Peer Relationships of Children With Cochlear Implants

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shel90 said:
See, right there is what I will never ever understand. Most hearing people are friends with only hearing people so why is it so wrong if some deaf people are friends with only deaf people? So what if people choose to be friends with people like them?

As for children, expose them to all kinds of people whether deaf, blind, immobile, white, black, Chinese, Spanish, and so forth but when they are adults, they have every right to choose who their friends are.

I hate it when hearing people say that deaf children arent good enough for each other. It is ridiculous!
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Well said, shel!
 
I believe children need a wide variety of friends. There is no reason they shouldn't have friends of all race and ability. The key is friendship. We can't mistake a tutoring relationship with friendship. Children tend to become friends with the same interest and in the same classroom. If in a mainstream setting the majority of their friends will be hearing.
 
rockdrummer said:
Correct, the article is old but gathering updated information is what my point is about. Do the frustrations and problems with peer interactions exist for those that have benefited from their CI's. That is the point of my post.
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Yes. My cousin has CI. He is almost 6 years old in Oct. He did good at oral. He had no problem with frustrate when he is learning speech since he got CI. If without CI. Of course it will be frustrate to learn oral skill.
 
vallee said:
I believe children need a wide variety of friends. There is no reason they shouldn't have friends of all race and ability. The key is friendship. We can't mistake a tutoring relationship with friendship. Children tend to become friends with the same interest and in the same classroom. If in a mainstream setting the majority of their friends will be hearing.
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Agree with you. I went visit to mainstream school to see my old teachers last year ago. I saw several CI kids still use sign languages and oral both. It's mixed to hard of hearing and deaf in classrooms. It's nothing wrong. They are great friends to each other.
 
vallee said:
I believe children need a wide variety of friends. There is no reason they shouldn't have friends of all race and ability. The key is friendship. We can't mistake a tutoring relationship with friendship. Children tend to become friends with the same interest and in the same classroom. If in a mainstream setting the majority of their friends will be hearing.
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vallee,

Agree and the ability to communicate easily with others is a key to establishing a friendship with those who have the same interests. I think if you are considering a mainstream setting for your child, you have to take into consideration your child's ability to communicate orally with the rest of the kids in the classroom.
Rick
 
vallee said:
I believe children need a wide variety of friends. There is no reason they shouldn't have friends of all race and ability. The key is friendship. We can't mistake a tutoring relationship with friendship. Children tend to become friends with the same interest and in the same classroom. If in a mainstream setting the majority of their friends will be hearing.
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The old saying of "Birds of a feather flock together" has been shown to hold true over and over again. If the deaf child is the only one in a sea of hearies, where exactly is his/her birds of a feather? They are non-existent, meaning that the deaf child in the mainstream is isolated.
 
jillio said:
The old saying of "Birds of a feather flock together" has been shown to hold true over and over again. If the deaf child is the only one in a sea of hearies, where exactly is his/her birds of a feather? They are non-existent, meaning that the deaf child in the mainstream is isolated.
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Depends on the flock! a true group either learn to communicate with you or you learn to communicate with them. They want to develop the friendship even with a language barrier. Just because a child is deaf in mainstream does not mean they will be isolated. I wasn't.

I am still friends with my best friend from middle school(29+ years). She is hearing and I am deaf.
 
shel90 said:
this Is Addressed To The Article..

Why Is That Important? Why Do Deaf Children Need To Be With Only Hearing Children? What's Wrong With Meeting Other Deaf Children?

It Seems To Me That Sign Language Or Deaf Peers Is To Be Avoided Or Something?

One Thing The Article Is Right...i Felt That By Forcing Me To Grow Up Orally Did A Lot Of Emotional Harm To Me Which Is Why I Feel That Asl Practically Saved My Life. If I Was Still Oral Today, I Would Probably Be Very Very Unhappy And Seriously Depressed.
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Amen.....
 
vallee said:
Depends on the flock! a true group either learn to communicate with you or you learn to communicate with them. They want to develop the friendship even with a language barrier. Just because a child is deaf in mainstream does not mean they will be isolated. I wasn't.

