A really interesting read, Cloggy. I think we, too, fall in line with the majority of parents described in this report who have had their actual experience with CIs surpass their initial expectations.
It doesn't surprise me that the students' mainstream teachers, on the other hand, score the kids a bit lower than the parents -- the researchers pointed out several possible reasons for this. I think there's a real challenge in keeping all of the educators involved with our children knowledgeable about CIs and aware that these kids are deaf and may not hear or learn in the same way that typical hearing kids do -- despite what's most often an excellent access to sound -- especially as they get up in years and interact with so many different teachers during the day. Even in a well-informed deaf school environment, we've had occasions for 'teaching the teacher' -- most often with new teachers or aides/assistants/paras -- and the school itself has taken steps to retrain all of the staff on the differences between teaching and accommodating a child with CIs and a child with HAs.
Maybe it's not a negative that the teachers in this study score the students somewhat lower than parents. I think I'd rather have a teacher recognize that the student is deaf and may require a different approach to learning and accessing information than he or she assume that just because a hearing loss may not be apparent on the surface it's not an issue. I think what matters is what these teachers do with this information, with these assessments -- how they adapt to better meet the needs of the students.
