So I can safetly assume that u believe ALL deaf/hoh children whether they come from deaf or hearing families be implanted? I would love to see that debate within the deaf community.
For me, the decision to implant a child is a private and personal decision. I don't know why u r singling me out..probably cuiz I mentioned that I wouldn't implant my child. If I had told u that the parents shouldn't implant their child and let the child choose for himself/herself then u can single me out but I didn't say that so I don't know why u r debating this topic with me. If u think I am a bad parent for chossing my child then I am just as bad as the parents who chose to implant the child. I really do not care. there r many deaf adults that I know that resents their parents for implating them...if there r deaf adults that resent their parents for not implanting them during the formative years, I haven't yet met one. Maybe there r out there. Who knows? It is a no win situation. I am only concerned with lieracy skills not speech skills.
My primary concern and debate is the child's linguistic development and taking the risk to see if an oral only approach would work or not. To me that's like gambling with the child's language development and it is something I am against cuz I see too many deaf children who are several years delayed in language because the specialist and parents finally decided after years that the oral only approach didn't work. I don't see what's wrong with exposing sign and oral languages to the child the moment the hearing loss has been discovered. Why not?
About how I fell thru the cracks in oral education...I fooled everyone into thinking I was doing fine. Yes, my reading and writing were up to par with my hearing peers but there is so much more than just being able to read and write. I spent most of my years in middle school and high school in a daze from total boredom of not having a clue what was being taught in class. I did what I had to do just to pass and I was lucky that I was smart enough to fill in a lot of gaps to be able to pass. If anyone had asked me at the time if I couldn't follow what was being said in class, I would have denied it cuz I didn't accept my deafness and I would have never admit my inability to understand what was being said. I lied tomy parents and so many of my teachers about that issue.
I never deverloped critical thinking, debating, and many more skills cuz I was unable to follow the instrustion and class discussions. I see the high school kids at the deaf schools and they have lively debates and everyone was able to follow the debate. I became envious cuz I never had that. I learned thru mostly textbooks. Pretty broing huh?
