Advances in Technology and a Return to Medicalization

[jillio]

I have noticed that with the advance in technology and the increase in childhood implantation there has been a return to the view of deafness from the medical model, i.e. seeing deafness as something to be treated with surgery and medical intervention rather than as a social and environmental intervention. Coping skills are focusing on oral language acquisition rather than skills focused on actually adapting to the deafness and using non-invasive interventions.

Parents, particularly, seem to be reverting back to this medical perspective. Personally, I see this as a set back for deaf children. There was a time that we had advanced past the pure medical model, and saw deafness as something that was part of the whole person, and something that needed to be dealt with from a holistic perspective. We seem to have lost sight of the fact that deafness indeed affects the social, psychological, emotional, and educational domains of the deaf individual. We are increasingly failing to take these things into consideration, important as they are, and have gone back to seeing the deaf individual as ears and a mouth, and are using interventions that deal with the ears and the mouth only.

Has anyone else seen this shift backwards in the way we deal with deafness that is increasing with the incidence of childhood implantation and technological advances? Even educationally, we seem to making that shift backwards.

So...what do you guys think?

 

[faire_jour]

Can it be both? Can you provide a way for the child to hear AND language and culture?

 

[jillio]

Can it be both? Can you provide a way for the child to hear AND language and culture?

The thread is about a return to the medicalization of deafness, or the basic perspective from which intervention is appraoched.

 

[Mrs Bucket]

I strongly believe in supporting parental decisions.

I strongly believe we, as a community, are better off supporting individual and parental decisions than nitpicking over other people's children. If I may point it out, parental decision are meant to be supported and reinforced by communal support rather than criticized.

As an adult, I have grown up watching the Deaf community criticize my parents for their decisions to mainstream my sisters and I. It is the very same Deaf community, who criticized my parents, that are our co-workers and friends.

Some people here seriously need to keep their biased (and very harsh!) opinions to themselves about Deaf children who come from hearing parents.

Hearing parents of Deaf children have come here to share perspective only to receive judgment as if CI implantation is the death of ASL and Deaf Culture. It is not so.

It is the attitudes that will continue to be the death of you and yourselves.

Medical decisions are always a necessary evil of society.

To compare a societal shift in Deaf children, medically and environmentally, isn't fair, IMHO. There's surrounding issues that applies to this besides the CI itself.

Deaf children experience this just as much as the Deaf-CI implanted children do; it's called life experiences.

 

[Tousi]

Maybe the current economy has something to do with this backslide?

 

[jillio]

I strongly believe in supporting parental decisions.

I strongly believe we, as a community, are better off supporting individual and parental decisions than nitpicking over other people's children. If I may point it out, parental decision are meant to be supported and reinforced by communal support rather than criticized.

As an adult, I have grown up watching the Deaf community criticize my parents for their decisions to mainstream my sisters and I. It is the very same Deaf community, who criticized my parents, that are our co-workers and friends.

Some people here seriously need to keep their biased (and very harsh!) opinions to themselves about Deaf children who come from hearing parents.

Hearing parents of Deaf children have come here to share perspective only to receive judgment as if CI implantation is the death of ASL and Deaf Culture. It is not so.

It is the attitudes that will continue to be the death of you and yourselves.

Medical decisions are always a necessary evil of society.

To compare a societal shift in Deaf children, medically and environmentally, isn't fair, IMHO. There's surrounding issues that applies to this besides the CI itself.

Deaf children experience this just as much as the Deaf-CI implanted children do; it's called life experiences.

This really isn't about parental decisions. It is about the perspective from which deafness is being viewed, and the impact that has on the way interventions are utilized and the way it impacts the deaf individual.

Societal shifts are always correlated with an outside variable. I have personally seen the positive correlation in a return to the medical perspective and the increasing implantation numbers. If you are aware of other variables that impact the return to the medical perspective, I am interested in what you believe those variables to be. Likewise, if you don't think there has been a shift from toward the medical perspective, rather than the holsitic perspective, I am interested in your thoughts regarding that, as well.

 

[faire_jour]

The thread is about a return to the medicalization of deafness, or the basic perspective from which intervention is appraoched.

Right, and I'm saying that the intervention that looks medical can also be coming from a holistic view of the child. They can be providing ASL, Deaf culture, and oral skills to interact with the hearing world through a CI. That would be viewing the child as a whole person and providing for their entire future.

 

[jillio]

Maybe the current economy has something to do with this backslide?

Quite possible, Tousi. That could very well be something that has an impact for many reasons. One, that it takes a two income family to raise a child, and therefore, not as much time to devote to the less invasive forms of intervention.

 

[jillio]

Right, and I'm saying that the intervention that looks medical can also be coming from a holistic view of the child. They can be providing ASL, Deaf culture, and oral skills to interact with the hearing world through a CI. That would be viewing the child as a whole person and providing for their entire future.

Again, this is about the perspective, not the intervention itself.

 

[faire_jour]

Again, this is about the perspective, not the intervention itself.

