Deaf kids Misdiagnosed as Retarted then Locked up Up to 1970!

I knew one deaf black guy who ended up in one of those places and he had no language at age 20 years ago. They thought he was retarded.
 
Back in the old days, many deaf children like me are common being retarded or autism. It was wrong for them to misdiagnosed us and had to put us in the wrong place like mental hospital making us suffered.

I was glad I was not put in the mental institution. I was just being happy around me with no sounds at all. Both the doctor and my mother did not know about my deafness after the birth. My mother tried to put me in the hearing nursery school and then had me go to the Catholic school (of course hearing school). I was not responding at all in those two places. The nun told my mother that I can not come back to the Catholic school as I am not responding at all in the classroom. I woke up (became aware of what is going on) when the nun took me home and just put me there. I was puzzled about the scene. The other doctor told my mother after the hearing test and brain test that I am really deaf from birth. Finally, I started going to the mainstream school for first grade (I was too old for kindergarten as I was almost 9 years old). I had a really blissful time being deaf for nearly 9 years. I loved it back then.

Yes, it is sad that many deaf children were misdiagnosed because the doctors don't know anything about deafness at all. They probably never learn about it in the medical school. :mad:
 
Bottesini said:
Those are sad stories.
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I am sorry, Botts. I love you and all but I have to disagree strongly on that one.




Nope, they arent sad stories. They are HORRRIFIC!!!
 
Actually, did you know that back in the 70's it was common for hoh kids to be misdx as mentally handicapped? Audiology wasn't very good back then, and they only caught the most obvious cases. Heck even when we were young it wasn't that unusual for a hoh kid to be dx in kindergarten or preschool or even first grade.
 
shel90 said:
I am sorry, Botts. I love you and all but I have to disagree strongly on that one.




Nope, they arent sad stories. They are HORRRIFIC!!!
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I agree. Even IF they are found out just being deaf, damage already done and esp no language is almost impossible to repair the damage. :(
 
Have you seen the 1979 movie "Your Name Is Jonah"? I saw it the first time in my life, I think...from few weeks ago. Yeah, I understand what it is like to piss us off watching that.
 
I think the misdiagnosing of the deaf kids is still going on nowadays. Although they said they suggested that the deaf child is to be placed in a group home which is about the same as institution.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbD8HpN_enE&feature=player_embedded]Deaf CODA adoption our first 2 adoptions in ASL - YouTube[/ame]
 
I was diagnosed as retarded and was being sent to a special school for children until it was discovered I was deaf when I was 4.
 
People thought I was retarded up to the age of 7 years old , then it was discoverer I was HOH!! There is a big diffidence between being slow and not being able to hear good! Some people still think if you're HOH you're also retarded! I was at peace rally with my daughter and granddaughter and I was talking to a woman and when she hear my voice I got 'that look' that said 'you
poor simple minded child'! The woman was looking at me with pity!! I wanted to say something to her but I was a 'peace rally' but let it go. She was as dumb as they came to think HOH people are S L O W !! She was the slow one!
 
Yeah, I have to remind people that deaf does not equate dumb!
 
katz4life said:
Have you seen the 1979 movie "Your Name Is Jonah"? I saw it the first time in my life, I think...from few weeks ago. Yeah, I understand what it is like to piss us off watching that.
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yes i saw it on Hulu a while back. pretty good movie. that poor kid really went thru it.
 
society's_child said:
yes i saw it on Hulu a while back. pretty good movie. that poor kid really went thru it.
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My older sister said she heard of a case of woman being locked up for years as people thought she was 'retarded' ! Someone finally realize she was deaf!
People thought I was 'retarded' too because I talked so loud and had a speech defect . Kids told my older sister I was retard! My sister said she did not believe it as I had great sense of humor and was smart. Only if the adults where as smart as my sister I may had gotten a HA faster!
 
whatdidyousay! said:
Deafness Mistaken for Mental Retardation - When Deaf People Were Mislabeled as Retarded
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This still happens in some parts of the world. During a nursing placement in India I spent some time working in a psychiatric hospital and some of the patients there were only deaf, but had been misdiagnosed as mentally retarded and institutionalised years ago. Having had the advantage of HAs and other assistive technology all my life, as well as the benefit of a decent education, with help from teachers of the deaf etc., this made me feel really quite upset, especially as I was there as their nurse.

Also, when I read of so many people being misdiagnosed and assumed to be slow rather than HoH, I am so thankful that my own parents were so observant and realised that I had a hearing problem when I was just a baby. I suppose it probably helped that my dad's family had a history of hearing loss. Even so, when I was five and suffering from measles the locum doctor, standing in for our own GP, who came to see me, after a five minute consultation asked my parents 'did you know that this child can't hear?', so surely it can't be that difficult to notice.
 
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