Hearing mommy of newly diagnosed deaf son!

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Waltersfam07

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Hi everyone! My name is Jordan Walters we are a hearing family, our daughter Haidyn is 3 and our Brailynn is 11 months old and is deaf. We are currently undergoing the testing that our audiologists ultimately feels will conclude that our son will qualify for a CI. We as a family are currently learning ASL and feel our son is perfect just the way he is. However we want to make the best decision for him! Any opinions, testimonies, trials and tribulations are greatly welcomed! We want to make the most informed decision for our precious baby boy! Thank you all in advance I just feel at a lose and so frustrated with the lack of resources available.
 
hey welcome to AD
there's some CI peeps around in this forum!

I'm only in the hearing aid group lol
I also lost 50% of my hearing as a baby (caught early at 10 months old)
so I didn't lose anymore of it like your son did *I'm a lucky girl and also a figher*

enjoy!
 
Welcome!!!! And high five for taking a "full toolbox" approach!!! Have you contacted the Missouri School for the Deaf yet?
 
:welcome: to AD! Deaf user here..no CI. I used both ASL and English and I love having both. :)
 
Welcome! I'm mom to a profoundly deaf bilingual/bicultural 4YO with bilateral CIs :) Would be glad to answer any questions from my experience and perspective, but you'll get a whole range of outlooks around here, which is a good thing.
 
Waltersfam07 said:
Hi everyone! My name is Jordan Walters we are a hearing family, our daughter Haidyn is 3 and our Brailynn is 11 months old and is deaf. We are currently undergoing the testing that our audiologists ultimately feels will conclude that our son will qualify for a CI. We as a family are currently learning ASL and feel our son is perfect just the way he is. However we want to make the best decision for him! Any opinions, testimonies, trials and tribulations are greatly welcomed! We want to make the most informed decision for our precious baby boy! Thank you all in advance I just feel at a lose and so frustrated with the lack of resources available.
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I am an advocate of getting the CI as soon as it is medically possible for the following reasons.

No.1 We live in a hearing world and whether we like it or not, not being able to communicate via sound is a distinct disadvantage. We also miss the sounds of music and birds etc. Whether its right or wrong many doors are closed to those that are hard of hearing or deaf. We like to give our children all the advantages we can and fortunately technology has improved or found ways to do things.
bet I get some flack on this one!

No.2 by getting the implants as soon as possible person has good chance to learn sound and what it means. When we are all babies we don't know or care I guess whether a dog goes woof woof or boo boo but we do learn to associate that sound to a dog. Learning and understanding go hand in hand with the sound process. I doubt that "normal" hearing people hear exactly the same thing from a sound but they do all associate the noise with the same thing.
I guess at one time I did have "normal" hearing but have no ides what or how it sounded.

No.3 As stated in No.1 A person learns the language that he/she is surrounded with/ brought up with. My 7 year old grandson speaks English and Chinese and also reads and writes in those languages consummate with that age group. I've watched him progress since he was one year old. His mom and grandma speak Chinese to him and the rest of us speak English and he gets English in regular school and Chinese on Saturday at Chinese school. I'm lucky to be able to read and write and speak English. The earlier they start the better they do. At least that has been my experience.

No.4 Good luck and I'm sure you will make the choice that you feel is best for you and your family and that is as it should be. I think that 20 years from now Brailynn will look back and be able to say "mom and dad did what they thought was best for me" and that is great.
 
Don't let anyone tell you that your child MUST have CI. this is something you decide for yourself. There are plenty of deaf family who comfortably raised their children deaf, even today generation of cochlear implants.

Nor let anyone lead you to believe that more hearing equal more success.

If you do decide CI, I want you to know you don't have to have the surgery right away if you don't feel comfortable with it. Just make sure your child have a language like ASL so he won't be delay (cognitive).
 
