2 Year Old Cooper Hear's Mommy's Voice First Time

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Jiro said:
I fail to see how is opting for-implant a neutral position to you. Please clarify?

and no I'm not against implanting babies because I fully support anybody's decision to opt for CI.
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Opting for a CI is not neutral....I never said it was. As I have said....a neutral position is a position that is neither for not against.
 
Jiro said:
and no I'm not against implanting babies because I fully support anybody's decision to opt for CI.
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Babies rarely make decisions.... So are you for parents implanting babies, against parents implanting babies or neutral?
 
TXgolfer said:
Opting for a CI is not neutral....I never said it was. As I have said....a neutral position is a position that is neither for not against.
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TXgolfer said:
I agree....the only neutral position is to hope parents will seek information and make a wise choice
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why would you be talking about neutrality from bystander viewpoint? that's not an issue in here.
 
TXgolfer said:
Babies rarely make decisions....
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that's why you wait till he/she wants it - regardless of age.

TXgolfer said:
So are you for parents implanting babies, against parents implanting babies or neutral?
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I'm against parents making a decision for baby regarding CI. I'd prefer a child to decide for oneself.

Pro-Choice.
 
Jiro said:
why would you be talking about neutrality from bystander viewpoint? that's not an issue in here.
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Actually it is. Besides we are all bystanders when it comes to other peoples kids
 
TXgolfer said:
Actually it is. Besides we are all bystanders when it comes to other peoples kids
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since you're all about neutrality, then why are you asserting your inputs in these threads? I thought you're gonna just stand and watch.
 
Jiro said:
that's why you wait till he/she wants it - regardless of age.


I'm against parents making a decision for baby regarding CI. I'd prefer a child to decide for oneself.

Pro-Choice.
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Then post 75 was correct
 
Cloggy said:
Hi coolgirlspyer90..
You sound like a cool girl born in 1990


Our choice to let Lotte hear was based on factors like how much does she hear (nothing, not even with HA's) How many family members are deaf (0). How many languages (Sign or Speech) she will have two use (at least 2). How many d/Deaf people do we know (0).
Of course there are other factors, like risk of surgery, technology, reliability etc...
All these factors considered are thrown on the balancing scale...

I hope your parents thought beyond "NO.!" and actually considered possibilities and choices for their child..
What was your hearing loss..
What was your families background?
Is deafness common in your family or was it something new?
Is there a strong Deaf culture in your vicinity?
.... what were the factors that your father and mother considered before they took a decsion...


One final question..
Do you believe that your hearing with CI now would have been the same as when you had the CI at age 3?
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Babyblue said:
Wirelessly posted

Some deaf people wished that their parents had them implanted. I have seen both sides on this.
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Cloggy said:
They are... From 4 senses to 5 senses.... :cool2:

But... Did her parents make a choice, or could their daughter hear with a hearing aid...??
I believe coolgirl was hoh... Still is. One CI. one HA.. (correct me if I'm wrong)
So... CI was never an option probably...
So... Her parents never needed to make a choice.. Their daughter could hear..

As for the parens making a decision NOT to implant their baby/Toddler after looking into pros and cons...
Excellent....
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I was born in August '93, I'm 18 but i will become 19 in 2 months, I'll be starting college in the fall. I lost my hearing when i was three due to Autoimmune hearing loss. So I have severe hearing loss in both ears, I could hear a little bit in my right ear but i could not hear anything in my left ear at all. My hearing aid did no help at all in my left ear, but it helped in my right ear. So i decided to get a cochlear implant when I was 8 years old, i was informed about it, I talked about it with my deaf friends who can explain it to me what it is, including my parents. They were supportive of me of what I wanted. It was a huge decision for a 8 year old but at least i made an adult decision, I felt proud of myself. I don't have a hearing aid in my right ear anymore, I have been involved with the Centerville Band program in both the marching band and winter drumlin. In my sophomore year of high school my right ear started to get progressively worse, and I ended up not being able to hear at all. My audi did not know if it was because of my autoimmune or because of the loud noise in the room in drumline. So in the fall of my junior year i gotten my 2nd cochlear implant on my right side.

When i became deaf, my parents did not know what to do, they took me to an audiologist who also introduced my parents to the deaf world and they felt like i should embrace my deaf culture, so my mom started learning sign for me, same with my dad. I started learning sign language when i was four, and My family and I have attended to many deaf clubs to get me involved with my deaf community. They didn't know what the deaf culture was all about until they exposed me to the deaf community. They thought they were going to go ahead and implant me without asking for my opinion, but they did not want to do that. So, they asked me instead and helped me make the decision. My parents have gotten a lot of criticism from my deaf community and blamed them for implanting me. But i have told them that I made the decision not them and they basically shut their mouths and with time, they learned to accept for who i am, AT least i was signing, and that i was exposed to the deaf world. And honestly, my deaf culture is very important to me because If my parents didn't expose me to the deaf world, then I would be confused and thinking to myself, why has god created me this way? i wouldn't probably find my own identity without the help of my deaf family. In my family, deafness happened in old age. My mother and my father looked back in our family tree to figure out if there was any 100% true deaf member in our family, there was none. So i'm basically the first deaf member in my family. We don't know why i got autoimmune when i was young, it usually happens to people in their early or mid-20s. But this was very very rare.

