CI and bilingual education

[Mous]

I'm Mous and I'm new on this forum. I have three kids, the eldest two are hearing, and I've got a wonderful daughter of 2 1/2 yrs old, that was born deaf. She got a bilateral cochlea-implant last october, and the sound was turned on in november. Our daugher just loves her CI. In the beginning, whenever she would hear a new sound, she would sign "listen!", and all of her face would radiate with pure joy, her whole being would lighten up with excitement.

I'm not writing to you because I want to start a discussion about wether or not to choose CI for children. Here in Norway where I live, that is not so much a discussion anymore. The Deaf community here is in general quite positive towards it, they don't think it will threaten their culture so much, but are aware that it will definetly change it.

However, the discussion going on in this country is about in which way these children should be educated. There is a big contradiction between to groups: one says the kids should only be tought speech (oral), versus an even bigger group that goes for a bilingual speechdevelopement, i.e. norwegian and norwegian signlanguage. (And there of course is the mixture of spoken language with sign as support, but I don't wish to categorize this as signlanguage).
We have chosen for our daughter to be able to learn both languages, so that she later on in life can choose in which arena (hearing or Deaf) she wants to be.

Here in Norway all parents of children with severe hearingloss get in all 40 weeks of signlanguage tuition, over the course of 16 years (or untill the child becomes 16). (Paid leave from work.) In addition to this I'm doing an education in signlanguage at the university.
For this education I'm writing a paper now, which is about belonging to different cultures (Deaf/hearing), whether this is possible, and what are important factors for a bilingual education to being succesfull. Lets face it, we do not want the child being half-competent in either of the two languages. Our goal is that the child becomes fluent in both. (In addition to that, we speak a third language at home, dutch).

My question is, are there any people who either have had an implant as a child and have grown up bilingual, or parents who chose an implant for their child and chose the bilingual education for their child in stead of only oral, and what are your experiences? I would love it if you would want to share that with me.

Mous

 

[Angel]

:::scratching my blondlish hair:::

umm....Didn't I just posted in this thread? or did you just create the same thread here?...

Edit ..I knew I wasn't having a blonde moment here, you just create two threads about the same issue, Mods can you pretty please move my other post in the first thread that this member had create and move it in here? thanks a bunchie!!

Here is the other thread! http://alldeaf.com/showthread.php?t=14915

 

[deafdyke]

The Deaf community here is in general quite positive towards it, they don't think it will threaten their culture so much, but are aware that it will definetly change it.

Well I have noticed that the American Deaf community is slowly but surely becoming more accepting of the CI. Of course it will change their culture. Hearing aids did once upon a time....and now aids are an accepted part of Deaf culture. However Deaf culture will change and adapt.

However, the discussion going on in this country is about in which way these children should be educated. There is a big contradiction between to groups: one says the kids should only be tought speech (oral), versus an even bigger group that goes for a bilingual speechdevelopement, i.e. norwegian and norwegian signlanguage. (And there of course is the mixture of spoken language with sign as support, but I don't wish to categorize this as signlanguage).
We have chosen for our daughter to be able to learn both languages, so that she later on in life can choose in which arena (hearing or Deaf) she wants to be.

Well the debate is going on here in America as well.
For this education I'm writing a paper now, which is about belonging to different cultures (Deaf/hearing), whether this is possible, and what are important factors for a bilingual education to being succesfull. Lets face it, we do not want the child being half-competent in either of the two languages. Our goal is that the child becomes fluent in both. (In addition to that, we speak a third language at home, dutch).
[/QUOTE]
As someone who is Hoh I beleieve that it's very possible to be a member of both cultures. Each culture has its advantages and positive sides and we need to be exposed to both of them! I know that the argument against TC is that it doesn't provide a child with a full language, BUT if a kid is going to be orally sucessful then they will be that way with or without sign. I just think that sign should be offered as an option for ANY kid born with hearing problems.

My question is, are there any people who either have had an implant as a child and have grown up bilingual, or parents who chose an implant for their child and chose the bilingual education for their child in stead of only oral, and what are your experiences? I would love it if you would want to share that with me.

Doesn't apply to me seeing as I am only hoh,(both with and without aids) but I do know that many if not most implantees DO know sign, and many if not most do pick it up as a second language.