Cochlear Implant myths?

[posts from hell]

If you have two CI's and replaced your skull with a clear plexiglass dome you are able to show off the tesla ball on your head because of the electrodes in both side of your head.

Amazing toy for the kids.

 

[LoveBlue]

just spell out the word that you don't know the sign for and they will show you.

I was talking about in my ASL I class that I took this past winter. And talking/signing with classmates. We had a pot luck dinner for the last class (all classes) and were supposed to be voice off. Well, I don't think that worked too well, at least not for those of us in ASL I. I'll try better in ASL II in the fall.

 

[posts from hell]

I was talking about in my ASL I class that I took this past winter. And talking/signing with classmates. We had a pot luck dinner for the last class (all classes) and were supposed to be voice off. Well, I don't think that worked too well, at least not for those of us in ASL I. I'll try better in ASL II in the fall.

We had that too. But you had to pay up if you uttered one word! in 48 hours with 30 people only 5 words were verbally spoke.

 

[jillio]

We had that too. But you had to pay up if you uttered one word! in 48 hours with 30 people only 5 words were verbally spoke.

I like that idea. Motivate 'em into silence!

 

[deafdyke]

I do actually know a few kids from camp i attended to a few years ago that had implants since they were babies, and they did indeed talk "deaf" so you are right, not all CI babies will develop speaking skills as well as a CI baby who speaks just fine.

2. I know both CI users and non-CI users have accommodations, but I think CI users use less accommodations, as you dont need an interpreter all the time ( if you struggle lip reading). I dont think a non-CI can survive mainstream education (elementary to high school) because I went 6-8 weeks without hearing, had to have an interpreter, i struggled and hated school. I actually left school early each day because I was stressing out, and grades dropped dramatically.

1) Not just talking about quality of speech (ie mechanics, tone volumne pitch pronouncation) but quality of SPOKEN language. There are kids who still have language delays. Granted they generally aren't as bad as the old days, when a three year old only had 50 words....but a lot of kids still have significent language issues, especially around fourth grade when language gets a lot more difficult.
2) Um WRONG. There are CI kids who just have traditional hoh accomondations,(preferential seating, FM/soundfield) but a lot of orally skilled kids may use 'terps in the classroom b/c of difficulties beyond one on one communication. Also, ever hear of oral 'terps? CI kids have hugely varied accomondations you know, just like other dhh kids!
And MANY MANY kids have gone through mainstream education without a 'terp. Mainstreaming and oralism is NOT new! Heck, most deaf kids are MAINSTREAMED and have been since 1975! Yes, you had a VERY difficult time without your CI....but that is b/c you didn't have the tools of speechreading and sign. If you had, you wouldn't have struggled so much.

 

[JoeyDeafNinja]

I knew two girls with CIs and they even knew ASL a little. They oral most of the time. :/. I have CIs but I knew ASL a lot but not lot than you guys. I even not good at oral and some ASL.

 

[JoeyDeafNinja]

If you have two CI's and replaced your skull with a clear plexiglass dome you are able to show off the tesla ball on your head because of the electrodes in both side of your head.

Amazing toy for the kids.

Yes, you are right, it's amazing toy I ever had!

 

[jillio]

1) Not just talking about quality of speech (ie mechanics, tone volumne pitch pronouncation) but quality of SPOKEN language. There are kids who still have language delays. Granted they generally aren't as bad as the old days, when a three year old only had 50 words....but a lot of kids still have significent language issues, especially around fourth grade when language gets a lot more difficult.
2) Um WRONG. There are CI kids who just have traditional hoh accomondations,(preferential seating, FM/soundfield) but a lot of orally skilled kids may use 'terps in the classroom b/c of difficulties beyond one on one communication. Also, ever hear of oral 'terps? CI kids have hugely varied accomondations you know, just like other dhh kids!
And MANY MANY kids have gone through mainstream education without a 'terp. Mainstreaming and oralism is NOT new! Heck, most deaf kids are MAINSTREAMED and have been since 1975! Yes, you had a VERY difficult time without your CI....but that is b/c you didn't have the tools of speechreading and sign. If you had, you wouldn't have struggled so much.

Right. Just because someone speaks well does not mean that they do not suffer from language dysfluency caused by delays.

 

[deafdyke]

I am not embarrassed at all with her in the classroom.

Imo, the most embarrassing thing to have in school is some resource teacher in all of your classes on top of your shoulders "so you need to do this paper now" "no texting!" "come on, focus"

And you think a 'terp is like a resource teacher? Oh god.
Yes, speech and hearing is AWESOME. I say that as a kid who went through the system without a terp.....AND did my senoir year UNAIDED making honor roll for the first time EVER!
But only having speech and hearing (with not even having access to speechreading or ASL) would be like a kid with an orthapedic disabilty not even being allowed to use a wheelchair at ALL costs. Bear in mind that despite the popular thinking of wheelchair users being "wheelchair bound" most wheelchair users use their wheelchairs part time.....especially when or if things get difficult.
Saying that speech and hearing should be enough for dhh kids, is like saying that if you're a good driver in optimum conditions, you're a good driver when you're in a blizzard or in bad conditions.

