Spy Kids 4

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fhjmom

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Spy Kids 4 is scheduled to be released later this summer. I had heard about it last year while in production but I just saw the trailer for the first time online. When the movie was first announced, they made a big deal in the press releases about the boy wearing hearing aids; now, it isn't even mentioned in the plot summaries. You can see he is wearing hearing aids in the trailer and they are *HUGE*! I also found it kind of interesting that most of the time someone is talking to him, they are not facing him. After watching the trailer, I am not very hopeful that the film will be a very accurate portrayal of hearing loss.

I was wondering though, the actor playing the HH boy is not HH IRL (at least not that I could find online, and none of his other roles have been for HH characters). I know that the Deaf community has been very successful in lobbying Hollywood to use Deaf actors to play Deaf roles. I was wondering if that sentiment extended to HH roles or to Deaf characters that did not use ASL?

Just curious how others viewed the upcoming Spy Kids movie.

Here is a link to some more info and the trailer (sorry, it isn't captioned :( ):
Spy Kids 4 (2011) Jessica Alba - Trailer, Poster, Plot, Cast, News - Movienewz.com
 
The hearing aids didn't seem that "big" to me. They seems pretty standard-sized, it's probably the colour blue that make them stand out in a big way.

Although I find it interesting that they are integrating it into the storyline.
 
Banjo said:
The hearing aids didn't seem that "big" to me. They seems pretty standard-sized, it's probably the colour blue that make them stand out in a big way.
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Really? If you stop the trailer about 2 seconds in, you can get a good look at the size. The character is 10 YO and the body of the aid is as long as his ear and almost as wide? It looks more like the size of an large CI processor to me.

My old aids were probably about half the size of the ones in the movie, and the ones my girls and I wear now are smaller even though they are "regular" BTE's. My 3 YO's aids aren't even half the length of her ear, and her ears are much smaller than the boy in the movie. Oh, and ours are all pink so I am used to seeing bright hearing aids - I was comparing it to the size of the boy's ear.

Maybe aids that are a decade old would be that big, but that would make them as old as the boy wearing them.
 
The smaller the BTE hearing aids are, the more mild your hearing loss would be.
 
Banjo said:
The smaller the BTE hearing aids are, the more mild your hearing loss would be.
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My loss is moderate sloping to profound above 2,000 Hz. I am looking to upgrade to a power aid the same size as the one I have. The girls are moderate to severe.
 
I agree that it looks like a CI, rather than a hearing aid. It would be nice if they would have cast a real DHH child in the film.
 
Banjo said:
The smaller the BTE hearing aids are, the more mild your hearing loss would be.
Click to expand...

That is another point I was trying to make about the movie. Since he has rather large BTE's, it would make sense that the boy would have a more profound loss; however, from the trailer it looks like even his own family does not make the most basic accommodations, like facing him when they are speaking to him.
 
My Naida is not that much smaller even on me as an adult. I am just going to be happy a deaf kid is portrayed as capable and an equal spy even if it is a comedy and not a documentary on how to interact with an hearing aid wearer.

Kids who see it are just going to see that a kid with hearing aids can do exactly what everyone else does.
 
fhjmom said:
That is another point I was trying to make about the movie. Since he has rather large BTE's, it would make sense that the boy would have a more profound loss; however, from the trailer it looks like even his own family does not make the most basic accommodations, like facing him when they are speaking to him.
Click to expand...

Right, I did notice that as well. If he had a profound hearing loss, the child would be more likely to know how to sign. He's obviously not deaf, at least based on his filmography. I just find it interesting that they are doing this...

Odd, I have to say.
 
Banjo said:
Right, I did notice that as well. If he had a profound hearing loss, the child would be more likely to know how to sign. He's obviously not deaf, at least based on his filmography. I just find it interesting that they are doing this...

Odd, I have to say.
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The child has clear speech too. I have a feeling the HA or CI is more of a prop rather than the actor actually having a hearing loss. Either way, I'm happy they have included it.
 
CSign said:
The child has clear speech too. I have a feeling the HA or CI is more of a prop rather than the actor actually having a hearing loss. Either way, I'm happy they have included it.
Click to expand...

Still, it's going to renew the misconception that all the deaf are perfectly capable of speaking fluently, no matter what.
 
Banjo said:
Still, it's going to renew the misconception that all the deaf are perfectly capable of speaking fluently, no matter what.
Click to expand...

I agree, it can perpetuate misconceptions. It would have been prudent of them to have included the use of sign language in the movie. Even if it was only the family members signing to and around him.
 
I also worry that it will promote the myth that hearing aids will "fix" hearing loss, like glasses fix vision problems (how I hate that comparison!).

I am glad that they are showing a HH child as a strong main character role, I just have mixed feelings about the other messages it may send.
 
So I went to see Kung Fu Panda 2 and saw a clip for Spy Kids 4. I was able to see it clearly because it was in the theatre, and it definitely was a hearing aid. My son will enjoy the movie when it comes out.
 
Do we know anything about WHY the character wears hearing aids? Is he HOH at all? Is he new to the Spy Kids series? I didn't hear about a d/hh kid in the movies before.
 
I don't think he is really that deaf. Most likely a character who is HoH is all. Some HoH people dont always use sign language where they hear as close as hearing people in some ways. But anyway, I'm not crazy about that movie. The 3 other spy kids movies were seriously terrible.
 
The director has a friend with a HOH child or he himself has a HOH child (i forget now), and he wanted to make the main character a HOH super hero. They want kids to be accepting of hearing aids, and they are trying to make it obvious yet cool. The actor is not HOH. It was explained to me that the character has super hearing with his hearing aids.

The production studio was provided some different dummy aid BTE props to choose from, some aids currently in production and some more visible, really old style ones. They had some small, blue GN Resound models to choose from, but they specifically wanted something very noticeable. I forget the exact model...maybe a 15-20 yr Rionet model, but its an old 675 battery model about the same size as the Oticon 380P. The props guys just painted them blue.
 
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