CI's in Children

Even so, I think the parent/guardian has a right to do whatever the heck they want with an 18 month old child that isn't even cognizant.

Only the parent/guardian has the capability to educate themselves about the available options @ 18 mos., which is the time frame originally discussed before the speculation began.

Sure, the parent may make the "wrong" choice at 18 mos., but it is their mistake to make, whether it be CI, HAs, or neither.
 
Pvt. Parts said:
Some of you argue that it's a child's choice. That's the most asinine argument I've ever heard. Since when is an 18 month old child capable of making any decision, let alone a decision like that?

They're not even cognizant at 18 mos.

They can't even control their bowels, for cryin' out loud.
Click to expand...

I don't believe that what they meant, they meant was to wait until the child reach 8 or 9 to make a choice in this, I don't see anyone that say let a 18 months old child to make a decision along with the parents....

And I can understand where some of them are coming from cause I don't feel really comfortable having a CI on a small child or a baby, but it is really up to each parents since they know what best for their own children...

So we do have to keep an open mind on both sides, since not everyone agrees on having CI on small children or babies....
 
>>> I don't feel really comfortable having a CI on a small child or a baby<<

you have to understand that first three years of life are VITAL in learning to speak. Hearing or deaf, doesn't matter. Three first years of life. Vital.

That's why the decision to implant at such early age is very difficult one.
Implanting early, you have a greater chances for speach development than any time later. Clearer speech, better vocabulary...

So, if you have a severe to profoundly hearing loss in an infant and you want it to be able to speak, the earlier the better.
That's the problem.




There is increasing evidence suggesting that there are "critical periods" for speech and language development in infants and young children. This means that the developing brain is best able to absorb a language, any language, during this period. The ability to learn a language will be more difficult, and perhaps less efficient or effective, if these critical periods are allowed to pass without early exposure to a language.

http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/voice/speechandlanguage.asp

Fuzzy
 
Audiofuzzy said:
>>> I don't feel really comfortable having a CI on a small child or a baby<<

you have to understand that first three years of life are VITAL in learning to speak. Hearing or deaf, doesn't matter. Three first years of life. Vital.

That's why the decision to implant at such early age is very difficult one.
Implanting early, you have a greater chances for speach development than any time later. Clearer speech, better vocabulary...

So, if you have a severe to profoundly hearing loss in an infant and you want it to be able to speak, the earlier the better.
That's the problem.
Click to expand...

Yes I'm very aware of that Fuzzy and I didn't say I have anything against CI on small children or babies I just said I'm uncomfortable ...
 
^Angel^ said:
I don't believe that what they meant, they meant was to wait until the child reach 8 or 9 to make a choice in this, I don't see anyone that say let a 18 months old child to make a decision along with the parents.
Click to expand...

That's just the quandary, the parent is faced with that choice at 18 mos. old.

At 18 mos., the child is obviously not cognizant enough to tell the parent "lets wait." Fuzzy described the dilemma perfectly in the above post.

And I can understand where some of them are coming from cause I don't feel really comfortable having a CI on a small child or a baby, but it is really up to each parents since they know what best for their own children...

So we do have to keep an open mind on both sides, since not everyone agrees on having CI on small children or babies.
Click to expand...

You know, I can understand that, but once it's in and on, it isn't that much different than having HAs on a small child/baby.

Obviously the surgery and actual implant create a small element of risk so I agree that CIs should be a last resort.
 
to all....this is a very sensitive issue

Hi,

I have no hearing in my right ear, and am profoundly deaf in my left..can hear enough to get by with lipreading in my left ear. I'm 54 years old, and had surgery on my left ear by Dr. William House at Newport Beach, CA in 1991. He and his brother pioneered the implant stuff in the late 1950's. He told me if I ever lost this hearing in my right ear, that I would be an excellent candidate for an implant, which I plan to pursue if this happens.

I realize this is a sensitive issue with parents of young kids. However, having been oral most of my hard of hearing life, I can't imagine remaining manual all my life, as there are sooooooooo many more opportunities to interact with people in life when I'm oral. However, I realize this is not for everyone, as I can hear some sounds, and lipreading gets me through most of my conversations. I just hope most deaf parents of kids take a hard, long look at their child's life ahead before making a decision. The implant is most successful before the age of 8, so it's a very difficult and personal choice. I don't wish influence anyone else on this, yet I hope to let you all know my personal feelings. I'm sure you all will make the best decision for your child, and that he/her is able to enjoy life. I have!

(just found this site tonite...hope to reach some of you)

--Jim Stahl

Monrovia, CA
(next to Pasadena, CA)
 
I am VERY against for the parents who make the decision for their Deaf/Hard of Hearing children.
Click to expand...