 

[inmate23]

oralism and terps

but a lot of orally skilled kids may use 'terps in the classroom b/c of difficulties beyond one on one communication. Also, ever hear of oral 'terps? CI kids have hugely varied accomondations you know, just like other dhh kids!
And MANY MANY kids have gone through mainstream education without a 'terp. Mainstreaming and oralism is NOT new!

I HATE oral ism and audism but I am keen to try a tadoma(deafblind tactile oralism) terp to work on my understanding of written speech in a creative and historian pieces.

In 1919 Tad became deaf-blind when he contracted spinal meningitis and lost his sight and hearing at the age of 4. His father went before the South Dakota State Legislature and proved that despite being totally deaf and totally blind Tad was capable of learning; therefore, the State of South Dakota was responsible for his education according to the State Constitution at that time. Tad was sent to the Sioux Falls School for the Deaf and taught by Miss Sophia Alcorn. He learned to speak and to Alisten@ to people by placing his hand lightly on the speaker=s face and interpreting the lip movement, vibration, and muscle movements. Sophia Alcorn named this the Tadoma Method -- named for Tad and Oma Simpson, the first two people to use this method exclusively. Tad graduated high school from Perkins Institute for the Blind in 1933. He was the first deaf-blind person to graduate high school with a regular class at Perkins. His education there was such a positive experience that the Institute opened a deaf-blind department.

Tad remained a student throughout his life. He learned languages (German, French, Spanish, Esperanto, and more) and took correspondence classes from the Hadley School for the Blind in Illinois.Tad Chapman and Tadoma

Tadoma will being nothing more than a tool to used to understand written speech for ME

 

[deafdyke]

And yet, at CI conferences -- where something like AD is an unknown entity for the most part -- the majority have signed or do sign with their children. It's just usually not their primary means of communication.

Do you think there are fewer hearing parents learning ASL to communicate with their deaf children than 30 years ago? That would surprise me.

At CI conferences, I'd say a majority of parents said they had at some point or still do use some sign with their children.

In other words a lot of CI kids do have exposure to ASL and Sign. It's just their secondary language right? Exactly like how when you go to Clarke,CID, St. Joseph's etc reunions, something like over 90% of the grads will have become fluent in ASL.
That reinforces my theory that if Deaf Schools can manage to have early intervention be hoh friendly and bi bi hoh friendly, they would prolly attract a TON of students.....meaning not only CI kids but ALSO kids who are hoh with hearing aids. It does seem like one of the reasons given by hearing parents as to why they pursue oral only is b/c the speech therapists afflifated with TC may not be too talented or there may not be enough time spent on speech therapy. But in a hoh friendly bi bi early childhood program, you'd have really good speech therapy, as well as exposure to ASL
I do think that a lot of kids may change...Like I don't think we'll have a lot of kids dumping their CIs and going voice off......but I think we will have a lot of kids using 'terps more as things get harder. Remember it's very common for kids to start doing not so well orally around fourth grade.

 

[flip]

If you have two CI's and replaced your skull with a clear plexiglass dome you are able to show off the tesla ball on your head because of the electrodes in both side of your head.

Amazing toy for the kids.

Classic!

 

[LoveBlue]

We had that too. But you had to pay up if you uttered one word! in 48 hours with 30 people only 5 words were verbally spoke.

If we were "charged" by the word, this other lady and I would have paid the mortgage on the new deaf school as we spent the whole time talking (with voice).

 

[RoseRodent]

But only having speech and hearing (with not even having access to speechreading or ASL) would be like a kid with an orthapedic disabilty not even being allowed to use a wheelchair at ALL costs. Bear in mind that despite the popular thinking of wheelchair users being "wheelchair bound" most wheelchair users use their wheelchairs part time.....especially when or if things get difficult.

O/T warning but actually this is very common also, perhaps even more common than not allowing dhh kids access to other communication methods. Walking is the supreme and it's "better" if you walk 3 steps a day and then you can't do anything else because it will stop you becoming "dependent on" a wheelchair. If you have a wheelchair available you will, of course, give up all attempts at walking and just snuggle your backside into the chair and sit there forever more getting pressure sores and letting your legs waste up. Yeah, and in the real world getting a wheelchair is little different from getting a car or a bicycle, if you need to go a long way that you can't manage you get in the chair, if you can walk it with your stick or crutches or whatever then you walk, but far too many doctors are still of the opinion that wheelchairs are the very worst thing ever and are a sign of failure, think of phrases like "End up in a wheelchair" - a last resort. I use my wheelchair to achieve things, before I had it I was totally confined to my house for no good reason, if the restroom was too far I'd cry, what kind of life is that?