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Waltersfam07 said:
Hi everyone! My name is Jordan Walters we are a hearing family, our daughter Haidyn is 3 and our Brailynn is 11 months old and is deaf. We are currently undergoing the testing that our audiologists ultimately feels will conclude that our son will qualify for a CI. We as a family are currently learning ASL and feel our son is perfect just the way he is. However we want to make the best decision for him! Any opinions, testimonies, trials and tribulations are greatly welcomed! We want to make the most informed decision for our precious baby boy! Thank you all in advance I just feel at a lose and so frustrated with the lack of resources available.
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My daughter is 7 and Deaf. She was born hearing but quickly lost it. Her first language is ASL but she has recently been implanted with bilateral cochlear implants. She is just as perfect as she was pre-CI! ASL has been amazing for her, as has her CI's. ASL gave her access to language and thoughts, CI's have given her access to the rest of the world. Your decision has not have to be an OR, you can have CI's, spoken language and ASL.
 
Wow! Thank you all so much for all of your insightful information! We just want to make the most inford decision we can for our son, so everyones insight is greatly appreciated! Deafdyke we tried to contact MSD shortly after he was diagnosed, but got no answer or reply (it was during summer months though). We are currently seeing audiologist with St.Louis Childrens hospital. GrendelQ I would like to hear about your experience. I have quickly learned that this topic can be a sore subject for some, and I can see points from both sides. We strongly believe in ASL and believe no matter what our decision ASL will always be apart of our family. Faire jour I would be greatful to hear more of your experience, we have been told waiting would leave pur son with little to no benefit from waiting until he is older and able to make the decision on his own. Sarfarigirl2011 our son currently only has HAs which he hates (I thinks it's just his age still too little to understand them) with his HAs in he hears at 50db still not loud enough to hear spoken word, therefore they believe he will be a canidate for CIs.
I am so excited to have a place like this, I am surrounded by so many people who have NO idea what we are going through. This brings great hope to me! Thank you thank you!
 
Hello. Good luck with whatever decision you ultimately make.
 
faire_jour said:
My daughter is 7 and Deaf. She was born hearing but quickly lost it. Her first language is ASL but she has recently been implanted with bilateral cochlear implants. She is just as perfect as she was pre-CI! ASL has been amazing for her, as has her CI's. ASL gave her access to language and thoughts, CI's have given her access to the rest of the world. Your decision has not have to be an OR, you can have CI's, spoken language and ASL.
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Great point FJ! Definitely not and either / or decision! We too love that my daughter can use ASL and spoken language (thanks to her CIs), increasing her communication options tremendously.
 
CI or not to CI,, that's the ??

By all means get your kid a CI as soon as medically possible. Introducing sounds at the earliest possible age is the best thing you can do.
Something I have never seen mentioned here is developing your kids verbal skills !!
I can't remember exactly what is done but think it involved lights facing the baby to encourage the baby to make sounds. This is just as important, a hearing baby will associate the sounds it makes by hearing. A deaf baby needs that stimulis too ! I would look into that pronto..
 
G'day!
Welcome to AD. I hope you'll find this forum useful.
Like others, I agree with ensuring your child has full access to everything, so that way you can determine what benefits your child the most also your kid will, indirectly, say what they prefer the most. It's important to ask deaf community to mentor your child and family. Anyway, best of luck.

By the way, I was brought up with total toolbox approach, which I fully appreciated to this day. I am fluent in English, Auslan and ASL. Can hear some and speak some, although not fluent but enough to get by.

Cheers!
 
deafgal001 said:
Don't let anyone tell you that your child MUST have CI. this is something you decide for yourself. There are plenty of deaf family who comfortably raised their children deaf, even today generation of cochlear implants.