Comparing my HAs to my CIs, I'm grateful to been able to have both. I wish i was able to be able to stay on the hearing aids a bit longer, But I'm glad i experienced both. I'm not regretting anything. But I'm really glad i'm a part of my deaf community, because it's like home away from home.
 
CSign said:
No. I'm not applying my own "hearing values" to anything. I was making a statement based on those that grow up and wish they had been implanted when they were a child.

There is no overwhelming consensus, except from within a faction of the Deaf community. There are many individuals who are DHH in "real life" as well as on this forum that don't necessarily subscribe to that belief. I'm not saying your opinion is wrong- we are all entitled to our opinions and I respect your point of view. However, that point of view is not indicative of the deaf community as a whole.

As for your comment about parents "panicking", I don't agree with that.

You panic if you see your child get hit by a car. You panic if you're at Disneyland and your child is MIA. You panic if your child gets kidnapped.

You don't "panic" if you find out your child is deaf.
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not true. my mother had very strong feelings about me when i couldn't hear anything at the time when i was a toddler. My father thought I was okay, but my mother started banging pots, calling out to my name, I didn't respond. Then my mother started bawling and freaking out about my future and that's what my parents basically told me. My mom told me that she was so afraid for my future because she didn't know what might happen. Until she and my father got the education about the deaf community, they started to calm down and realized that I would be okay with their help of learning sign language and the different options, being just plain deaf, hearing aids, or cochlear implants.
 
TXgolfer said:
Babies rarely make decisions.... So are you for parents implanting babies, against parents implanting babies or neutral?
Click to expand...

But do you realize that a parent is implanting SOMETHING in their body? what if the child grows up and doesn't want to wear it anymore? its a waste of money. That may or may not happen. We don't know what the future will be like for the child. But It is their body. Its like changing them, in my personal belief. I would rather wait for the child to see if they want it. Instead of saying that it helps you hear better, people needs to explain to deaf children that an implant involves surgery, and it will help you hear but it does not cure anything. I'm not accusing of anybody here. I'm just simply telling you my opinions from who once used to be an 8 year old making her own decision of getting a cochlear implant. To me, if I gotten an implant based on my parents decision and not letting me involved with it, I would feel like this isn't fair. How come I didn't get involved in this process? I would be disappointed and upset. Parents can make decisions if the child's life was in danger like they need a new liver or a new kidney, but implanting something that might not be needed for the child, isn't that important. Getting a cochlear implant is a huge decision for a child, yes, but its also something you can talk to your child about getting. Where's the respect for the child? I have not seen this around parents.
 
coolgirlspyer90 said:
not true. my mother had very strong feelings about me when i couldn't hear anything at the time when i was a toddler. My father thought I was okay, but my mother started banging pots, calling out to my name, I didn't respond. Then my mother started bawling and freaking out about my future and that's what my parents basically told me. My mom told me that she was so afraid for my future because she didn't know what might happen. Until she and my father got the education about the deaf community, they started to calm down and realized that I would be okay with their help of learning sign language and the different options, being just plain deaf, hearing aids, or cochlear implants.
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Same here. my parents were very concerned and frightened for my future. The only difference is that your parents explored deaf culture and deaf community. My parents didn't. I think it's they didn't know better at that time. 1980's was a very different time with no internet plus they were foreigners in this country but they did the best they could. In Korea, they did not have much resource for deaf people and told my parents to check out America.
 
coolgirlspyer90 said:
not true. my mother had very strong feelings about me when i couldn't hear anything at the time when i was a toddler. My father thought I was okay, but my mother started banging pots, calling out to my name, I didn't respond. Then my mother started bawling and freaking out about my future and that's what my parents basically told me. My mom told me that she was so afraid for my future because she didn't know what might happen. Until she and my father got the education about the deaf community, they started to calm down and realized that I would be okay with their help of learning sign language and the different options, being just plain deaf, hearing aids, or cochlear implants.
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Mine was similar too. My dad thought "what's wrong with him" when he gave the phone to me after my grandparents were trying to talk to me on the phone and I didn't hear them. He talked it over with my mom and they were looking for advice out there on what to do.

They were suggested by others out there they could put me in oral school or ASL school for kindergarten, and there was a deaf culture available if my parents wanted to join it and me too. Nobody freaked out and everyone was calm trying to figure what are my options. At that time I didn't know any ASL at four or five years old and apparently I told them I'd choose oral after they checked several times with me.

If I were older, I would have probably made a different choice. IMO, age 1-8ish is kind of too young for some kids to understand, but once they are 8-10+ it gets better.
 
