Do you think professionals expect you to speak?

Daredevel7

Daredevel7

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On AD, I see a lot of people get angry at the idea of oralism being forced on deaf kids, and often, they blame it on audiologists and doctors.

This is where I get confused. Since I went away to college, I've moved 3 times and had a different audiologist each city, plus my CI surgeon. I can tell you with certainty that EVERY SINGLE one of them is surprised by how well I can speak and lipread given my background (deaf my whole life). My question to you is, why are they so surprised if this is what is expected of me anyway? This is why I've always thought audiologists/doctors have low expectations for the deaf.

Do you think audiologists ACTUALLY expect most deaf people do have good spoken communication skills? Doesn't seem that way to me!
 
Cause they never knew crap like this.


They're the one who's suppose to know things like this as it is actually possible for us to have great speech. Just that we cannot hear.

Perhaps they probably did it to make you feel better.
 
It was the doctor who told my mom if she wanted me to be "normal" I should learn to speak, not use sign language especially not be exposed to it since it would "hinder my speech development"... if I ever meet that doctor, I would give him a piece of my mind big time.

I have met so many parents IRL who say the same and there have been threads recently made by newcomers who have shared the same experiences.

It does go on especially those who r in the AVT field...:roll:
 
shel90 said:
It was the doctor who told my mom if she wanted me to be "normal" I should learn to speak, not use sign language especially not be exposed to it since it would "hinder my speech development"... if I ever meet that doctor, I would give him a piece of my mind big time.

I have met so many parents IRL who say the same and there have been threads recently made by newcomers who have shared the same experiences.

It does go on especially those who r in the AVT field...:roll:
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Yes I see that people have complained about doctors saying that BUT it seems to me that they don't really expect results from oralism ANYWAY. Ya know what I mean? I actually dont think they expect most deaf people to succeed with oralism only.

Im going to see an AV therapist eventually. Maybe I can pry some information out of her... :)
 
Daredevel7 said:
On AD, I see a lot of people get angry at the idea of oralism being forced on deaf kids, and often, they blame it on audiologists and doctors.

This is where I get confused. Since I went away to college, I've moved 3 times and had a different audiologist each city, plus my CI surgeon. I can tell you with certainty that EVERY SINGLE one of them is surprised by how well I can speak and lipread given my background (deaf my whole life). My question to you is, why are they so surprised if this is what is expected of me anyway? This is why I've always thought audiologists/doctors have low expectations for the deaf.

Do you think audiologists ACTUALLY expect most deaf people do have good spoken communication skills? Doesn't seem that way to me!
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I don't think they expect you to have good oral skills. I think I agree with you on this. They do, however, tend to treat us like we are hearing or should be hearing. They are, the doctors and audiologist, always trying to fix us .. so to speak.
 
Oralism should never be forced regardless of who the person is. If a person wants to talk or learn how to talk then fine .. that's their choice, but don't force people to talk or learn how to talk.
 
jasin said:
Oralism should never be forced regardless of who the person is. If a person wants to talk or learn how to talk then fine .. that's their choice, but don't force people to talk or learn how to talk.
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Right on. And also to let us use ASL which is very important for us to understand what they are talking about. Only thing is that there are almost most of the hearing people who refuse to learn ASL to communicate with us, Deafies. They don't wanna meet halfway to be able to communicate with us especially when we were kids. Lipreading to understand hearing people is hell and frustrating. We get lost big time in lipreading when we could not grasp what they are talking about. That is why we don't appreciate hearing people force oralism on us. :mad: <mad>
 
Bebonang said:
Right on. And also to let us use ASL which is very important for us to understand what they are talking about. Only thing is that there are almost most of the hearing people who refuse to learn ASL to communicate with us, Deafies. They don't wanna meet halfway to be able to communicate with us especially when we were kids. Lipreading to understand hearing people is hell and frustrating. We get lost big time in lipreading when we could not grasp what they are talking about. That is why we don't appreciate hearing people force oralism on us. :mad: <mad>
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I have to agree. We make every effort to understand them but they refuse to try an understand us.
 
Though I speak well, the receptive part is hard for me. People seem more concerned with my speech than if I understood them. They don't seem to realize communication is a two way street for both speaker and spoken to.

Oralism seems to suggest to young parents with deaf children that their child can seem like the hearing if only they work hard enough at it.
 
Does else anyone get the feeling that audiologists/doctors don't expect deaf people to speak well? There is a difference between expecting a deaf person to do oralism and actually expecting them to succeed with it.
 
Daredevel7 said:
Does else anyone get the feeling that audiologists/doctors don't expect deaf people to speak well? There is a difference between expecting a deaf person to do oralism and actually expecting them to succeed with it.
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I dont know cuz I have always spoke well and if they comment about my speech skills, they always say something about not needing to rely on sign language or having more opportunities. I never got that feeling...
 
I have learned to always follow the profit to answer questions such as this.

The person who wants to make a profit must first pretend there is a problem, second to create a fear of horrible repercussions if the problem is ignored, and thirdly to pretend to solve the problem but never really solve it (Because the minute the problem is really solved no one needs their product or services any morel).

Like the deodorant commercial:

If you don't smell good you have a horrible problem. No one will love you, no one will hire you, no one will talk to you. The only way you can feel safe and secure in your world is to use our Smell Good products -- All four of them -- Every single day morning, noon, and night -- And if you happen to get up for a mid night snack, well just splash a bit of our product on -- Just to be sure.

My cynical bet is that when a Deaf person learns how to talk really well, for every audiologist who is happy for their success there are more who are unhappy because they just lost a paying customer.
 
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