I am still friends with my best friend from middle school(29+ years). She is hearing and I am deaf.
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I thought u were born hearing and then grew up with a mild hearing loss until becoming deaf as an adult?
 
jillio said:
The old saying of "Birds of a feather flock together" has been shown to hold true over and over again. If the deaf child is the only one in a sea of hearies, where exactly is his/her birds of a feather? They are non-existent, meaning that the deaf child in the mainstream is isolated.
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Exactly! Despite having friends and being involved in extracurricular activities, I always felt isolated and didnt really fully connect with others. I fooled everyone even myself that I really fully fit in when I really didnt. I was in serious denial about my deafness because I thought if I worked hard, I would become "hearing". Turns out that it was just impossible no matter what I did.
 
~♥~Pinky~♥~ said:
Agree with you. I went visit to mainstream school to see my old teachers last year ago. I saw several CI kids still use sign languages and oral both. It's mixed to hard of hearing and deaf in classrooms. It's nothing wrong. They are great friends to each other.
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That is even better than having one deaf child in the whole school. Those kids are being exposed to both worlds and that's great. I do not believe in the oral and hearing only philosophy for the sake of assimilating deaf children into the so-called "real" world, whatever that is.
 
vallee said:
no grow up with a profound severe hearing loss.
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I'll add more to this, according to my mom, I lost my hearing at age3 from rheumetic fever. From age 3 I had a moderate, profound to severe loss with the majority of my hearing gone by 18.
 
vallee said:
Depends on the flock! a true group either learn to communicate with you or you learn to communicate with them. They want to develop the friendship even with a language barrier. Just because a child is deaf in mainstream does not mean they will be isolated. I wasn't.

I am still friends with my best friend from middle school(29+ years). She is hearing and I am deaf.
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Many have addressed this issue right here on this board. Even though they were able to maintain long and significant friendships with hearing peers, they also have stated that they always, always, always, felt different. Perhaps, with an adventitious, progressive loss such as you had, it is different. For the prelingually, severe to profoundly deaf, the experience is quite different. And, if we are talking about children in the mainstream with CI, then chances are, having been implanted as children, they are prelingually, severe to profoundly deaf. If there is a language barrier, there is a degree of isolation inherent.
 
vallee said:
I'll add more to this, according to my mom, I lost my hearing at age3 from rheumetic fever. From age 3 I had a moderate, profound to severe loss with the majority of my hearing gone by 18.
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That was what I thought.
 
jillio said:
Many have addressed this issue right here on this board. Even though they were able to maintain long and significant friendships with hearing peers, they also have stated that they always, always, always, felt different. Perhaps, with an adventitious, progressive loss such as you had, it is different. For the prelingually, severe to profoundly deaf, the experience is quite different. And, if we are talking about children in the mainstream with CI, then chances are, having been implanted as children, they are prelingually, severe to profoundly deaf. If there is a language barrier, there is a degree of isolation inherent.
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Exactly...I was born with this profound-severe loss in both ears so maybe that's why I experienced what I experienced. It wasnt fair to me to be put in a situation like that and it was all the sake for oralism and assimilating me. Failed big time.

I am still seeing children with CIs come to our program with significant language delays...and I am sure they were isolated too. My friend works for the local public school and she tells me that her deaf students stick together even those with CIs. If that doesnt say it all, then I dont know what can convince the audist to stop putting deaf children in situations like these putting them at risks for language delays, socio-emotional issues, depression, and god knows what else. The past showed that most deaf people feel at home with others like them which is why so many former oral deaf people seek to try to learn sign language or to connect with the Deaf community.