You have every right to make this comment, however, if your child was dying from cancer, would you make decision for your child? I beleive that every parent has a hard time making the best decision for their child, so they have to make what they believe is the best at the time.

I am very disappointed in FDA for not update previously occurring to the youngest children who had failure with their cochlear implants. I heard several children are suffered with headache and fluid leak. They had to removal their CI which their insurance do not coverage that.
Click to expand...

Everything is a risk, I am sure that people are aware of the failure and success of many things, not just CI!

I prefer to leave Deaf children alone to explose in ASL as natural their language in sign language. *big sigh*
Click to expand...

Who says that people with CI still can't benefit from explosure to ASL and still have it as their natural language?? Many people that I know who have CI have the best of both world.

I do respect for the adults who make the decision. It is their bodies !! I am so sick of hearing to read or rumors that cochlear implants are successful for the Deaf children's speech and language development. Their mental and physical are suffered from the dizzy and headache.
Click to expand...

I'm glad you respect someone. You're only sick of hearing success of CI is because you don't want to admit that it does have some success. I agree that CI have been successful in regards to children's speech and language development, however, not everyone of them would be successful, just like a heart operation, some success and some failures.

I would not image how many out there innocence Deaf children went through like those symptoms that many hearing/deaf parents are not realized how dangerous for their children.
Click to expand...

Do you have research information on this? life is acutally about taking risk.

"there is a problem of language development"!!! Have these money grabbing idiots ever heard of Sign Language? Just more of the typical misinformation from the Biomedical Industries.
Click to expand...

I agree with this, many people in the 'hearing world' have never heard of Sign Language and some of these 'idiots' chose not to know, but who it is up to make this change? We as the Deaf community need to make this happen and teach the 'hearing world' about our culture.

I am not going to debate about the children who get their implants ! I may end up punch on the parents's faces ! Keep my 8 fingers and two thumbs under my legs and shut fucking my fingers up !
Click to expand...

This is a unfair comment to say, why pick on the parents? Would you punch parents who found a cure for cancer or who where able to find, or should we leave everything alone and let 'nature' take control of life?
 
I agree with you Cheri

I agree with you Cheri.
I don't think any parent should implant their kids with CI's at all, unless the kids want it.
Sign language is free!! and it won't cost the parents arm and a leg trying to pay for it,
Margie
Dir.of Commimcaton Services
OCDAC
 
cbr600f4i , what should we do cancer with CI here?

Cancer BELONGS kind of SAVING RISK LIFE, the parents has the right to save their children´s life but CI??????????????????????

CI is not belongs kind of saving risk life.... Got it?
 
Liebling:-))) said:
cbr600f4i , what should we do cancer with CI here?

Cancer BELONGS kind of SAVING RISK LIFE, the parents has the right to save their children´s life but CI??????????????????????

CI is not belongs kind of saving risk life.... Got it?
Click to expand...

My point is that life is about choices, you choose to wake up in the morning, parent choose to have children and therefore are responsible for what happens with the life of that child until such an age where they can make their own choices. And this includes such as CI, hearing aids, deaf culture, which school to go to, what clothing they wear. We all need to remember that many parents have to live with the choices they make for the child.

Someone said somewhere that its CI is much like reglion where the child makes their own choice if they want to be part of a reglion group, but the parent makes the first choice if they want their child part of the relgion until such an age where the child can make their own choices. You will find that many child were part of a reglion while growing up but they choose not to be part of it when they are older.....

Sometimes we have to accept the choices our parents made for us, it was the best thing at the time wheather or not was the right one. Sometimes parents do blame themselves for such an action they made that were not a success.
 
I respect the right of the parents to make the choice whether they decide to have their children be given a unilateral or bilateral CI.

My arguments mirror mostly what Audiofuzzy and Pvt. Parts have already stated previously. Now, deafdyke had a good point about confirming whether or not the child really and was truely deaf enough where a CI was the only route to go. I would find out exactly what we are dealing with here maybe starting out with HAs if there is some doubt. Audiofuzzy made some point about the first three years being the most vital. My understanding that the most vital years are up to 6 or 7 years before the full benefit of a CI gradually diminishes unless one is able to speak and hear fairly decent with HAs. This later case describes me very well and explains my success with a CI much later in life (late forties).

Children just aren't capable of making a good choice about something that has such profound ramifications for the rest of their life. I know they don't make good choices over much smaller and inconsequetial issues either (they know better too!!!) and that even when they are older like 8!!! I know as I have two - one eight and one five. My role as a parent is to guide and instruct them so that they can eventually make their own choices as they see fit when they are adults. I don't make the mistake thinking my kids are minature adults...they are definitely not!!! Having knowledge and experience are two totally different sides of the coin. Some kids know an unbelievable amount of things of the world but have no experience with that knowledge. Wisdom is a combination of the two put together.