And I am saying that the perspective may not be a medical one, even though to the outside observer it looks like it. Unless you are the one making the choice, how can you know what the perspective is?

 

[jillio]

And I am saying that the perspective may not be a medical one, even though to the outside observer it looks like it. Unless you are the one making the choice, how can you know what the perspective is?

Unfortunately, the perspective is a medical one. Perhaps you are not familiar with the various theories on disability and how they are applied and affect the choice of intervention.

 

[faire_jour]

Unfortunately, the perspective is a medical one. Perhaps you are not familiar with the various theories on disability and how they are applied and affect the choice of intervention.

My question is, how do you know? Unless you are the one making the decisions how can you judge their perspective?

 

[faire_jour]

This really isn't about parental decisions. It is about the perspective from which deafness is being viewed, and the impact that has on the way interventions are utilized and the way it impacts the deaf individual.

Societal shifts are always correlated with an outside variable. I have personally seen the positive correlation in a return to the medical perspective and the increasing implantation numbers. If you are aware of other variables that impact the return to the medical perspective, I am interested in what you believe those variables to be. Likewise, if you don't think there has been a shift from toward the medical perspective, rather than the holsitic perspective, I am interested in your thoughts regarding that, as well.

Wow, that feels like a huge discounting of this person's perspective

 

[jillio]

Wow, that feels like a huge discounting of this person's perspective

Perhaps it feels that way to you, but that isn't the reality of the situation. The post is valid, just unrelated to the topic I intended to be discussed here. I would appreciate sticking to the topic and letting go of the defensiveness these things always seem to derail into.

 

[melissa]

Maybe I'm too young to remember (24), or it's just the way I've been treated, but for me it's always been medicalized. From the very beginning I had to go to the hospital for audiograms and it was stated that I needed to sit near the teacher in class- teacher didn't sit near me, 'I' sat near the teacher, because there was something wrong with 'me'. 'I' asked people to repeat things, and was often left out when I couldn't hear what was going on. As I have a (mostly) mild-moderate loss I was never offered the option to learn sign language- I don't think I knew it existed when I was young. Digital aids have been fantastic for me but I still make my own accomodations- asking for repeats, lipreading, just giving up and playing on my iphone when I can't hear something after much trying- my boyfriend does a lot of hearing for me on evenings out in the pub...I don't know if I'm really answering your question but to me it feels like this is what I get, electronic devices and that's it- it's not up to society to bother including me, it's my job. If I don't wear my hearing aids people get frustrated with me. Anyone different from the mainstream is marginalized, and as the outsider it's my job to fit in.

 

[jillio]

My question is, how do you know? Unless you are the one making the decisions how can you judge their perspective?

I know based on the correlations I have seen, observation, and evidence of the differences in interventions being chosen. Evidently, you still do not understand the medical perspective of which I am speaking.

 

[jillio]

Maybe I'm too young to remember (24), or it's just the way I've been treated, but for me it's always been medicalized. From the very beginning I had to go to the hospital for audiograms and it was stated that I needed to sit near the teacher in class- teacher didn't sit near me, 'I' sat near the teacher, because there was something wrong with 'me'. 'I' asked people to repeat things, and was often left out when I couldn't hear what was going on. As I have a (mostly) mild-moderate loss I was never offered the option to learn sign language- I don't think I knew it existed when I was young. Digital aids have been fantastic for me but I still make my own accomodations- asking for repeats, lipreading, just giving up and playing on my iphone when I can't hear something after much trying- my boyfriend does a lot of hearing for me on evenings out in the pub...I don't know if I'm really answering your question but to me it feels like this is what I get, electronic devices and that's it- it's not up to society to bother including me, it's my job. If I don't wear my hearing aids people get frustrated with me. Anyone different from the mainstream is marginalized, and as the outsider it's my job to fit in.

Yes, I doubt that you can remember the more holistic perspective based on your age. However, your post is still valuable, because it shows to a tee the way that the perspective affects intervention choices. And your age correlates to the beginning of childhood implantation. Digital aids were probably responsible for the beginning of the shift, as it it usually a technological advance, such as digital over analogue, that creates that shift.

 

[A]

There was one article I posted AD awhile back, and mentioned a doctor who think deaf children should be implanted, and disagree with cultural deaf for not implanting their deaf children (he almost treat them as if they are abusive parents). All because his medical point of view. I can't find the article

 

[jillio]

There was one article I posted AD awhile back, and mentioned a doctor who think deaf children should be implanted, and disagree with cultural deaf for not implanting their deaf children (he almost treat them as if they are abusive parents). All because his medical point of view. I can't find the article

I don't doubt that you posted it. Articles like that are numerous, especially in the ENT journals. And it follows course that the doctor who subscribes to the medical perspective communicates that perspective to the parents in the recommendations he makes for intervention.

 

[A]

yes, Melissa I've grew up with people viewing me as the medical view of deafness. In class, you don't realize your deafness is affecting your learning But teachers do because of their medical point of view which how they handle it can make you feel stupid. Then you compare your work to another student, and you just start to feel even more stupid.