deaf, CI and HA safety issues

shel90 said:
As for what sr171soars commented about not overprotecting deaf children, I have to agree! By doing that, the deaf child will have a hard time being independent as an adult and wouldnt know how to learn from his/her mistakes.
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As a slight tangent to what you have said I think that deaf children are also more vulnerable to adults or other children who have controlling personalities and who have a need to dominate others. They may encourage the dependency so that they can be abusive or exploitative. I remember hearing that deaf children are considerably at more risk than hearing children of being sexually or emotionally abused. And I can see how that would happen.
 
R2D2 said:
As a slight tangent to what you have said I think that deaf children are also more vulnerable to adults or other children who have controlling personalities and who have a need to dominate others. They may encourage the dependency so that they can be abusive or exploitative. I remember hearing that deaf children are considerably at more risk than hearing children of being sexually or emotionally abused. And I can see how that would happen.
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Good point. I am always concerned that someone will target my son because he is deaf. It's a real concern.
 
rockdrummer said:
Good point. I am always concerned that someone will target my son because he is deaf. It's a real concern.
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Yea that is true. Back to your earlier post about the need to protect your son from getting hit. I can understand and dont blame u. I guess we, parents, would love to protect our children from everything harmful, dangerous, or corrupted but the truth is sometimes we cant so we just have to do our best.

As for not being overly protective of the child just because he/she is deaf, I mean like preventing the child from participating in any sports, social events, or stuff like that for fear that the child is too "fragile" to handle any injuries or getting emotionally hurt. That is going to far and I have seen parents do that. It is not healthy.
 
I remember hearing that deaf children are considerably at more risk than hearing children of being sexually or emotionally abused.
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Yeah, loner types are at HUGE risk for being sexually abused. The perpetrator pays attention to the kid, so the kid thinks that all that attention is so wonderful. Dhh kids don't just get sexually abused at the Deaf School (as some people seem to think!)
 
Different issues for different folks.

Kids with progressive losses sometimes get lost between the hearing and deaf worlds. I'm maybe extra sensitive to that since my daughter falls into that category. This occurs with CMV, EVAS and several other etiologies that I'm sure I can think of if I had more caffeine in my system. There frequently comes that "cross-over" point where the child goes from functionally hearing to functionally deaf, but they have been hearing up until that point, and are used to functioning as hearing in a hearing world. They have a whole different set of issues than children who are congenitally profoundly HI.

No one has mentioned devices w/ helmets yet. Or static wiping out CI maps in sound processors.

Then there are peripheral safety issues -- the "things that are more likely to happen to deaf infants than hearing infants" stuff. Vision and balance problems, as well as meningitis and ear infections come to mind.

Sheri
 
Kids with progressive losses sometimes get lost between the hearing and deaf worlds. I'm maybe extra sensitive to that since my daughter falls into that category. This occurs with CMV, EVAS and several other etiologies that I'm sure I can think of if I had more caffeine in my system. There frequently comes that "cross-over" point where the child goes from functionally hearing to functionally deaf, but they have been hearing up until that point, and are used to functioning as hearing in a hearing world. They have a whole different set of issues than children who are congenitally profoundly HI.
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Sheri, that's not nessarily a progressive loss issue. Many hoh kids are pushed towards the hearing world. I mean I definitly agree that they have to learn to adapt from being hoh/ good hearing aid users, to a worse loss. But, I mean they do know what its like to have experianced hearing loss. It's not like going from having normal hearing, to having a hearing loss (even a mild one)
And yes, they have to learn to adapt to those issues.........but a lot of those issues, wouldn't even be issues if more hoh kids were taught under a full toolbox approach, rather then a "hearing impaired" dependance on techology approach.
It is possible to be a part of both worlds you know.......and there are even some people who don't even blink an eye or deal with those so called issues that some progressive loss kids go through.
 
Thank you all so much for your input! I am having this meeting next week. You all have given me more than enough info to accomplish my goal. There is more info here than I thought I'd need, But since everyone here brings thier own experiences, observations, and concerns to the discussion, and since everyone felt this info was important enough to share, I am going to expand what I am trying to accomplish. I am going to compile all of this info, break it into seperate categories acccording to type of issue (environmental, equipment, communication, situational awareness and soon), put it together on a hand out and passit out to the not only the "New" parents, but anyone that is interested at the school.
This is turning into quite a project, but it is well worth the effort to help educate people and to help ensure the safety of the kids involved with the school and thier families.
Thak you all again!
J
 
Victorias mom said:
So far what the others have said is really good.

