concerned with daughter

I am with hear again and ET, As CI user myself, I was born profoundly deaf and was implanted at 30 years old!.
From my own experience in wearing them, I do still find them Loud (eye sqinting loud) when put on and then the loudness subsides in few minutes, Your daughter maybe experincing those and is afraid of wearing them. It would be best to put them on with settings at low then granually increses the volume through the day (not all of it) then again the next day so on until she gets used to wearing them. Make it a game for her like doing bit of music or other sounds, reward her when she hears it (face lit up that kind of thing) so she can enjoy using it.

The longer you leave the CI's off the harder/more uncomfortable as with the stimulation between the electrodes and the brain/nerves would become over stimulated if left off too long. So few hours a day would be ample until you get it sorted with audi.

I would conterate on signing to be honest, she's 2 years old and been through alot so far and she's so young. I didn't really learn to speak until i was about 4 when i started proper school (i was mainstreamed then on to oral deaf school at 11) I had speech therapy from 2 to 16, I speak very well for a profoundly deaf person.

there's cicircle forum for parents of CI kids i haven't seen it but heard it's good. And is there anyone you know with CI kid locally/in the region that you can speak to to give you advice on how to use CI comfortably on your daughter, the Audi may be the best person to point you to the right person.

Good luck.
 
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Thanks for all the advice, I will speak with her audiologist about what has been going on. Today I noticed she was not responding at all, so I checked her processor and sure enough, the cord was broke again!(this is the fourth cord since activation). I am going to look into some sort of support group and see if the company offers parent education classes(never thought of it before). In the beginning I put a brick wall up with the audi's about holding off on signing till she gets older, but I think I do need to step back and re-evaluate everything. Even though I really wanted her to learn sign early and learn speech, I just may have to put more into her oral education. I will try coming up with ways to keep her implant on longer, and focus on her listening.Im sure having the implant off for long periods is effecting the stimulation, and she might feel uncomfortable when it's put back on.But,I still have the personal belief that she(and us) should learn ASL and become fluent(even if it has to be postponed for awhile).I really appreciate the input, it feels so nice to be able to speak with people with personal expierence and knowledge.I dont know what its like to be deaf or have a CI.In all honesty, I used to feel uncomfortable around someone that was deaf.I don't know why.Ignorance I guess.So now when I see people staring at my daughter, I take it as an oppurtunity to educate them! Sometimes it gets hard,but we have our good days and we have our bad.
 
It's really important for her to wear the implant in order to get the benefits. Once she starts wearing it, she WILL get used to it. If she is upset by it when it is first put on, try putting it on with the volume off. Then throughout the day, gradually turn it up a tiny bit at a time. It may just be too much of a shock for her at normal volume when she hasn't had it on for long stretches. I know my daughter will still tell me 'Too loud!' some days when first put on, even though it is set on what it was when she went to bed. The brain gets used to the lack of sound overnight.

My daughter was implanted at 20 months (she's 8.5 now). We made it clear right from the beginning that it was going to be on during all waking hours and stressed that it wasn't a toy, but even then we had a period where she would think pulling it off was a game. That's perfectly normal, that's a kid being a kid! She didn't know I could hear it beeping when the headpiece was off, but she'd know I'd come running as soon as she pulled it off, lol. She'd giggle and take off! It is just a stage and they eventually grow out of it (at least she never tried to eat it, like some kids :lol:), but it is imperative to put it back on when they take it off or they get the upper hand, and that can be hard to get back.

I found that my daughter would bother it less if she had less access to it. If the cords were in reach or brushed her face, she would pull it off. She had the AB Platinum body worn processor, and in the kit came a small purple pouch to hold it. It was a belt pouch, but I took off the straps and sewed snaps to the back, and then sewed snaps to the back of a bunch of shirts. I then attached a loop on the back of the necks of the shirts so the cable could run right up the back of the shirt with the excess tucked in. That way the processor was out of sight, and so was the cable. In the 4 years we had the BWP, we NEVER had a single broken cable.
 
