Faced with tough decision

Wirelessly posted

HHIssues said:
posts from hell said:
again, if you could read... i have mentioned that i have wore all sorts of hearing equipments, and I can speak if i wanted to... But I have chose to go deaf, voice off, ASL only mode. Life is much easier since then.
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Alright, supposedly you have difficulty communicating with a hearing person that doesn't know ASL, whose fault is that? Yours for not wearing an hearing aid or the hearing person that doesn't know ASL?

Some of you are always harping on that it's the hearing that needs to meet "half way". Well some of the hearing may also think you're not exactly making an effort to meet "half way" either when you won't even wear hearing aids.

According to your logic, you think the solution is to get millions of people out there to conform to your needs.

That with your loss, your oral, auditory and lipreading skills would probably have been better than what it is had you made a better use of the hearing aids over the years.

To those out there reading this, you'd be surprised how much more those with a severe loss can hear than those with a profound. Not too long ago, I was at a beach with someone that had a severe loss. And with us being at the beach and all, we weren't wearing the hearing aids or CI, etc. I asked him "Can you hear anything at this point?". And the person then responded "Oh yes, I could hear people talking in the background, etc". I was like "WHOA! You could hear THAT much?" Cause with a profound loss, I could pretty much hear almost nothing without an aid or CI, etc. Just so you'd know.
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I have severe-profound losses. Most of the time, I pass off as "hard-of-hearing" because I react to sounds or complain how a recognized song or a random phrase I overheard is bothering me. Also, I don't have the stereotypical deaf accent the mainstream is used to.
My hearing is decent enough to vendor at a busy trade-show (as long there's no one behind me) and talk to the customers. It's hard work though.

I get better treatment if I call myself Deaf and express myself in a signed mode than if I try to be a speaking Hard-of-Hearing or "Hearing Impaired" person. So how much a person can hear is moot point.
 
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Waltersfam07 said:
It is so nice to have so much feedback, just being able to discuss this with others who have had the same experience is very helpful, thank you all again so much.
My husband and I have enjoyed reading and discussing what each of you have written. You all have broaded our minds and helped us talk out lots of issues and I am very grateful for that.
While the qualifing process is long and sometimes very stressful with such a young child, we have a few more months (I believe, but who knows) to do more research, asking around and discussing before we ultimatley make our decision.
I do, however, have another question (i'm not sure if I need to start a new thread or not but I'll ask and see what responses I get)!
Have any of you been seen or know of anyone who has experience with St.Louis Childrens Hospital?
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I spent the summer in St. Louis and I was told that Children's is amazing. You are also supremely lucky to have 3 oral deaf schools in the area. There is:
Welcome to the CID School!
Moog Center St. Louis - Home and
St. Joseph Institute for the Deaf is committed to the auditory-oral education, spiritual and emotional growth, and personal development of hearing-impaired and babies, infants, children and young adults

They all three have superior professionals. You hae some wonderful resources in your area and will have access to elite professionals if you decide to give your child the opportunity to develop spoken language.
 
HHIssues said:
So, I guess if you sign ASL to an hearing person and he or she doesn't know ASL, how could he or she understand you? Perhaps, I guess you have the need to carry a paper and pen with you at all times...right?


Why are those numbers that high to begin with? Shouldn't those numbers indicate "that the past should not equal to the future..."?

What's YOUR solution? You're always claiming that there's no need for parents to take the CI route for their deaf child...
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His point is if most deaf people are raised orally, why the high unemployment numbers?
 
On the other hand faire joure, how do you know they don't just drive into St. Louis from a while away? A lot of people may go to the nearest big city hospital b/c it offers more then the local hosptial .I mean it would be kind of cool if this was a really local resource.
If it is.....maybe you could send your kid to the oral school, and then sign at home.
 
deafdyke said:
On the other hand faire joure, how do you know they don't just drive into St. Louis from a while away? A lot of people may go to the nearest big city hospital b/c it offers more then the local hosptial .I mean it would be kind of cool if this was a really local resource.
If it is.....maybe you could send your kid to the oral school, and then sign at home.
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I know because I do my research and don't just talk out of my a$$, like other people. I know that Children's is world renowned and I have actually talked to a CI surgeon there. I also actually stayed in St. Louis for 6 weeks while my daughter attended CID and I have spoken to professionals from all the schools I listed.
 