I am going to think more about this, but what sticks out in my mind is the batteries being swallowed. Victoria used to put the hearing aids in her mouth and I got so nervous about her swallowing the battery, or any other part. She was always good at taking them apart (not sure how she did it). That was/is a big concern for me. You make one mistake and drop a battery and if the child swallows it, they could choke, or even if they don't choke, they can burn their insides as it goes down. I would assume the same thing goes for CI batteries.

I am sure I have other concerns and things I worry about, I am just too tired to think right now. I'll try and come up with more tonight.
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i understand every parents' concern and worst fear for their children... things like this can happen or happens!!!

but that part that i bolded just cracked me up!!! but dear... young children can be VERY BRILLANT that you wouldn't believe.... how old is she???

my bf's parents were telling us that he TOOK--- I MEAN LITERALLY TOOK HIS OWN CRIB APART!!! (EVERYYY SCREW, NAIL, you name it!!! sadly, they had to put it back together!!! :rofl: he WASN'T EVEN 2 YET!!! and he even figured out a way to get his brother out of his crib!!! :eek: (they are a year apart)


i am like OMFG.. i hope our kids won't inherit things like that from him and his brother!!! you wouldn't believe all the crazy things that they did!!! another time... his parents woke up to LOUDNBANGING NOISES!! it turns out that he and his brother (3 and 2 at that time) were HAMMERING THE ORNAMENTS FROM THE CHRISTMAS TREE one by one!!! :eek3: his brother would hand him the ornament and he would JUST HAMMER IT DOWN!!! :rofl: >>> they couldn't figure out how they found the hammer- let alone how to use it at that age!!! :rofl:

they also made a HUGE "pile/mountain" of their parents' favorite records... took their bikes from outside... and rode over the records!!! :shock: :rofl: their parents kept the records!! they have like hundreds of them.. and a lot of them have these funny noises when you are playing them cuz they were "cracked" from them riding their bikes on them!!! his parents jump when they hear the noises on the records even today!!! :laugh2:

like i said... you won't believe the things that kids come up with... it could be dangerous.. but it is VERY HILARIOUS!!!

i have to concur with soars and shel too:>>>> in post #4: "i think the only advice I can give is to not protect your kids so much that they never learn to figure things out for themselves. One can't be a parent forever and the little ones do grow up. Do teach them about the dangers and help them really understand why they have to be more watchful of what is going on around them".

in post #23: >>> "As for not being overly protective of the child just because he/she is deaf, I mean like preventing the child from participating in any sports, social events, or stuff like that for fear that the child is too "fragile" to handle any injuries or getting emotionally hurt. That is going to far and I have seen parents do that. It is not healthy."
 
LTHFAdvocate said:
....
Kids with progressive losses sometimes get lost between the hearing and deaf worlds. I'm maybe extra sensitive to that since my daughter falls into that category. This occurs with CMV, EVAS and several other etiologies that I'm sure I can think of if I had more caffeine in my system. There frequently comes that "cross-over" point where the child goes from functionally hearing to functionally deaf, but they have been hearing up until that point, and are used to functioning as hearing in a hearing world. They have a whole different set of issues than children who are congenitally profoundly HI.
....
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This describes me even though I am not kid.. With my progressive loss,I am always forced to live in hearing world and it :pissed: me at times..I was functionally hearing with help of my hearing aids in the past and I have been functional deaf ( or oral deaf) since my loss has progressed to profound area even if I get some benefit from hearing aids..

I am always very careful about caring my aids since they are expensive.
 
R2D2 said:
As a slight tangent to what you have said I think that deaf children are also more vulnerable to adults or other children who have controlling personalities and who have a need to dominate others. They may encourage the dependency so that they can be abusive or exploitative. I remember hearing that deaf children are considerably at more risk than hearing children of being sexually or emotionally abused. And I can see how that would happen.
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You are absolutely correct. Deaf children are more at risk for all types of abuse.
 
deafdyke said:
Sheri, that's not nessarily a progressive loss issue. Many hoh kids are pushed towards the hearing world. I mean I definitly agree that they have to learn to adapt from being hoh/ good hearing aid users, to a worse loss. But, I mean they do know what its like to have experianced hearing loss. It's not like going from having normal hearing, to having a hearing loss (even a mild one)
And yes, they have to learn to adapt to those issues.........but a lot of those issues, wouldn't even be issues if more hoh kids were taught under a full toolbox approach, rather then a "hearing impaired" dependance on techology approach.
It is possible to be a part of both worlds you know.......and there are even some people who don't even blink an eye or deal with those so called issues that some progressive loss kids go through.
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Agreed.