Even though I really wanted her to learn sign early and learn speech, I just may have to put more into her oral education.
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Do you have access to evaluation services at a School for the Deaf?
Have her evaluated by professionals. Also remember that most of the oral sucesses out there tend to be a product of the private school effect and or the high powered suburban lifestyle (the type of lifestyle where kids tend to be extracurrilized to the extreme, with the expectation that they will go off to Harvard or another Ivy League School)
You can do both.. Ie you can still have sign mixed in with speech therapy .....I know the debate is over which language should be first....
 
deafdyke said:
Do you have access to evaluation services at a School for the Deaf?
Have her evaluated by professionals. Also remember that most of the oral sucesses out there tend to be a product of the private school effect and or the high powered suburban lifestyle (the type of lifestyle where kids tend to be extracurrilized to the extreme, with the expectation that they will go off to Harvard or another Ivy League School)
You can do both.. Ie you can still have sign mixed in with speech therapy .....I know the debate is over which language should be first....
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dd,

where do you get the idea that most oral-only successes come from rich suburbanite families who expect their child to attend an ivy league school?
that sounds like an unfair and inaccurate generalization.
 
Hear Again,
sorry I didn't mean to imply that most oral sucesses are the result of a high powered lifestyle.
I do know from my reading that most oral sucesses tend to be the products of the private oral schools.
There is kind of an unspoken attitude, in deaf ed that oral only equates with a very good education. For example, look at the list of colleges that recipiants of the AG Bell Scholarship program attend. Most of them tend to be REALLY competitive colleges.
The question is....is it the methodology that creates the "sucess" or the type of people who are drawn to the methodology? I mean......it's a rare lower class or even middle class person who can afford to move to a city where there are good oral schools or even afford the tution, or supplemental therapy etc? Heck....health insurance even for middle class people sometimes doesn't even cover a lot of the stuff.
 
you asked: "is it the methodology that creates the "sucess" or the type of people who are drawn to the methodology?"

i don't think one can accurately answer this question since an oral-only education is appropriate for some, but not others.

making the assumption that children who have an oral-only education are better educated than those who use asl is also an inappropriate and inaccurate generalization.

what about children educated in oral-only environments who are unsuccessful?
unfortunately, they aren't counted as part of the statistical data since they do not participate in d/hh programs.
 
ange26s said:
My daughter was implanted 9 months ago (she is 2 yrs.old), and Im starting to feel pressure with her communication.We sign with her as well as speak orally with her.Im just starting to get concerned because her ASL has slowed as well as her progress with her implants.I feel like its all my fault she has not been progressing very well. I think I may be to relaxed with her.I don't really force her to wear her implant if she does not want to wear it.I just feel like forcing a child is wrong.There will be times when she is covering her ears crying so I wont put it on, and of course I don't. At the same time her ASL is probally not where it should be at this point either.I feel like crap, like a horrible mother.I have such ambition for my daughter, but maybe Im going about it wrong. I find that I still get offensive when she is criticized.For example, she says "bye bye" but, when she says her "Bs" she uses her teeth on her bottom lip.Her early intervention teacher said she is really concerned with that and we need to break her of the habbit.At that moment I felt my face get flushed because it made me mad.I know they are just trying to help and thats their job,but I dont ever want my daughter feeling ashamed of her speech.Im just torn because what if she does resent me when she gets older b/c she does not speak as well as she would like? Should I get more stern with her implant wear? Has anyone felt this way? Her speech pathologist and EI teachers are starting to get concerned b/c she should be further along by now. I will gratefully accept any advice and constructive criticism, but please keep all rude and ugly remarks to yourself-Thanx!
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Ah... frustration is part of the game... :aw:

learning more than 1 language at the time will go along with a seemingly slower progress with either of them.
We have three children, and all three had to learn Norwegian and Dutch at the same time. We do separate the languages. Dutch at home and Norwegian outside at school/kindergarten.
Our youngest was born deaf, and at first that meant learning and using a third language - sign. But soon after she got her CI's she (and us as well) focused on speech... 2 languages is enough for now. (actually... .they all get english at school now..)'

Hope this helps a little....
 
Hear Again said:
you asked: "is it the methodology that creates the "sucess" or the type of people who are drawn to the methodology?"

i don't think one can accurately answer this question since an oral-only education is appropriate for some, but not others.

making the assumption that children who have an oral-only education are better educated than those who use asl is also an inappropriate and inaccurate generalization.

what about children educated in oral-only environments who are unsuccessful?
unfortunately, they aren't counted as part of the statistical data since they do not participate in d/hh programs.
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People who believe in that are believing in a myth!
 
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