Does professionals have the right to tell parents what to do and what not to do?

cdmeggers said:
it's fine if professionals want to make suggestions, but they shouldn't demand that parents not use signs with their deaf children, etc. The parents can decide for themselves what's best for their kids, not the professionals who seem to think they know EVERYTHING and think they're right.

after I became deaf, my parents struggled to communicate with me. They wanted to do ANYTHING it took to communicate with me, but the professionals told them "no signs, no gestures.. if you sign or use gestures with her, then she'll never speak again!" B.S. But did my parents listen? No. They went and took some sign language classes, then helped me learn to communicate. When being tested to see if I was ready for kindergarten, oohh the "professionals" flipped out when my mom demanded they use sign language with me. "But that would be cheating, that would be giving her the answers!" uh what? That was it, we moved from that little town to here, and they put me into the local deaf school which supported both speech and sign language, and mainstreamed us into the next-door public elementary school for a few classes with FM systems and interpreters.
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Kudos to your parents to make their efforts to communicate with you. :cool:
 
jillio said:
That's just it. They don't have the knowledge or the expertise regarding language acquisition and anythingother than the medical aspect of deafness. Therefore, when they advise parents not to use sign, they are stepping outside their scope of practice. And this is indeed unethical.

When it comes to issues such as language modality, they need to refer out to someone who does have the expertise just the way a general practitioner refers out when he does not have the expertise to perform a surgery.
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yup you said it well, and I wonder if there is anything done so far (even if not in USA, maybe Sweden?) to implement such a policy to prohibit this unethical practices?

if not, (and no i havent begun researching into this on the net/library/etc but will soon) i think its a good area to start making this distinction recognised and enforce it somehow.

Hearing bigotry like this can not be tolerated, and if we can show why it is not to be tolerated then we might have a chance to protect not only the deaf child, but also the parents heartaches and headaches of this very dangerous erroneous misinformation.
 
Sweden and Denmark are in the lead of educating deaf children. More than 90% of the deaf children graduate on grade level or above! The trick? TRUE Bi-bi programs...and more importantly, immediate and ongoing support of the parents with a CONSISTENT philosophies in education, communication, and language. Parents and teachers are expected to learn and use sign language.

Source: Educating Deaf Children Bilingually (Shawn Mahshie)
 
deafbajagal said:
Sweden and Denmark are in the lead of educating deaf children. More than 90% of the deaf children graduate on grade level or above! The trick? TRUE Bi-bi programs...and more importantly, immediate and ongoing support of the parents with a CONSISTENT philosophies in education, communication, and language. Parents and teachers are expected to learn and use sign language.

Source: Educating Deaf Children Bilingually (Shawn Mahshie)
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Absolutley! I've often said that the U.S. needs to take a lesson from the Swedish educational system for deaf/hoh students.
 
All I can say is that hearing parents always look up to the doctors as God and took their advice just like ASLGAL. As for cdmeggers, you really are lucky that you have your own parents not listen to the doctor's advice to encourage your parents to not use ASL or gestures. Hearing parents think that all doctors know about medical disabilities, but that is not true because not all doctors don't have the experience of what is deafness and think they can put the CI to make the children or babies hear the sound and pick up the language just like hearing people. They all have to realize that we will always be deaf for the rest of our lives. And there is no cure for regaining or be able to hear like normal hearing people. geeze :(
 
I'd have to get that book- Educating Deaf Children Bilingually by Shawn Mahshie, even though I am not education major but it would still be handy.
 
Grummer said:
I'd have to get that book- Educating Deaf Children Bilingually by Shawn Mahshie, even though I am not education major but it would still be handy.
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Trust me - you will like that book. If I find it, I'll mail you my copy. :)
 
I honestly feel so sorry for the parents. There are so many contridictions out there regarding deafness. I imagine it must be very difficult, painful, and overwhelming at times.
 
This has been one of my frustrations that I've encountered over and over again-- professionals dishing out advice about communication methodologies with a bias or an agenda. I've run into parents time and time again, who are unsure what to do when they receive professional advice that might not be right for their child.

I think a good solution is what Hands & Voices has developed: a Guide By Your Side program that provides support to families with deaf and hard of hearing children without a bias toward communication methods. It provides a safe place for families to ask questions when they first start on the journey of parenting a deaf or hard of hearing child.
 
Interpretrator said:
But how do you know that? For all you know this doctor is very well informed with all the latest research regarding deaf kids, language acquisition and CIs. Unfortunately, in his professional opinion he goes with the research (because there's always research to prove any position) that implanted children should not sign.

I agree the situation is ludicrous, don't get me wrong. It's the same way I get burned about audiologists who don't sign.
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My point is have these doctors worked in a classroom full of deaf children?

One can only learn so much from research...nothing beats real life experiences.
 
Yep, I agree with the most here - so unfortunate... Shame 'em!

I think all states should be adding such a law to enforce all those professionals, doctors, counselors, etc to provide all methods unbiased so it would be mere helpful, better than without a such law.

I think California just passed such a law recently, correct? (miss-delectable?)
 
web730 said:
Yep, I agree with the most here - so unfortunate... Shame 'em!

I think all states should be adding such a law to enforce all those professionals, doctors, counselors, etc to provide all methods unbiased so it would be mere helpful, better than without a such law.