And my son's etiology is CMV, and he has been profoundly deaf since birth. Alot of the patterns involved in CMV deafness depend upon time of exposure, titer levels of the mother at the time of exposure, and whether she was symptomatic or asymptomatic. With a relatively low titer, the exposure produces a pattern almost identical to rubella deafness.

And I absolutely agree, if we were to take a full toolbox approach for even a mild loss, then the progressive naute of some etiologies would not produce such an issue of adjustment. The skills would already be in place.
 
FeistyChick said:
i understand every parents' concern and worst fear for their children... things like this can happen or happens!!!

but that part that i bolded just cracked me up!!! but dear... young children can be VERY BRILLANT that you wouldn't believe.... how old is she???
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She is 13 months. She gets into mischief already! When she is doing something she shouldn't be doing, she looks directly at me and shakes her little finger at me (because I do that and say no, no, no). She knows she is doing something wrong, and she thinks it's the funniest thing.

That is so funny the stuff your boyfriend and his brother did. Kids can be so naughty. Of course it's not funny when you are the parents, just when other people's kids do it!
 
I wanted to thank everyone again for thier input on this thread. I ended up using alot of the exact quotes you guys posted. Instead of rewording things, I figured it would be best if I used your own words. F.Y.I the meeting went very well, we addressed alot of issues, and it gave the parents alot to think about both short term and long term in regards to the safety of thier child as he/she grows. As the child grows and changes, so will the safety issues.

Thanks again.
 
Lillys dad said:
I wanted to thank everyone again for thier input on this thread. I ended up using alot of the exact quotes you guys posted. Instead of rewording things, I figured it would be best if I used your own words. F.Y.I the meeting went very well, we addressed alot of issues, and it gave the parents alot to think about both short term and long term in regards to the safety of thier child as he/she grows. As the child grows and changes, so will the safety issues.

Thanks again.
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good to hear that all went well and hopefully there werent to many issues that we didn't consider.
 
I emailed the school consler, who plans and outs together the meetings. She loved it. I dont think there was anyhting that was left out. Infact, Im pretty sure that this is going to be an anual meeting. Infact, she was asking for ideas for new meetings. So how 'bout it? Anyone have ideas for parent meetings for the school. The school is an oral deaf ed school with studetns ranging from age pre-preschool, to grade 6.
We have the former students com ein, paretns whos children went to the school, assistive listening devices, and stuff like that, I am more interested in original ideas. Anyone?
 
Lillys dad said:
I emailed the school consler, who plans and outs together the meetings. She loved it. I dont think there was anyhting that was left out. Infact, Im pretty sure that this is going to be an anual meeting. Infact, she was asking for ideas for new meetings. So how 'bout it? Anyone have ideas for parent meetings for the school. The school is an oral deaf ed school with studetns ranging from age pre-preschool, to grade 6.
We have the former students com ein, paretns whos children went to the school, assistive listening devices, and stuff like that, I am more interested in original ideas. Anyone?
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Off topic..u mentioned the school is oral..meaning nobody uses sign language?
 
shel90 said:
Off topic..u mentioned the school is oral..meaning nobody uses sign language?
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yes, i believe it is oral because i know there is a deaf oral school in st. louis that some of my friends attended... i am not sure if it is the same school he is referring to though... St. Joseph Institute for the Deaf OR Central Institute for the Deaf --- i believe is the name of the school, correct me if i am wrong, lily's dad...
 
Yes, it is an oral school. Yes, they are oral only and no sign, But, this is not nearly what you probably think it is. While the school does not teach sign or use it in the class, alot of the people there see the importance of signing with deaf children. In fact, part of the deaf-ed teaching program involves learning sign.
Also, Fiestychick, we have three oral schools here. C.I.D., St.Josephs, and Moog. I think we are one of teh few cities in the U.S. with three oral deaf schools.

Back on the signing issue, When I approached a school administrator about starting to sign with Lilly, I was told that at the rate Lilly is picking up speech, I could teach her English, Spanish ,French and sign, she didnt see why it could be a problem. At least my daughters school is not closed minded to signing. They dont teach it, but they have no problems with the students learning it. The days of taping fingers together and punishing kids for signing are gone.
I honestly dont mind the philosophy that CID has with signing. Afterall, we send our children there to be oral, not to sign. There is one family that I am friends with that sends their child there, has a CID speech therapist to home to thier home, they also have a total communication therapist that visits their home and daycare. We have the side benifit because our daughter is in the same daycare class. The TC therapist works individually woith the chiild at daycare, but also does some work with teh enitre class. So Lilly picks up some sign also, along with the daycare workers, and the hearing kids.
Sign no longer carries the negative attitudes that it used to in oral environments (at least the oral world that I have seen) . I am sure someone will get on here and say how horrible it is somewhere. But that has not been my experience in any aspect of my daughters oral deaf ed, and the people involved with it.
 