Faire joure, the prestige of the hosptials may be very good, but it doesn't have a bearing on how far away Walthsfamily is.
 
HHIssues said:
So, I guess if you sign ASL to an hearing person and he or she doesn't know ASL, how could he or she understand you? Perhaps, I guess you have the need to carry a paper and pen with you at all times...right?
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Never carry a paper or pen with me. I dislike carrying ANYTHING. I have the smallest tolerance for my wallet.

Like I've been saying... Wait for my vlog.
 
GrendelQ said:
Agreed. Getting past toddler level isn't always as easy as some claim, but it's worth the effort.
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I know what you mean. Some people here seem to respond as though you can snap your finger and BAM you are proficiently communicating in sign language. They make it sound soooooooo easy but in reality it is anything but. Now if you have parents that are proficient native signers that have a deaf child then that deaf child may be exposed to sign language at the same level a hearing baby will be exposed to spoken language with hearing parents.
 
rockdrummer said:
I know what you mean. Some people here seem to respond as though you can snap your finger and BAM you are proficiently communicating in sign language. They make it sound soooooooo easy but in reality it is anything but. Now if you have parents that are proficient native signers that have a deaf child then that deaf child may be exposed to sign language at the same level a hearing baby will be exposed to spoken language with hearing parents.
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so are you saying despite of hard effort, you're still not able to get past toddler level?

btw - my parents are native Korean speakers. Because of my hearing loss, they learned English to proficient level enough in short time to practice oral auditory program for me and my brother. Most people can be bilingual (regardless of spoken/visual type). So can you.
 
rockdrummer said:
I said nothing of the sort. The point is that it is not as easy as many make it out to be.
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I'm not sure but maybe I missed the posts. Did anybody say it's easy?

btw - I added sentences to my previous post.
 
We travel about 200 miles(one way) to St. Louis, but it is well worth it to have the best team for our son! We also travel once a week about 150 miles on order to have access to an ASL class. I will have to agree that it is very difficult/frustrating when you are newly learning ASL but also trying to teach it when you barely know it yourself. It is an everyday struggle, but one we won't give up on! We feel very strongly about giving him ASL!
 
rockdrummer said:
It is implied in many posts and in many threads on this forum.
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I think we have more implied that it's easy to have access to learning it. We've (myself included) have suggested going online, getting DVDs, and the like. I'm not so sure we said it was easy to LEARN. What everyone does with those resources is another matter.
 
Waltersfam07 said:
We travel about 200 miles(one way) to St. Louis, but it is well worth it to have the best team for our son! We also travel once a week about 150 miles on order to have access to an ASL class. I will have to agree that it is very difficult/frustrating when you are newly learning ASL but also trying to teach it when you barely know it yourself. It is an everyday struggle, but one we won't give up on! We feel very strongly about giving him ASL!
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Thats awesome of you
 
AlleyCat said:
I think we have more implied that it's easy to have access to learning it. We've (myself included) have suggested going online, getting DVDs, and the like. I'm not so sure we said it was easy to LEARN. What everyone does with those resources is another matter.
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that was not my impression.
 
Waltersfam07 said:
We travel about 200 miles(one way) to St. Louis, but it is well worth it to have the best team for our son! We also travel once a week about 150 miles on order to have access to an ASL class. I will have to agree that it is very difficult/frustrating when you are newly learning ASL but also trying to teach it when you barely know it yourself. It is an everyday struggle, but one we won't give up on! We feel very strongly about giving him ASL!
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Pretty wonderful effort!
 
Waltersfam07 said:
We travel about 200 miles(one way) to St. Louis, but it is well worth it to have the best team for our son! We also travel once a week about 150 miles on order to have access to an ASL class. I will have to agree that it is very difficult/frustrating when you are newly learning ASL but also trying to teach it when you barely know it yourself. It is an everyday struggle, but one we won't give up on! We feel very strongly about giving him ASL!
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I'm curious...where do you learn ASL in St. Louis? As far as I know there are really just two schools for the deaf there, CID (Central Institute for the Deaf) and St Joseph School for the Deaf, and both use auditory/oral approaches. I would love to know otherwise!
 
Beowulf said:
I'm curious...where do you learn ASL in St. Louis? As far as I know there are really just two schools for the deaf there, CID (Central Institute for the Deaf) and St Joseph School for the Deaf, and both use auditory/oral approaches. I would love to know otherwise!
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Three oral school, CID, Moog and St. Joseph's.
 
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