was 7. She was getting ready for school and decided to put her hair in a ponytail, something she hadn't done before. She has very thick, long hair, and so ordinarily none of her CI processor was visible, but with her hair up, all of it was. I debated with myself whether or not to say anything to her because she couldn't see the back of her head. I gently let her know about it. She looked at me and said in a very confident voice, "That's okay Mom, I think everyone knows I have a cochlear implant."<BR/><BR/>As for not using ASL - The A-V approach when done properly is not a bunch of techniques but is, instead, an all encompassing way of life. While I only did formal work at the table with my girls for about an hour a day, I seized every interaction with my girls throughout the day as a language learning opportunity, from playing with them to having them with me while sorting laundry, making dinner, etc. I was way too busy doing that to set aside time to learn sign or to take time away from their learning of English to switch to sign, and I didn't and don't see how it would have been advantageous. I immersed them in spoken language just as the most successful programs for teaching hearing children a second language are immersion programs. I did not set aside time during each day to work on spoken language. It was an all day activity. Most of the time, my girls didn't realize they were being taught anything. They were simply enjoying Mom's time, attention, and interaction.<BR/><BR/>The other point I want to make is the constant use on this blog and similar ones of the implant age of 2. While this was the case with Rachel, it is far from the norm now. Even 12 months as the age of implantation is dated as many surgeons are implanting at younger and younger ages at their discretion. Thus, the time you talk about waiting just isn't there. A child implanted at 6 months takes off with learning language through hearing very rapidly and catches up to his/her normal hearing peers very quickly.MKChaikofhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01986056012049882257noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37179429.post-38474783214191859702007-08-02T10:24:00.000-04:002007-08-02T10:24:00.000-04:00I'd like to add comments. Hearing parents could st...I'd like to add comments. Hearing parents could start signing to their deaf infants until they receive CI and start speaking at age 2 or 3. Then they may drop sign language when the children pick up enough spoken language. That would make sense but for me I'd expect my deaf child to continue ASL as it s our primary language at home and she could use spoken English at school just like my hearing child does.<BR/><BR/>Also, I agree that CI does make a big difference on deaf children's lives and they'd not need many accommodations such as interpreters in the hearing society. It'd give them much more independence. It s amazing! I wonder if there are a lot of successful deaf adults who grew up with CI like Rachel out there and I haven't met many of them. I hope to meet them someday and they'd be good role models for my deaf child especially those who are bilingual in ASL and spoken English.<BR/><BR/>DeafParentAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37179429.post-43115986283595779732007-08-02T10:00:00.000-04:002007-08-02T10:00:00.000-04:00Rachel & Melissa,I am very impressed with your suc...Rachel & Melissa,<BR/><BR/>I am very impressed with your success story. I'd like to ask about Rachel's social life. Has Rachel ever felt left out with her hearing peers? I heard that CI children often have a hard time fitting in a large group of hearing children (probably more than 8 or 10 of them) because of noisy background that would make it difficult for them to understand spoken language even though they could speak and hear very well like their hearing peers. A lot of them often feel lonely at regular schools. Is Rachel able to interact with hearing people at a large social event or at noisy cafeteria at school? Does she have a lot of hearing friends or only a few hearing friends who understand her special needs? Does Rachel accept deafness as part of her identity? Does she tell everyone that she is deaf or hide her deafness with the CI? Does she ever feel different from her hearing peers because of her deafness? I'd like very much to hear Rachel's answers to those. Remember that most CI professionals such as audiologists and therapists are not exactly experts in deaf education or psychology of deaf children. They only are responsible to make sure CI works for deaf children. <BR/><BR/>Also, you don't seem interested in learning ASL and that is your decision. However, a lot of hearing parents want to use ASL with their hearing babies to help them communicate more easily until they start speaking at around age 2 and ASL also increases their intelligence. A lot of hearing children who are born to deaf parents with ASL are usually smarter than hearing children with hearing parents because of ASL at much earlier age. My hearing child is one of those examples and he is ready