Lillys dad said:
Yes, it is an oral school. Yes, they are oral only and no sign, But, this is not nearly what you probably think it is. While the school does not teach sign or use it in the class, alot of the people there see the importance of signing with deaf children. In fact, part of the deaf-ed teaching program involves learning sign.
Also, Fiestychick, we have three oral schools here. C.I.D., St.Josephs, and Moog. I think we are one of teh few cities in the U.S. with three oral deaf schools.

Back on the signing issue, When I approached a school administrator about starting to sign with Lilly, I was told that at the rate Lilly is picking up speech, I could teach her English, Spanish ,French and sign, she didnt see why it could be a problem. At least my daughters school is not closed minded to signing. They dont teach it, but they have no problems with the students learning it. The days of taping fingers together and punishing kids for signing are gone.
I honestly dont mind the philosophy that CID has with signing. Afterall, we send our children there to be oral, not to sign. There is one family that I am friends with that sends their child there, has a CID speech therapist to home to thier home, they also have a total communication therapist that visits their home and daycare. We have the side benifit because our daughter is in the same daycare class. The TC therapist works individually woith the chiild at daycare, but also does some work with teh enitre class. So Lilly picks up some sign also, along with the daycare workers, and the hearing kids.
Sign no longer carries the negative attitudes that it used to in oral environments (at least the oral world that I have seen) . I am sure someone will get on here and say how horrible it is somewhere. But that has not been my experience in any aspect of my daughters oral deaf ed, and the people involved with it.
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Well that's good that they are not against signing.

However, I probably will never understand the oral only philosophy in the educational setting. For me, it was too limiting cuz I missed out a lot of educational information and I was always lagging behind my hearing peers to was what being discussed in class. I always felt lost and confused. It was not a good feeling for me. I just don't understand why signing is not used in lessons especially new concepts being taught. Feel that signing will be too limiting?

At my work, we do both so our children get both ASL and spoken English. It is still new and still a few wrinkles to iron out but at least the children get exposed to both.

I guess Iam biased cuz when I finally learned ASL, it freed all those chains I had all my life of working my ass off being successful in an oral-only world. I couldn't live without ASL now knowing how much it has enchanced my life and made it a whole lot stressful. It is ironic, isn't it..there seems to be the theory that the oral only approach will give deaf children more freedom when it was just the opposite for me? U don't have to agree with me but just wanted to state on why whenever I read "oral program" or "oral deaf ed", I get a tight feeling in my stomach. Maybe for those children, it wud be fine. I just am concerned about only 1 thing..that those children have 100% access to language but I guess the CIs work well enough that they don't need sign language.

Good luck with everything and it sounds like Lilly is doing well. :)
 
I totally respect you ropinion. I respect anbyones opinion that can explain why they feel the way they feel. I love not just hearing differing views, but understanding them. This is one of the ways I am learning more about deaf culutre, open exchange of opinions, opinions based in fact and personal experience. Not in theory, rumor, and bias.
Looking at the oral deaf schools from your perspective, it makes perfect sense why you have those feelings. But, from my perspective, the oral schools make perfect sense and are very effective at teaching my daughter to listen and speak. They are also very good at preparing the students for the real world. When a child leaves CID and mainstreams, they are learning at a grade level of the one they just completed. This way, when they hit new school, they can spend most of thier time concentrating on thier new surroundings and gettign used to things. Really, the first year in mainstream is a review of stuff they already know. Lilly is turniong 3 this weekend, and is already ahead (educationally) than most hearing kids in her daycare class. She has a very good concept of reading, she picks up books, opens them and starts (in her mind) reading. She moves one finger along the words, and makes noises. She can count to twenty, has very good grasps on concepts that are pretty advanced for a three year old, and shes only 2.
Just today when I picked her up from daycare, a class mate of hers (hearing) came up and started talking to me. He saw my police uniform, ans I think was trying to say that I was a police man. I couldnt understand hardly anything he said. But up came Lilly and she said "I want go home and play with Soapy" When she says "soapy" she is referring to Sophie, her puppy we recently got. She has caught up with listening skills, and passed alot of hearign kids her own age in terms of speech. She has a very good grasp on things that are happening around her, better than most kids. I honestly owe most of the credit for her success to CID.
Every person has thier own experiences and perspectives. This is mine. Some may agree, but some wont.
Sorry, got a little off topic, its late, Im tired, and have to take a puppy outside to relieve herself before going to bed. Goodnight.
 
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