What more research do we need? :roll:
 
jillio said:
Many have addressed this issue right here on this board. Even though they were able to maintain long and significant friendships with hearing peers, they also have stated that they always, always, always, felt different. Perhaps, with an adventitious, progressive loss such as you had, it is different. For the prelingually, severe to profoundly deaf, the experience is quite different. And, if we are talking about children in the mainstream with CI, then chances are, having been implanted as children, they are prelingually, severe to profoundly deaf. If there is a language barrier, there is a degree of isolation inherent.
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I have been in contact with parents and children who are prelingually with CIs. Many do not feel the way you are discussing. There are many factors involve with a successful childhood either deaf or hearing. We can't make a generalization about mainstream education. Just because many deaf individuals growing up in mainstream environment had a difficult time(myself included) does not mean the situations for all deaf children are the same. Just as all parents and peers are not the same.

by the way, I view myself as deaf. I view myself as growing up deaf.
 
vallee said:
I have been in contact with parents and children who are prelingually with CIs. Many do not feel the way you are discussing. There are many factors involve with a successful childhood either deaf or hearing. We can't make a generalization about mainstream education. Just because many deaf individuals growing up in mainstream environment had a difficult time(myself included) does not mean the situations for all deaf children are the same. Just as all parents and peers are not the same.

by the way, I view myself as deaf. I view myself as growing up deaf.
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The children told u themselves that they do not feel this way? The parents, I am not surprised cuz they all say that anyway.

I like the idea that Pinky observed...with both signers and non signers interacing along with hearing peers. That idea, I am all for.

What I am not for is that the idea that hearing children are better peer models for deaf children and that is the implication I got from this article. It is all about oralism.
 
shel90 said:
The children told u themselves that they do not feel this way? The parents, I am not surprised cuz they all say that anyway.

I like the idea that Pinky observed...with both signers and non signers interacing along with hearing peers. That idea, I am all for.

What I am not for is that the idea that hearing children are better peer models for deaf children and that is the implication I got from this article. It is all about oralism.
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Some parents some children. I have a friend who has had bilateral CIs, she is in college now. She went to mainstream school and had accommodations. I have a friend who has a first grader with CIs. She goes to mainstream elementary school. I also met Friday a teacher in my school system who is getting evaluated for a CI. Her daughter has one and is in our systems elementary school. She goes to the hard of hearing classroom and mainstreamed for a period of time in the regular classroom. The child uses ASL and oral. After a year she is increasing her oral and not using ASL as much. One of my blog friends is a teenager in California who has been trying to talk her parents into a CI since she was 10, now she is 14. She finally got it. Her experiences are interesting.

The article is about oralism. I think it is an interesting part as CIs become more widespread. The increase knowledge will assist in better educational resources for children. There is a battle between ASL and oral education. I believe through increased knowledge between medical and educational sources, a program can be developed. We have to see both positive research and negative research in order to show parents that there is not one way to educate. Each child is different and unique. Not all children with CIs will be oral, not all children with CIs will use ASL.
 
vallee said:
Some parents some children. I have a friend who has had bilateral CIs, she is in college now. She went to mainstream school and had accommodations. I have a friend who has a first grader with CIs. She goes to mainstream elementary school. I also met Friday a teacher in my school system who is getting evaluated for a CI. Her daughter has one and is in our systems elementary school. She goes to the hard of hearing classroom and mainstreamed for a period of time in the regular classroom. The child uses ASL and oral. After a year she is increasing her oral and not using ASL as much. One of my blog friends is a teenager in California who has been trying to talk her parents into a CI since she was 10, now she is 14. She finally got it. Her experiences are interesting.

The article is about oralism. I think it is an interesting part as CIs become more widespread. The increase knowledge will assist in better educational resources for children. There is a battle between ASL and oral education. I believe through increased knowledge between medical and educational sources, a program can be developed. We have to see both positive research and negative research in order to show parents that there is not one way to educate. Each child is different and unique. Not all children with CIs will be oral, not all children with CIs will use ASL.
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In a perfect world, it would work and be effective but it doesnt work that way as I see too many kids come to our program from these programs u speak of with severe language and socio/emotional delays.

U are up for trying a child in different approaches/ programs to see which one fits that child. I am not as it just puts them at a greater risk. I believe in providing a bibi atmosphere for all young deaf children to ensure that none of them are put at greater risks for language/socio delays.

However, I am in the minority so I guess I will continue to see the influx of kids come to our programs with all problems because they didnt fully fit in as previously thought.

This is what I have to say, "Whatever to these kinds of research. I dont put a lot of faith in them anymore. " Too much damage has been done.

That's good that u have faith in oral deaf ed. I dont because of my personal and professional experiences.
 
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