for Kindergarten at age 4 while his hearing peers aren't. My 2 yrs old deaf child with CI is also much ahead in her developments than her hearing peers at day care because of ASL and she just started AVT. A combination of ASL and AVT would benefit her. It is not hard to learn baby signs as they are pretty basic and would benefit infants immensely. I don't understand why you avoid sign language only because of AVT. I don't think that ASL would interfere development of spoken language as long as we keep ASL separate from spoken English. Why can't deaf children use both visual and hearing senses as much as possible?? <BR/><BR/>I'm trying understand why hearing parents don't want to learn any sign language for their deaf infants. Maybe they are told by AVT not to sign at all but I disagree with that and wouldn't want deaf infants to lose language while waiting to receive CI and develop spoken language. They usually don't learn to speak until around age 2. However, it is up to hearing parents and I respect their educated decisions, although I may not always agree with them.<BR/><BR/>DeafParentAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37179429.post-64053434659030597542007-07-29T09:57:00.000-04:002007-07-29T09:57:00.000-04:00Rachel --The girl, Heather, from the "sound and fu...Rachel --<BR/><BR/>The girl, Heather, from the "sound and fury" uses ASL. Don't you forget......<BR/><BR/>White GhostAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37179429.post-13114313545359095992007-07-28T23:23:00.000-04:002007-07-28T23:23:00.000-04:00Devil's advocate: You know, many said that the sa...Devil's advocate: You know, many said that the sarcastic remarks often reflected the sign of desperation.<BR/><BR/>You sound very desperate in an attempt to deflect the issues upon others.<BR/><BR/>How pitiful.<BR/><BR/>R-Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37179429.post-29452766109842276932007-07-28T13:46:00.000-04:002007-07-28T13:46:00.000-04:00Ooo! Hearing world TRUMPS all! Oh, what a traged...Ooo! Hearing world <I>TRUMPS</I> all! Oh, what a tragedy to our shrinking Deaf community! Oh, pity us as our community is stepped down and crushed into bits and pieces! What a grand finale!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37179429.post-35520134369805976702007-07-28T10:49:00.000-04:002007-07-28T10:49:00.000-04:00Reading that deaf children raised as I was will gr...Reading that deaf children raised as I was will grow to resent their parents really offends me. Here’s Melissa’s 20 year-old daughter. I just saw this blog and these comments. The debate of the hearing world vs the deaf culture will always be endless, but I need to speak for myself. I am currently in Israel, and was just also in Italy and France. I could not have been a world traveler without having cochlear implants, being raised with the Auditory-Verbal approach, and being able to speak English fluently. The world is changing rapidly and becoming smaller and smaller with the advancements of technology. New technologies are going to continue to be invented, and we’ll love some of the new technologies, and we may hate some others but will have to accept most of them. A large majority of the new technologies that are being invented are helping us to communicate with others around the world cheaply to share research data, participate in trade, and attend conferences. This means that nowadays learning a second speaking language is becoming necessary in order to communicate with other foreigners. When I first started elementary school, we were not required to start learning a second language until high school. Today, elementary students have to learn a second language. My younger sister, who is 12, was born profoundly deaf and has cochlear implants, has been learning Spanish since kindergarten. In fact, in most countries in Europe, by law, students are required to learn English and one other foreign language in order to participate and compete in the global world. I learned French in all four years of high school. I am fluent in French and traveled to France three times not only because I adore the country, but also because I have great French friends with whom I have a blast. Every time I visit my French friends, I always ask myself where I would have been if I didn’t have my cochlear implants. French is a very hard language to learn as it has very different sounds and pronunciations, but I was able to learn it successfully because of my cochlear implants and the Auditory-Verbal approach. Like my mom said, I was in a state-wide foreign language competition during my senior year of high school and was awarded in the superior level, the highest level. The exam was conducted only orally. Even if I didn’t know Italian or Hebrew when I traveled to Italy and Israel, at least I knew how to speak English very well as English is a universal language, and thus, most people know it. ASL is not as universal as English, and not as widely spoken as Spanish, nor French, nor Chinese. I can’t travel around the world without knowing how to speak English and at least one