That is awesome that she's done so well! I really do think the key to sucess is parental involvement.
She does sign, but has speech that is good enough to communicate with other EASILY.
I wish some of the "Sign is a crutch and TC/Bi-Bi doesn't work" audist pro-oral at every and any cost whiners" could meet your student. Personally I think that the CI will increase the numbers of truely bilingal (ASL and English) Deaf, rather then wiping out Deaf culture.
I really do think that the end goal of every single D/deaf and hoh child's IEP should be to ensure that they are fluent in both Sign and Spoken and Written English.
but it only takes ONE to turn off a hearing parent of a deaf child. It only takes one and that one is remembered highly over the others. I personally was attacked by a deaf mother of a deaf son for getting a CI for my child. I do have other deaf friends who have been supportive...and I have had a hearing family member who wasn't. NO one has the right to say what a parent should do in regards to what they think is best for their child.
I understand...Still I wish more hearing parents were more understanding in that they understood that the extremists represent only a very tiny minority. That's like deciding to not attend a libral church b/c of the rabid rantings of Christian Idenity neo-Nazis, or thinking that ALL Muslims are evil terrorists b/c of the sitution in the Mid-East, or thinking that ALL feminists are manhaters who want to perform Lorena Bobbits on all men.
Personally, I think eventually CIs will pretty much be accepted by Deafies, and acceptence of CI is slowly but surely coming along.
A lot of Deaf people...hey, even a lot of HEARING people have never heard of auditory nereopathy(I consider myself VERY well-read and had never heard of it until a couple of years ago) and don't understand that CIs are sometimes the only option. Besides, way back when hearing aids first became available, a lot of Deafies thought that hearing aids would wipe out Deaf Culture. I think both people on both sides of the debate need to realize and reconize that the hearing world and the deaf world both have its' advantages and disadvantages and that neither world is better or worse then another. They are EQUAL!
You're right that no one has the right to say what a parent should do in regards to what they think is best for a child, but in terms of disabilty I disagree, b/c so many parents were never really exposed to disabilty while growing up. Even if they were they were trained to see it as "bad" ( eg. Oh the poor wittle cwippled children they can't walk or have anything remotely resembeling a "normal" life) and to view able-bodiedness/functioning somewhat akin to an a/b as good, wonderful and all the highest ultimate goal for a disabled adult. Lots of parents are told to "listen to the experts on the subject" and not really listen to people who have actually experianced growing up with a disabilty! I do think that many of us who have lived the experiance can give very valuable information to parents. I really do wish that when I was dx, my parents could have heard some real-life stories and met real live hoh adults who could tell them the ups and downs of living life as a hoh adult and the ups and downs of each commuication methodoligy instead of automaticlly listening to the experts view on things.(who very often sugarcoat the disadvantages of oral commuication. Look at some of the sites listing commuication options for deaf/hoh kids. Most of the time very few disadvantages are listed for the oral-aural option. (eg increased temper tantrums, "ADD", money issues and so on.) Oral-aural and auditory verbal are presented as the PERFECT ULTIMATE choice for deaf/hoh kids! (I actually remember reading somewhere that the only disadvantage to A/V was that it wasn't available in lots of places!)
I wish my parents had known to use ASL with me instead of automaticlly assuming that b/c I am hoh I must have more in common with hearing people then with deaf people! It would have made my life so much easier, and I would not have felt so damn alone and like a freak. ( I was raised under the audist asslimation method.."Deafdyke is more hearing then deaf, so she should not need exposure to deaf/hoh adults, deaf/hoh peers (I remember when I was in elementary school thinking that I was the only one in the ENTIRE world who was deaf/hoh!)
just trim it to match the first line at top of the first post.