Hi Leibling)),
You are right. CI is not emergency surgery. I compared CI with schooling only because they are both best taken advantage of when a child is young. Once a child has grown I think much opportunity is lost since the brain acquires language at an early age. The best time to learn language is when you are young. More important than what I think is what R2D2 had to say from his personal experience:
So I feel our family in this HUGE DILEMMA. If we choose CI NOW, then my daughter doesn't get to make her own choice. If we wait till LATER, then my daughter may not have the CI choice if that is what she wants. As yet, we don't know what to do. We find ourselves trying to sort out information from the doctors who support CI and know very much about medical deafness but are clueless about Deaf culture and Deaf issues, and some who think us to be "stoopid" or selfish parents for even considering CI. Sorry, I know most don't agree with the ("stoopid" parents thing), I'm just stating the extremes.
Our daughters well being and happiness is what's most important to us. We're in this forum to learn.
http://www.alldeaf.com/newreply.php#
Cheers
Thanks,
SarahsDad
You are right. CI is not emergency surgery. I compared CI with schooling only because they are both best taken advantage of when a child is young. Once a child has grown I think much opportunity is lost since the brain acquires language at an early age. The best time to learn language is when you are young. More important than what I think is what R2D2 had to say from his personal experience:
R2D2 said:Yes I have personal experience of this. I was given a hearing aid for my worst ear only at the age of 3 and was not given a hearing aid for my better ear until the age of 10 (don't ask!). As a consequence I depended much more on my worst ear because it had 7 extra years of auditory imput and my better ear was only good for environmental sounds.
I think that if you wait until the child is old enough to decide on their own (whenever that is - people will disagree) then there is a greater chance that the CI will not work and that it will be switched off or removed in frustration.
I don't think I will ever implant my better ear because I don't feel that it is developed enough to benefit from a CI.
So I feel our family in this HUGE DILEMMA. If we choose CI NOW, then my daughter doesn't get to make her own choice. If we wait till LATER, then my daughter may not have the CI choice if that is what she wants. As yet, we don't know what to do. We find ourselves trying to sort out information from the doctors who support CI and know very much about medical deafness but are clueless about Deaf culture and Deaf issues, and some who think us to be "stoopid" or selfish parents for even considering CI. Sorry, I know most don't agree with the ("stoopid" parents thing), I'm just stating the extremes.
Our daughters well being and happiness is what's most important to us. We're in this forum to learn.
http://www.alldeaf.com/newreply.php#
Cheers
Thanks,
SarahsDad