Myth: CI aren't the same as HA.
To me, they are both the same as they aided you to hear better. Yes, they do their job differently but the end results is the same. I just see that statement as a political ploy to push CI on deaf population.

Really, the end result is the same? I thought that was not quite true.

I'm a hearing aid user and get enough benefit from them that I've been told a CI would not be necessary or particularly desirable for me. I thought the end results were somewhat different between the two.

I'm not sure if the point there was merely that both are aids to hearing and why does everyone get in such a pickle about CIs or whether it was actually meaning they have the same outcomes. I guess a lot depends on your HA profile, I mean I already don't hear very normally/naturally but I'm happy to sacrifice hearing thing in a natural way in order to hear more total content. Others hear things pretty similar to how hearing folks do but they just hear less of it overall, and many people who come late in life to hearing aids desire the sound as natural as possible as they already know what stuff is meant to sound like. To change to a CI if you get good hearing aid use is unlikely to be the way to go simply because we have not yet devised a test for how well an individual will respond to implantation so candidates must meet a criterion that it will "almost certainly not be worse". In future it may be that we can predict the implanted response and would be able to expand CI candidacy to people who have pretty good hearing aid use but could do better with CI.

There are so few people around able to really comment on whether the CI sounds like what hearing folks hear because few users have gone from normal hearing to deaf to CI in a short timeframe, most can only comment on whether it is similar to or different from what they can hear with hearing aids. If I became a CI candidate I could only say if the CI sounded similar to a hearing aid or not, I don't remember unaided hearing.

 

[GrendelQ]

There are so few people around able to really comment on whether the CI sounds like what hearing folks hear because few users have gone from normal hearing to deaf to CI in a short timeframe, most can only comment on whether it is similar to or different from what they can hear with hearing aids. If I became a CI candidate I could only say if the CI sounded similar to a hearing aid or not, I don't remember unaided hearing.

(not a myth ):
I think there are ~3-4 who post pretty regularly here who received CIs as adults not long after losing their hearing, either due to accidents/illness, or due to hearing loss that first appeared when they were teens or adults. Many here and elsewhere who have that ability to compare to recent memory, at least those I've seen, report that -- after an initial period of time when they hear beeps and buzzes and then everyone sounds like a Disney character or a woman with a high-pitched voice -- sounds and voices are close to what they remember -- with the exception of music, I think quite a few don't find the same as they remember.

 

[Beach girl]

Recorded music (as in, on the radio or listening to a CD) is a problem with my hearing aids too, but live music sounds very natural using the music program on my aids. do CIs have such a thing as individual programs, like HAs can?

and then everyone sounds like a Disney character or a woman with a high-pitched voice

That's what my audi told me a CI would sound like to me, "like Donald Duck," she said. That was a few years ago. Pretty much put the end to my thinking about doing it for myself.

 

[GrendelQ]

Recorded music (as in, on the radio or listening to a CD) is a problem with my hearing aids too, but live music sounds very natural using the music program on my aids. do CIs have such a thing as individual programs, like HAs can?



That's what my audi told me a CI would sound like to me, "like Donald Duck," she said. That was a few years ago. Pretty much put the end to my thinking about doing it for myself.

I think it's only like that for a short time. But I'd imagine it must be pretty odd to be looking someone in the face while having a serious conversation and hear minnie mouse speaking.

 

[Beach girl]

That was the thought that crossed my mind, actually.

 

[Hohtopics]

Yes, a CI would usually sound a little unusual or unpleasant at first, before it takes some getting used to or eventually becomes more clear.

 

[deafdyke]

That is a direct result of CI manufacturers convincing insurance companies that the CI is more cost effective in the long run. Of course, that is not true, but numbers are manipulated and illogical and false conclusions presented.

I think too that insurance companies covered them initially b/c while they were really expensive not a lot of people qualified for them.

arning but actually this is very common also, perhaps even more common than not allowing dhh kids access to other communication methods. Walking is the supreme and it's "better" if you walk 3 steps a day and then you can't do anything else because it will stop you becoming "dependent on" a wheelchair.

Rose Red, that's why dhh can also fit in with Disabilty Rights style defintition of disabilty. I just don't get it. Why is it SO bad to give a blind kid Braille skills as well as the abilty to use their residual vision, why is it so bad to give kids with orthaedic issues keyboarding skills, (for poor fine motor) or the use of a cane or a crutch or even a wheelchair?