another language. How many people am I going to find who communicate in ASL in other countries? I know many people will tell me that I could just hire an interpreter to travel with me and let the government pay for it because of the ADA law. Money does not fall from the trees. Not only do cochlear implants change lives positively for thousands of people like me, my sister, and Amy’s sons, and but they also save a huge amount of expenses from the government’s pocket as they do not need to pay for interpreters, TTYs and some other deaf accommodations for us. We should take that into a consideration. Also, I would feel less normal if I had an interpreter following me everywhere everyday rather than just simply speaking a language everyday. Also, it’s better to know several speaking foreign languages than just ASL due to today’s society.<BR/> <BR/>“Just wait and see when your kids become 18 years old or finish high school.”<BR/> <BR/>I am 20 years old now, and like I have said, I am very happy with my cochlear implants and I don’t regret not learning sign language. In fact, like my mom said, my life is too busy to learn sign language as I am leading a rich life by attending a university, being on staff for the school newspaper, and traveling. Even if I don’t know sign language, I still have many deaf friends with cochlear implants with whom I speak on the internet on a regular basis and have met them at cochlear implant conventions throughout my life. We’re all leading very similar rich lives.<BR/> <BR/>Nowadays, the pediatric cochlear implant pioneers are adults and are heading out into the world. Most of us are thankful to the inventor, Graeme Clark, for making a positive impact on our lives, and to our parents for making the best decision. Basically, we are the new generation of deaf people. Like my mom and other people said, accept our new generation or watch the number of deaf people being raised with ASL decrease. With the advancements of medicine, eventually in the future, we could have stem cells, gene therapy and all sorts of medicine that could fix children’s deafness at birth. For those who are former oralists, they likely have had difficulties because they were not part of the new generation of early cochlear implant recipients.<BR/> <BR/>One of my dream careers is to work for CNN or another news companies and to live in France and transmit news from France to the United States. Or, I’d like to be a documentary filmmaker, which requires hearing sounds as I edit the film and music. These careers would not be an option if I didn’t have cochlear implants. If my parents raised me without cochlear implants and with ASL, I would be very distraught to have limited opportunities in life and to be immersed in the deaf community. I’d rather have normal hearing friends who speak English fluently, deaf friends, AND French friends who speak French fluently than just normal hearing English speaking friends and deaf friends. <BR/> <BR/>“She also explained about a year where her CI failed and she experienced isolation and refused to go anywhere without you. She felt her life went back to normal when she got re-implanted.”<BR/> <BR/>This is a complete FALSE statement, and I have never said that I felt isolated. When my implant failed, I did NOT regret at all not learning sign language as I was completely deaf TEMPORARILY only for two weeks out of 52 weeks in a year. How many times in my life will I have to go through a cochlear implant failure? Very few times – probably only about two or three times. I continued to go to school everyday while I was deaf and lived well everyday in the silent world by reading lips and having my friends write notes as it was a very short temporary time for them to do it. The word “isolation” may come from the fact that I was isolated from sounds. In other words, during the very short period of my life that I was completely deaf, I felt bored as I couldn’t watch TV or listen to music. Even though I could watch TV with closed captions, it is not as amusing as watching TV with sounds. <BR/> <BR/>I would recommend you all to watch Sound and Fury Part 2 if you have not seen it as the girl, Heather, who has been raised in a deaf family, is very happy to have received a cochlear implant and, actually, has always wanted to have one. <BR/> <BR/>On the other hand, I do respect ASL as it is an option for a few deaf people who cannot be implanted at all for valid medical reasons such as people without a cochlea or who have no auditory nerve. However, cochlear implants with Auditory-Verbal therapy are the best option for millions of deaf people in order to have many opportunities in life, such as learning to speak other languages fluently, watch TV with sounds, playing most musical instruments that certainly require hearing the sounds, listening to the world’s popular technology, the iPod, and attending concerts.