Nor let anyone lead you to believe that more hearing equal more success.
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The difference is not more hearing , the thing is "hearing" and that is not true either, many of us "hear" but the problem is comprehension! and yes more comprehension does get us farther in the hearing world. If one has 80 to 90% comprehension they do much better than someone with 30 to 50% comprehension. There are many more job opportunity's for people with good communication skills. May not be nice or fair but sometimes the real world is not fair. I had to take early retirement due to hearing comprehension. If I had the CI then I very easily could have continued on for a few more years. Not complaining about retirement :) Just the facts.
while I agree there are family's that raise children w/o hearing improvement or help but that does not mean they have or have not done the best for their child. Just the choice they make and certainly is their prerogative.
 
Rampratt said:
No.3 As stated in No.1 A person learns the language that he/she is surrounded with/ brought up with. My 7 year old grandson speaks English and Chinese and also reads and writes in those languages consummate with that age group. I've watched him progress since he was one year old. His mom and grandma speak Chinese to him and the rest of us speak English and he gets English in regular school and Chinese on Saturday at Chinese school. I'm lucky to be able to read and write and speak English. The earlier they start the better they do. At least that has been my experience.
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That's very impressive!
+1
 
Jordan,

You may want to also try the CI Circle. It's a good resource for parents that chose to take the CI route for their child. Best of luck with whatever decision you make!
 
Rampratt said:

The difference is not more hearing , the thing is "hearing" and that is not true either, many of us "hear" but the problem is comprehension! and yes more comprehension does get us farther in the hearing world. If one has 80 to 90% comprehension they do much better than someone with 30 to 50% comprehension. There are many more job opportunity's for people with good communication skills. May not be nice or fair but sometimes the real world is not fair. I had to take early retirement due to hearing comprehension. If I had the CI then I very easily could have continued on for a few more years. Not complaining about retirement :) Just the facts.
while I agree there are family's that raise children w/o hearing improvement or help but that does not mean they have or have not done the best for their child. Just the choice they make and certainly is their prerogative.
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if one doesn't qualify for CI or CI didn't work for them for whatever medical reason, tough luck, huh? That's why I say the more hearing doesn't equal more success in life.
 
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Welcome...

You'll find a variety of opinions here and ultimately it is YOUR decision how to go about treatment for your child (sometimes it's easy to be made to feel one way is better than the other)-- I personally never considered a CI for my son when we were under the impression he had a bilateral loss-- but my son also has issues beyond his deafness so a CI may never have worked for him the way it does for kids who only have a hearing loss, and I wouldn't have been comfortable with an implanted 'maybe'. Luckily I don't have to worry about that now... b/c here unilateral loss automatically disqualifies him for a CI.

It's a tough decision to make about which route to take and I'm glad to see you're looking at all sides of it... and offering him ASL as well as English... I know too many parents who feel that ASL isn't necessary for a child with a hearing loss, even if they have a CI.

Good luck and as long as you keep the 'he's perfect just like he is' attitude he'll do awesome no matter what!!!
 
Thank you all again! I have posted some more in depth concerns and questions in the HA and CI form! I hope the is the CI circle you had mentioned HHIssues?! Thank you all for all the positive incouragement, it gets tough when you are surrounded by so much negativity and family opinions! Adamsmomma we totally agree with the why risk if it's not garunteed!?! You were very positive and encouraging Thank you!
 
Waltersfam07 said:
Thank you all again! I have posted some more in depth concerns and questions in the HA and CI form! I hope the is the CI circle you had mentioned HHIssues?! Thank you all for all the positive incouragement, it gets tough when you are surrounded by so much negativity and family opinions! Adamsmomma we totally agree with the why risk if it's not garunteed!?! You were very positive and encouraging Thank you!
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It is VERY easy to get overwhelmed-- and I can say that from experience... it took me two years to find what works best for my son-- I listened to too many opinions, and experts and didn't follow my instincts- when I finally did what I felt was best-- it turned out to be the right thing... my son is flourishing in his new environment with his new language skills...

You'll learn to tune into what works for your kiddo and learn to tune out some of the other stuff-- and don't get me wrong-- they're not bad suggestions or opinions... just some of them may not be what works for your baby-- (and that's true w/more than just hearing issues :) )
 
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