want to hear your opinions about cochlear implant

Daredevel7 said:
It seems like the stereotypical idea that doctors/audiologists forcing parents to do the oral route doesn't apply to several of us here. When I was diagnosed at 18 months old, they told my mom that I had very little chance of having beyond a 4th grade literacy if I tried to go through a hearing school, so my mom should just send me to a deaf school.

It's odd because... what if a doctor tells a parent to send their child to go a deaf school, not because they are pro-ASL, but rather because they have little faith in deaf people, so might as well send them to a school where they can be "happy" with other kids with the same "problems"? And somehow the parent looks like a hero to other deaf kids because they "didn't" go through the oral route?
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That's so weird because the doctors told my mom for me to be normal, I should never learn sign language and learn how to speak and be in public schools.
 
shel90 said:
That's so weird because the doctors told my mom for me to be normal, I should never learn sign language and learn how to speak and be in public schools.
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Right! Imagine growing up with a small group of oral deaf friends who have the similar background story (Born deaf or became deaf <1 yr old and doctors tell parents to just send the kids to deaf schools) then I join AD, then all of sudden I hear that it's "normal" and commonplace to have doctors to tell parents to go through the oral route?

Yep, definitely weird.

Maybe it's a regional thing? Miami doctors/audiologist more likely to tell parents to send the kids to deaf schools back in the 80s?
 
Daredevel7 said:
Right! Imagine growing up with a small group of oral deaf friends who have the similar background story (Born deaf or became deaf <1 yr old and doctors tell parents to just send the kids to deaf schools) then I join AD, then all of sudden I hear that it's "normal" and commonplace to have doctors to tell parents to go through the oral route?

Yep, definitely weird.

Maybe it's a regional thing? Miami doctors/audiologist more likely to tell parents to send the kids to deaf schools back in the 80s?
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Many of the deaf people I have met who learned ASL later have told me the same thing.

The group that I grew up with in AZ (all of us oral but now ASL users) have had doctors tell our parents the same thing. It makes me wonder if all of us had the same audiologist. I wonder if I should investigate but I know that in the state of AZ, awareness and acceptance was always behind. Look what happened with the vote for making MLK a holiday.
 
Except for a handful of people involved in AVT, I've rarely encountered anti-ASL views, and even those are not so much anti-ASL but more baffled by the amount of time and effort required that they felt could be better put to other non-training-oriented activities with the child, even if just spending time together
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Maybe that's b/c we're in Massachusetts. Even Clarke is pretty much OK with ASL and deaf culture. I do have to say that I think it's a LOT better then in the past. Back then ASL was DEMONIZED. There's still unfortunatly an attitude that the most important thing is speech, speech and more speech. ASL is still kind of an afterthought. Like "It's OK to pursue ASL, but the most important thing is speech, speech and more speech"
There's still an undercurrent that ASL is a "crutch"
Miami doctors/audiologist more likely to tell parents to send the kids to deaf schools back in the 80s?
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On the other hand, FSDB is hoh friendly and may have been hoh friendly back then. Also, in states where the Deaf School is really good, the public sped system tends to be really bad.
Maybe I can write to her and ask her to visit that CI center because (I wont name it due to myself being in the field of deaf ed) really does discourage parents of newly implanted children from using ASL or refuse to collaborate with the BiBi programs here in the area although attemps have been made.
Maybe she can educate them about ASL and how it wont prevent children from benefitting from their CIs?
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That would be AWESOME!!!! And I think that will be the key......informing parents that kids can be bilingal with both ASL and spoken language. Deaf Ed dropped the ball when it didn't fight harder to have audilogically hoh kids become bilingal. I do think quite a few parents would opt to have their kid educated bilingally....in the past it took a very long time for kids to aquire spoken language fluency (and there was always a huge gap)
 
GrendelQ said:
Every time you promote this idea that schools for the deaf are for failures, you reinforce a stereotype...
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It's not by intent, but deaf schools are often where underperforming deaf students are sent when the mainstream school system has given up on them, usually starting around 5th or 6th grade, and it's often the case that they have inadequate language skills to be effectively educated even in a signing environment.
 
rick48 said:
I am the parent of a profoundly deaf child who was implanted in 1989 before deciding on the implant we talked to many in the medical field and no one ever told us not to use ASL. Not any of the doctors and/or audiologsts ever made any negative statements to us about ASL.
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GrendelQ said:
Rick brings up a good point: that anti-ASL sentiment you see people referring to here at AD with regard to the CI was in no way apparent in my early encounters with either medical or early intervention professionals.
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Audism isn't necessarily overt. How many medical professionals strongly advocate learning ASL and becoming involved in the Deaf community or otherwise promote any course of action other than hearing aids or cochlear implants with an almost exclusive focus on oral development? I know when my child was diagnosed as deaf, ASL never even entered the conversation until my wife and I brought it up, at which point the audiologist tried to carefully steer us back to discussing medical solutions. She wasn't openly hostile to the idea of ASL, but she made it quite clear that she had no interest in discussing it. That's what frustrates the Deaf community, that audiologists are so focused on "fixing" the child that they are ironically deaf to any other point of view.
 