I have one other argument about CIs and children that I will repeat here. Assuming that other options are not there (i.e., HAs), I would say give them a chance to learn to use a CI while they are young and their brains are so plastic that they would have the best chance to do well with them. If they don't do well or are just not happy for whatever reasons, they can choice to live without using them if they so choose to do so. I will not be second guessed by my kids later in life asking us why we didn't give them the best opportunity if it were there for us to take. I heard and seen that enough to know better.
 
ScrappyKat said:
honestly if a parent wants to get CI's for their child it is up to them but it is almost stripping the child of their identity. They are deaf... its who they are and if they want to join the hearing world it shoudl be their choice.
Click to expand...

Parents take the decision. Parents should look at the long perspective, at the future. The result may be different. However, the long perspective includes today's technology.

When a child grows up with a CI, and hearing, she does not lose her identity, she just doesn't have a deaf identity.

Our daughter - now 3 - received CI last november (2004) and she can hear.
When people ask about the "thing on her head" I explain that she was born deaf. I do not think it's right to say that she "is" deaf, because she can hear. Not just hear, she hears so well that when we wisper, she understands and whispers back to us. To me, that means she's developing a hearing identity. And there's nothing wrong with that.

We are hearing parents, hearing family, hearing friends - now also some deaf friend - but most of our world is hearing.
Having her decide when she's 15 years old would deprive her of the possibility to get the best out of her CI. We would not want that to happen.

Of all the decisions we have made in our life, this is definitely one of the best.
 
ScrappyKat said:
I hate being hearing (even though i am a music freak) i just cant stand to hear what peoplw say... :tears:
Click to expand...

But could you handle being deaf?
 
Cloggy said:
But could you handle being deaf?
Click to expand...

Good Question.. there is no right or wrong answer for this. I am Deaf, but do have some reside hearing. There are times that I really wish I could hear, i.e. the sound of bird in the beautiful morning, the sound of rain pattering on my roof, to be able to hear my nephew speak, but there are other times where I am glad I am deaf, ie. the sound of my partner's alarm clock in the morning!, the sound of the horrible trucks driving past, the plane flying overhead. Many of my hearing friends always say that they rather have a hearing loss then a vision loss.

So being Deaf has its good points and it bad point, but the most important point if to be proud of who you are not your hearing loss.
 
The question was regarding the post by ScrappyKat

"I hate being hearing (even though i am a music freak) i just cant stand to hear what peoplw say... "

Could she handle being deaf??

It's so easy to say, but to actually live it...
 
i think it's a great idea for young infants to recieve CI's at such a young age, because of the many great advantages. One is the ability to develop good listening skills early on and if that works, then the child could develop good speech, but it does require a lot of time and therapy in order for that to happen. If sign is taught to the child, it is useless, because the child can sign even w/out the CI..so CI's should be used for parents who want their child to be oral, in my opinion..
 
CI's should be used for parents who want their child to be oral,
Click to expand...
Ummm......huh? According to research from the '70's....a time of "primative" hearing aids.....most deaf kids have enough residual hearing to be oral.....and as I recall, only about 5% of deaf kids have NO residual hearing at ALL!
 
I think children should be implanted at a young age. It's up to the parents though.
Leah
 
One is the ability to develop good listening skills early on and if that works, then the child could develop good speech, but it does require a lot of time and therapy in order for that to happen
Click to expand...
I really believe that sort of thing has more to do with lifestyle/ attedance at a good oral school. Like parents/families who are really into hyperprograming really thrive on the auditory-verbal approach b/c it says that every single moment should be devoted to therapy,therapy and even MORE therapy!
I think children should be implanted at a young age. It's up to the parents though.
Click to expand...
I think that kids should only be implanted really early(pre one year of age) if they have auditory neropathy or if hearing aids are not working at all....or if they are at risk for ossification (which is common in deafness related to mengintias) I mean delaying implantation for the "maybe" cases, isn't really going to harm a kid. They might have SOME speech delays.....but I mean it's not like there's still time to catch up if they are implanted when they are toddlers or before five. I'm actually OK with the implant in cases where it's definitly obviously needed.......Nothing wrong with that. I mean in cases where it is definitly obviously needed, they aren't going to really get too much benifit from hearing aids....BUT there are probaly a lot of cases where what's needed is a more powerful aid. I've heard of a kid being implanted who had a lot of residual hearing (like significent speech perception even WITHOUT aids) ...I mean I wonder if they could have gotten equally as much out of a body worn aid or those high frequcny transponder things!
 
i think kids who has cochear implants has the right to know sign language, i think its stupid for the parents not to expect their children to know sign language. Its like telling a college student they cant learn sign language to become an interpreter cuz they are "hearing" I think its ok for children to be implanted but they should have the right to know sign language as well as everybody else in the world.
 
Back
Top