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37179429.post-41471959081339187752007-07-27T16:18:00.000-04:002007-07-27T16:18:00.000-04:00If you go back and read what I wrote, you will see...If you go back and read what I wrote, you will see that my initial point was that my older daughter is 20 and is very happy and grateful with the choices we made for her. You will see that this is the case with an exponentially growing number of oral CI children. Things have changed. Either accept it and be welcoming to those who choose a different path from you, or you will see your numbers dwindling.<BR/><BR/>Now, I'm signing off as I'm going out of town and have no more to say on this subject.MKChaikofhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01986056012049882257noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37179429.post-26267082585083816562007-07-27T02:32:00.000-04:002007-07-27T02:32:00.000-04:00Amy and Melissa, Just wait and see when your kids ...Amy and Melissa, <BR/><BR/>Just wait and see when your kids become 18 years old or finish high school. I was one of them. I grew up oral and I often was told that I am hard of hearing (which is not true) because I speak fairly well. Today I have considered myself as a Pride Deaf woman. I wish that I had learned ASL many years ago. I also wish I had made alot of Deaf/HH friends back then. I respect you that you've chosen your kids to learn to speak and many more. I am not surprised that you will regret this later on. Wait and see .....<BR/>Pardon my bad grammar. :-)Squ65https://www.blogger.com/profile/12302530496499417930noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37179429.post-73199042539895772202007-07-26T16:46:00.000-04:002007-07-26T16:46:00.000-04:00Correction: This is why deaf children born to deaf...Correction: <BR/><BR/>This is why deaf children born to deaf parents already fluent in ASL do not have many of the language and literacy that those born to hearing parents do. <BR/><BR/>was supposed to be<BR/><BR/>This is why deaf children born to deaf parents already fluent in ASL do not have many of the language and literacy issues that those born to hearing parents do.MKChaikofhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01986056012049882257noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37179429.post-74080455417596067342007-07-26T12:23:00.000-04:002007-07-26T12:23:00.000-04:00One of the main premises of the Auditory-Verbal ap...One of the main premises of the Auditory-Verbal approach is that the parents are their children's primary language role models during the formative critical early language learning years. This is why deaf children born to deaf parents already fluent in ASL do not have many of the language and literacy that those born to hearing parents do. As a hearing parent, I was best equipped to teach my children my first language, and it was a job I happily and skillfully immersed myself in with the guidance of our Cert. A-V therapist. You say that the education system is at fault, but I do not think that this is the whole answer. The fact is that most hearing parents of deaf children do not achieve a necessary fluency in ASL to be their children's primary role models and leave too much to the schools. As I said before, involved parents are the key. As an involved A-V parent, I made sure that my girls got everything they needed educationally to achieve success, and this meant doing a great deal of it myself. I firmly believe that every deaf child with no other significant disabilities that would impair their learning spoken language can achieve what my girls have as long as their parents are willing to make the necessary commitment. <BR/><BR/>I never said that a deaf person who cannot hear and speak cannot lead a full, happy and successful life, but there are things that the hearing world has to offer, such as music, speaking on the phone, attending movies with ease, etc., that I wanted for my girls that would not have been open to them without CIs. In addition, while all can attend any college, socially to attend a regular school and college able to communicate with everyone with ease certainly makes for an easier time.MKChaikofhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01986056012049882257noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37179429.post-44059837601465336602007-07-26T11:10:00.000-04:002007-07-26T11:10:00.000-04:00Melissa,My memory may be poor on the exact quotes ...Melissa,<BR/><BR/>My memory may be poor on the exact quotes and my computer died so I don't have a copy of that letter your daughter wrote. So I apologize for the inaccurate statement.<BR/><BR/>I am NOT attacking you or her for not knowing ASL - but pointing out that it could have been useful in certain situations. <BR/><BR/>The only reason I remembered you very well is how you attributed ASL to the literacy of non-implanted deaf people who used ASL as their first language.<BR/><BR/>You even pointed out the "studies" on them. Even Amy said, "I'd like to carefully point out the literacy on various blogs..."<BR/><BR/>Whoa. Wait a minute. It's the EDUCATION system that failed them. This is where the Bilingual Education comes into the picture to fix this solution and it’s relatively new.