Mountain Man said:
And how many of them strongly advocated learning ASL and becoming involved in the Deaf community or otherwise promoted any course of action other than hearing aids or cochlear implants? I know when my child was diagnosed as deaf, ASL never even entered the conversation until my wife and I brought it up at which point the audiologist tried to carefully steer the conversation in another direction and get us back to discussing medical solutions. That's what frustrates the Deaf community, that audiologists are so focused on "fixing" the child that they are ironically deaf to any other point of view.
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Thank you! It is unfortunate that these people still do not get it or arent willing to open their minds to our frustrations with the medical community.
 
Mountain Man said:
Audism isn't necessarily overt. How many medical professionals strongly advocate learning ASL and becoming involved in the Deaf community or otherwise promote any course of action other than hearing aids or cochlear implants with an almost exclusive focus on oral development? I know when my child was diagnosed as deaf, ASL never even entered the conversation until my wife and I brought it up, at which point the audiologist tried to carefully steer us back to discussing medical solutions. She wasn't openly hostile to the idea of ASL, but she made it quite clear that she had no interest in discussing it. That's what frustrates the Deaf community, that audiologists are so focused on "fixing" the child that they are ironically deaf to any other point of view.
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But why would you require input from an audiologist or ENT for advice on educational, language, or cultural options and issues? That's not their field of expertise. I don't expect my child's pediatrician to provide professional input into whether or not I should send my child to a private or public school, should choose Mandarin over Spanish, piano over violin. And if she does voice an opinion about something outside her field of expertise -- let's say she tells me she likes my daughter's long hair, I don't then think I must keep it long because a doctor told me to.
 
I just talked with a friend who said he has to mortgage his house in order to get an explant. Good grief, how common are explants???
 
GrendelQ said:
But why would you require input from an audiologist or ENT for advice on educational, language, or cultural options and issues? That's not their field of expertise. I don't expect my child's pediatrician to provide professional input into whether or not I should send my child to a private or public school, should choose Mandarin over Spanish, piano over violin. And if she does voice an opinion about something outside her field of expertise -- let's say she tells me she likes my daughter's long hair, I don't then think I must keep it long because a doctor told me to.
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Audiologists and related medical professionals have an obligation to become better informed about the Deaf community and alternatives to hearing aids and cochlear implants because their ignorance about these matters can negatively impact the patients they deal with. It's not at all the same as expecting your pediatrician to advise you on whether your child should learn piano or violin. :roll:
 
GrendelQ said:
But why would you require input from an audiologist or ENT for advice on educational, language, or cultural options and issues? That's not their field of expertise. I don't expect my child's pediatrician to provide professional input into whether or not I should send my child to a private or public school, should choose Mandarin over Spanish, piano over violin. And if she does voice an opinion about something outside her field of expertise -- let's say she tells me she likes my daughter's long hair, I don't then think I must keep it long because a doctor told me to.
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Cos loads of them bring that up about how to best educated Deaf kids. Most of them will talk about how to teach Deaf kids speech, best place for Deaf kid go to school (mainstream). Since they started that conversation and they almost always leave out BSL/ASL and Deaf schools, etc.
 
Yes, that's right. I've heard countless people talk or write about audiologists make recommendations that they shouldn't be making. Its even been posted here on this board. Whether parents follow audi's recommendations is another story entirely.
 
GrendelQ said:
But why would you require input from an audiologist or ENT for advice on educational, language, or cultural options and issues? That's not their field of expertise. I don't expect my child's pediatrician to provide professional input into whether or not I should send my child to a private or public school, should choose Mandarin over Spanish, piano over violin. And if she does voice an opinion about something outside her field of expertise -- let's say she tells me she likes my daughter's long hair, I don't then think I must keep it long because a doctor told me to.
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Wow..you must have had great audiologists. Many audis out there have overstepped their bounds and voice their opinions on how to educate deaf children. Even many CI drs do. That's what infuriates me because it is NOT in their place to do that because they ARE not trained for it but yet they keep doing it.
 
Beowulf said:
I just talked with a friend who said he has to mortgage his house in order to get an explant. Good grief, how common are explants???
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And explant, I surmise, is meaning to remove his what, CI?
 
Beowulf said:
I just talked with a friend who said he has to mortgage his house in order to get an explant. Good grief, how common are explants???
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Couldnt your friend leave the implant inside and just not use it? Just curious.
 
Tousi said:
That's a bummer; him not deriving any benefit from it.
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shel90 said:
Couldnt your friend leave the implant inside and just not use it? Just curious.
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He was implanted a few years ago but for the past couple years did not use it. He complained about some wire costing $400 and other out of pocket expenses, and I suspect he is a bit hypochondriacle. He says he MUST have it removed, he hates the idea of it being in there. Incidentally, he is teaching ASL at a hearing high school at Rock Hill High School in Fenton, Missouri.
 
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