Things to talk about next week

06May08

They’ve been reading the book, “Deaf Like Me” and have watched 2 cochlear implant movies (Sound and Fury, Sound and Fury: 6 Years Later). ….so we have had a lot of discussion around this topic. Please feel free to share your experiences, especially your perspective as a parent of a child with a cochlear implant. I think it’s important to emphasize that you and DH found out [your son] was deaf at the age of 3 and maybe talk about what things were like up until then, compared to now. You also might want to touch on why you wanted DB to learn sign language. Why the implant? You can talk about DB’s progress having both sign language and the implant, and how this has benefited or not benefited him.

1. what is it like being the parent of a child with a CI

From my reading, it is clear that we are in the middle of a revolution in Deaf culture. And, I know that what I’m doing is the right thing, although only time will tell if we are on the winning side.

Needs to have the tools to interact with our large, loving, hearing family and be able to connect to his d/Deaf community.

Hard to not know the language. Foundations of language. more here?

2. when we found out

Our DB was already 3, and it took 3 audiologists and 5 visits to 2 different programs to determine that he was really profoundly deaf. One mom told me that they didn’t realize how deaf their daughter was until they turned all the lights out in the testing booth. At 2, she had been playing them for fools for months.

3. life before and after

We had a summer of screaming that nearly broke us.

Still hard to interact with peers. Kids in his classroom at 3 aren’t friendly with him anymore. They were all buddies at the beginning of day care. The others have moved on and only sometimes interact with him. Hard on playgrounds when he’s trying to communicate and the kids won’t look at him. Even the kids of out closer friends don’t look at him. His own sister will willfully ignore him.

Still doesn’t have a close friend his own age. No one his own age who signs with him. Connects more easily to adults/older people (college students).

4. why ASL?

All of the parents who are raising their deaf kids with implants and no signing are denying their kids an important part of their history, their culture, their heritage and their ability to connect to Deaf people around the world. They are also condemning them to depend entirely on technology for understanding and interacting in the world. I think (and I hope) that many of these families have a rebellion on their hands when their kids get older. I hope that many of these kids find signing later in life and embrace it and treasure it. Because it is part of who they are.

Some parents who insist on English only seem to be doing so out of fear, ignorance and in some cases laziness. I apologize to all of you who feel incapable of learning sign because you’re too busy, too broke or too beaten up by the educational system to embrace learning another language. Still, your Deaf kids are still Deaf, even if they have bilateral implants from an early age.

Oral/manual education has always been a class distinction, now more pronounced. Cost of therapy, getting to therapy, time off from work, etc. First world/3rd world also more of a divide. What is going to happen with that?

5. how are things going?

We think they are going really well. But, we have some impossible choices to make in the near future. A supportive classroom/system or Deaf/deaf/HoH peers? English or ASL for instruction?

Filed under: Uncategorized   |  Leave a Comment