<BR/><BR/>You pointed out the successes in your children - which is BEAUTIFUL! Good for them! But don’t assume every CI child will have the same result.<BR/><BR/>You also gave out impressions that none of it would have been possible had they NOT been implanted!<BR/><BR/>There ARE successful deaf people out there - even filmmakers like your oldest daughter.<BR/><BR/>You also pointed out that had she not been implanted, she would have had fewer opportunities in attending various colleges.<BR/><BR/>That is a FALSE statement. Under the ADA law, a deaf person can attend ANY college, not limited to deaf universities - namely NTID and Gallaudet.<BR/><BR/>I am all for parents’ rights in deciding for their deaf children – but please don’t tell me that it would LIMIT them if they decided not to implant their deaf children or taught them ASL.<BR/><BR/>That is insulting our intelligence. We don’t consider ourselves isolated from the hearing society either.<BR/><BR/>Even if deaf babies were implanted at 6 months, Melissa, they still cannot communicate until they are ready to make connections with sounds and spoken words – just like a hearing baby.IamMinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15337230366443001201noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37179429.post-14306449933605268392007-07-26T10:39:00.000-04:002007-07-26T10:39:00.000-04:00Whether or not you demonstrate makes no difference...Whether or not you demonstrate makes no difference to me. Parents such as myself and Amy have no insecurities about the choices we have made, and children such as mine are now grown young adults speaking up for themselves and leading their own lives. <BR/><BR/>What I would like those in the deaf culture to accept is that this is not only a matter of parental choice but also that deaf children raised with early CIs and without sign language can lead very happy and successful lives just fine fully mainstreamed in the hearing world. Issues such as early access to language, difficulty learning spoken language and ease of socialization are not factors as they were in the past. <BR/><BR/>Also, hearing parents meet children such as mine or Amy's and see firsthand the results of the path we have taken. That allows them to make an educated decision, and they have the right to receive accurate information and make that decision themselves without getting flak from anyone espousing any of the various options.MKChaikofhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01986056012049882257noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37179429.post-69574737560912514852007-07-26T10:04:00.000-04:002007-07-26T10:04:00.000-04:00Okay, okay, I get it. Are you telling us that sin...Okay, okay, I get it. Are you telling us that since CI technology of today is <I>so</I> advanced that it makes learning ASL as a first language as unnecessary because with a CI the implantee is effectively a hearing person in all ways that count? Is that your final argument against Bi-Bi advocating group?<BR/><BR/>If so, what is wrong with just allowing DBC go ahead and have their own demonstration if you are so confident?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37179429.post-83931288517886196162007-07-26T09:53:00.000-04:002007-07-26T09:53:00.000-04:00You wrote: "She also explained about a year where ...You wrote: "She also explained about a year where her CI failed and she experienced isolation and refused to go anywhere without you. She felt her life went back to normal when she got re-implanted."<BR/><BR/>I am not sure where you got this. Nothing could be further from the truth, and certainly my daughter said nothing even close to this. When her CI failed, she could have curled up in isolation while waiting for her new CI to be activated. Instead, she left the audiologist's office after the failure was confirmed and insisted on going to school. She didn't miss a day of school until her surgery and relied on her very good lipreading skills and notes from teachers and other students to get by during the all of 15 days that she was without sound. She maintained her grades and her honor roll status. My daughter has amazing strength thanks to who she is and the support she has received, which is my point. Loving and supportive parents and extended family make all the difference, not ASL and strangers in the deaf culture.<BR/><BR/>You are missing the point that today with early implantation ASL is not necessary. Babies are being implanted at 6 months of age. They very quickly catch up with their normal hearing peers in a matter of months to at most a year. This happens, though, because they are immersed in the hearing world and bathed in sound and spoken language. <BR/><BR/>As for vocal cord development - Children implanted at very young ages develop very normal voices. There is no difference between them and their hearing peers. ASL doesn't pave the way for anything additional other than knowledge of ASL and a second mode of communication.MKChaikofhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01986056012049882257noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37179429.post-68145242205981120912007-07-25T22:57:00.000-04:002007-07-25T22:57:00.000-04:00Hi Melissa, I know who you are.You are that famous...Hi Melissa, I know who you are.