I think California just passed such a law recently, correct? (miss-delectable?)
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I'm not Miss D, but the answer to your question is "yes". Good for California.
 
Miss-Delectable said:
Just wondering. And please, please do not hijack this thread or generate a controversy.

I met a woman, who's a friend of my friend, and she's training to be a teacher of the deaf and told me about how many students in her course, and how many wants to teach in which communication methods.

I found what she told me interesting. But what captured my interest the most was about a middle-aged woman in the course who had a baby grandson who's deaf. He recently had a CI at 8 months, I think.

And she went to meet the CI doctor and he told her not to use sign language at all with her little grandson.

That struck me as unprofessional. If I were a parent, I would have told him to stick that advice to a place where it doesn't shine.

And it irks me to no end that the doctor's biased because he should have known that sign language, in no way, does impede speech or the child's learning.

As far as I'm concerned every parents with a deaf child should have been given information on every communication methods along withs pros and cons, educational info and information on access to classes, support groups and deaf-related assocations etc.

I wonder how we can do something to change this. I know it's a systematic problem, if I said it right.

Face it, many of those so-called neutral (tongue in cheek) professionals are in it for the money that CI creates for further research and to assimilate deaf kids entirely into hearing world.

I reckon it would have been great if we the deaf community could fund a deaf person to go to medical school, in order to become a CI doctor, so he could encourage parents to use the full toolbox approach....:)
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I think that in most situations I would have thought that as unprofessional as well. BUT... if the grandmother had specifically asked a question about whether or not to use sign language, she should respect his opinion... after all, the doctor would have just answered her question then, right? (Just my two cents.)
 
I have been told by audiologists that if I sign with my daughter that she will never learn to speak. I was told that if she didn't learn to speak it was because I am a lazy mom. I am also fighting right now to get my daughter a CI and the audiologist is telling me that we must switch her to an oral only enviroment (instead of her bi-bi school) in order to get it. I have refused, but I worry about other, less informed parents...
 
faire_jour said:
I have been told by audiologists that if I sign with my daughter that she will never learn to speak. I was told that if she didn't learn to speak it was because I am a lazy mom. I am also fighting right now to get my daughter a CI and the audiologist is telling me that we must switch her to an oral only enviroment (instead of her bi-bi school) in order to get it. I have refused, but I worry about other, less informed parents...
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Within seconds after confirming that our daughter was profoundly deaf, the audiologist informed us that our daughter would never learn to speak and not to believe anyone who says she can, that we should immediately move and relocate to another state in order to enroll her into a certain school. So you see, the gate swings both ways on that issue.

Of more concern is that your daughter's ci seems to be dependent upon your educational choice for her. I know for a fact that there are many children who learn sign while simultaneously wearing a ci and/or are enrolled in schools where the primary mode of communication is manual. So, who is telling you this--the audiologist or the implant center? In any case, I would seek out another implant center asap as well as contacting each of the three manuafacturers for recommendations for that is not the criteria for approving or denying a ci.

Having said that, what exactly are your plans for providing some form of oral/auditory training once your daughter has her ci?
Rick
 
faire_jour said:
I have been told by audiologists that if I sign with my daughter that she will never learn to speak. I was told that if she didn't learn to speak it was because I am a lazy mom. I am also fighting right now to get my daughter a CI and the audiologist is telling me that we must switch her to an oral only enviroment (instead of her bi-bi school) in order to get it. I have refused, but I worry about other, less informed parents...
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Geez, that is seriously f****cked up!!! Makes me sick when I hear about stories like these. The doctors and audis should just f**ck off about the whole signing interfering with speaking abilities. My god.
 
rick48 said:
Within seconds after confirming that our daughter was profoundly deaf, the audiologist informed us that our daughter would never learn to speak and not to believe anyone who says she can, that we should immediately move and relocate to another state in order to enroll her into a certain school. So you see, the gate swings both ways on that issue.

Of more concern is that your daughter's ci seems to be dependent upon your educational choice for her. I know for a fact that there are many children who learn sign while simultaneously wearing a ci and/or are enrolled in schools where the primary mode of communication is manual. So, who is telling you this--the audiologist or the implant center? In any case, I would seek out another implant center asap as well as contacting each of the three manuafacturers for recommendations for that is not the criteria for approving or denying a ci.

Having said that, what exactly are your plans for providing some form of oral/auditory training once your daughter has her ci?
Rick
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She has already stated that she has her in a bi-bi environment, and plans to continue with such.
 
Miss-Delectable said:
And she went to meet the CI doctor and he told her not to use sign language at all with her little grandson.

That struck me as unprofessional. If I were a parent, I would have told him to stick that advice to a place where it doesn't shine.

And it irks me to no end that the doctor's biased because he should have known that sign language, in no way, does impede speech or the child's learning.
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Shall kill thy doctors? That will solve our problem.
 
Well - my mom was forunate to find a professional that stated "you can catch up social, but cant catch up education." Look where it got me.
 
Deaf Mortgage said:
Well - my mom was forunate to find a professional that stated "you can catch up social, but cant catch up education." Look where it got me.
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Sorry, but the doctor was wrong. Both can be remediated. Quite often, however, the social is ignored to the degree that it causes lifelong problems.
 
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