Jiro said:
since you're all about neutrality, then why are you asserting your inputs in these threads? I thought you're gonna just stand and watch.
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When did I say I was just going to watch? :)

I post here to stand up for people against bullies. I would do the same if I saw people bullying parents who didn't choose implants. I think it's important for people to see that AD is a welcoming site for all who deal with deaf ess in some way.
 
coolgirlspyer90 said:
I was born in August '93, I'm 18 but i will become 19 in 2 months, I'll be starting college in the fall. I lost my hearing when i was three due to Autoimmune hearing loss. So I have severe hearing loss in both ears, I could hear a little bit in my right ear but i could not hear anything in my left ear at all. My hearing aid did no help at all in my left ear, but it helped in my right ear. So i decided to get a cochlear implant when I was 8 years old, i was informed about it, I talked about it with my deaf friends who can explain it to me what it is, including my parents. They were supportive of me of what I wanted. It was a huge decision for a 8 year old but at least i made an adult decision, I felt proud of myself. I don't have a hearing aid in my right ear anymore, I have been involved with the Centerville Band program in both the marching band and winter drumlin. In my sophomore year of high school my right ear started to get progressively worse, and I ended up not being able to hear at all. My audi did not know if it was because of my autoimmune or because of the loud noise in the room in drumline. So in the fall of my junior year i gotten my 2nd cochlear implant on my right side.

When i became deaf, my parents did not know what to do, they took me to an audiologist who also introduced my parents to the deaf world and they felt like i should embrace my deaf culture, so my mom started learning sign for me, same with my dad. I started learning sign language when i was four, and My family and I have attended to many deaf clubs to get me involved with my deaf community. They didn't know what the deaf culture was all about until they exposed me to the deaf community. They thought they were going to go ahead and implant me without asking for my opinion, but they did not want to do that. So, they asked me instead and helped me make the decision. My parents have gotten a lot of criticism from my deaf community and blamed them for implanting me. But i have told them that I made the decision not them and they basically shut their mouths and with time, they learned to accept for who i am, AT least i was signing, and that i was exposed to the deaf world. And honestly, my deaf culture is very important to me because If my parents didn't expose me to the deaf world, then I would be confused and thinking to myself, why has god created me this way? i wouldn't probably find my own identity without the help of my deaf family. In my family, deafness happened in old age. My mother and my father looked back in our family tree to figure out if there was any 100% true deaf member in our family, there was none. So i'm basically the first deaf member in my family. We don't know why i got autoimmune when i was young, it usually happens to people in their early or mid-20s. But this was very very rare.

Comparing my HAs to my CIs, I'm grateful to been able to have both. I wish i was able to be able to stay on the hearing aids a bit longer, But I'm glad i experienced both. I'm not regretting anything. But I'm really glad i'm a part of my deaf community, because it's like home away from home.
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your story is exactly an ideal scenario that we'd like for many parents. that's why we will continue to express our concerns and advices that would dispel their common concerns based on hearing perspective that led them to opt for CI. We cannot sit idly and watch as "neutral bystanders" while hearing parents are high-fiving each other about a wonderful success with CI and encouraging other parents to do same when in fact they haven't really haven't dealt with reality yet because their deaf children aren't adult yet.

We are always concerned for deaf children's well-being and we do not want them to go thru same thing as us.

But as for parents deciding to go ahead with CI for their toddlers, I have repeatedly stated that I support GrendelQ's choice to go with BiBi approach. I have no problem with that as long as her daughter is actively involved in both worlds. Lot of parents don't do this and that's what we're gravely concerned about.
 
TXgolfer said:
When did I say I was just going to watch? :)

I post here to stand up for people against bullies. I would do the same if I saw people bullying parents who didn't choose implants. I think it's important for people to see that AD is a welcoming site for all who deal with deaf ess in some way.
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well - if you're going to do that, then do it for both sides.
 
coolgirlspyer90 said:
But do you realize that a parent is implanting SOMETHING in their body? what if the child grows up and doesn't want to wear it anymore? its a waste of money. That may or may not happen. We don't know what the future will be like for the child. But It is their body. Its like changing them, in my personal belief. I would rather wait for the child to see if they want it. Instead of saying that it helps you hear better, people needs to explain to deaf children that an implant involves surgery, and it will help you hear but it does not cure anything. I'm not accusing of anybody here. I'm just simply telling you my opinions from who once used to be an 8 year old making her own decision of getting a cochlear implant. To me, if I gotten an implant based on my parents decision and not letting me involved with it, I would feel like this isn't fair. How come I didn't get involved in this process? I would be disappointed and upset. Parents can make decisions if the child's life was in danger like they need a new liver or a new kidney, but implanting something that might not be needed for the child, isn't that important. Getting a cochlear implant is a huge decision for a child, yes, but its also something you can talk to your child about getting. Where's the respect for the child? I have not seen this around parents.
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Who am I to judge another parent who is doing nothing illegal and is a medically accepted practice??? All I hope is that their decision is informed.
 
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