<BR/><BR/>You are that famous mother with her two CI children that have been all over newspaper and TVs in the past.<BR/><BR/>I remember a story where your daughter came on a forum and saying how pleased she was with her CI. She also went on to say it was worth the trouble when you fought with her to keep her CIs on when she was 2 years old.<BR/><BR/>She also explained about a year where her CI failed and she experienced isolation and refused to go anywhere without you. She felt her life went back to normal when she got re-implanted.<BR/><BR/>You also said you refused to invest time in ASL because you believed it was a waste of time.<BR/><BR/>Had you learned ASL, you would have been able to communicate with your daughter when her CI failed for a year without her resorting to lipreading.<BR/><BR/>I'm glad she is doing very well now.<BR/><BR/>The point here is that ASL SHOULD have been encouraged to deaf babies - even CI ones - to help them communicate with their parents at an EARLIER age.<BR/><BR/>If hearing babies' vocal cords have NOT been developed to communicate with their parents and ASL paves the way....how in the world is deaf babies any different?<BR/><BR/>That is the whole point here, Melissa.IamMinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15337230366443001201noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37179429.post-72828691791386473962007-07-24T16:46:00.000-04:002007-07-24T16:46:00.000-04:00I'm writing here as another parent of 2 CI childre...I'm writing here as another parent of 2 CI children who also never learned sign language. I am at a later stage with this, though, than Amy, as my children are now ages 20 and 12. If my 20-year-old were not out of the country at the moment, I'd have her write in because she would be speaking for herself and would tell you how she disagrees with much of what you have written. <BR/><BR/>My daughter is bilingual, just not in English and ASL but, instead, in English and French. She is fluent not just in written French but also in Spoken French, achieved the highest level of superior on an oral only French language competition during her senior year of high school, and has lived in France for the past two summers conversing only in French while there. She is also a student filmmaker who edits not just the video but also the audio portion of her films, adding music to them as well. She is very content and grateful with the choice that my husband and I made for her 18 years ago to have her be one of the earliest children in the U.S. to receive a CI and to teach her language through the Auditory-Verbal approach. <BR/><BR/>According to what you have written, you feel that she is missing something in her life because she is not a part of the deaf culture and never learned sign language. She feels that she has no need to learn sign language and is leading too busy and too rich a life to find the time to do so. She is not lacking for deaf friends either, but her deaf community is comprised of some oral CI friends whom she's met throughout the years at CI conventions. <BR/><BR/>Neither of my girls needs lipreading or other visual cues. They hear and speak beautifully, including on the phone. My younger daughter, who was implanted 16 months younger than my older daughter was, hears so very well that she scores 100% on the CNC single syllable word test through her hearing alone. That is the hardest test of auditory comprehension. Why does she need to learn sign any more than a hearing child does? She attends a mainstream school where she does very well, has normal hearing friends, goes on trips with her Girl Scout troop, has language that is above age level and a reading level that is above grade level. <BR/><BR/>The option to learn ASL and be a part of the deaf culture is only that, an option. It is not the end all and be all, especially today when cochlear implant technology affords deaf children the chance to hear so well and to have that hearing and language come so easily. These children do not have to struggle to learn spoken language the way oral deaf children did many years ago. They are leading rich and full lives with parents and friends who are very accepting and supportive of who they are and who believe that they can do anything that they want to do. If they are leading happy and fulfilling lives without sign language, then what business does anyone else have judging them or the choices they and their parents have made? The 180 degree view would be if I or my daughters were to tell you all that you are missing by not getting CIs and hearing as well as they do. Supportive and involved parents can raise very happy, successful well-adjusted children even without the input of the deaf culture who only think that they know better but who aren't there every day to love and nurture those children.MKChaikofhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01986056012049882257noreply@blogger.com