Hello! New daddy of Deaf child.

J

Jarodm

New Member
Joined
Oct 28, 2013
Messages
4
Reaction score
0
Hello all!

So my son Toby is 9 months old and deaf. We have another son who is 2 and hearing. Both my wife and I are hearing, however I am losing my hearing and will likely be in hearing aids within the next couple if years. We are against CI and we have been learning ASL since we learned Toby was deaf. We want to raise him to be capital D Deaf! We attend a Deaf church service once a month and will be moving to Kentucky so Toby can attend the Ky School for the Deaf. It's a pleasure to meet you all. I have used this site a lot and figured I should make a username and introduce myself.
 
:welcome: :wave: Very nice to see a parent who wants to raise a child with ASL! :D Good luck to you!
 
Yay for you to use ASL with your child! Welcome to AD!
 
What a great start for your child's life, learning ASL! I taught my 2 hearing boys sign language before they talked. I was constantly told not to do that because that would delay their speech. Pffft. They are teenagers now and their speech is just fine.

Welcome to the forum!
 
Thank you all for your warm welcome! We are slowly learning cultural things like using lights to get his attention, announcing where we are going when we leave the room an so on. Our two year old is learning ASL so fast! Any advice is more than welcome! We are just trying to surround ourselves in this new beautiful culture so that we raise a confident and proud Deaf man!
 
Welcome,

I am an ASL user. I am very comfortable the way my life goes. So Just be sure to keep your kid to read the books, and encourage kid to use comptuer as much as he can get.
 
Welcome, I am new here myself but your story sounds a lot like my background. It will be a learning curve but it will be worth it in the end.

My brother is deaf, he is 3 years younger than I am, but I learned sign language right along with him when we were kids. That was over 30 years ago, I love to sign and was in honors english in high school. To this day when I talk, read or whatever I see the signs in my head along with speech. It's just 2nd nature to me, I will also sign to people sometimes not even thinking about it haha. I applaud your efforts and if you need any help just holler.
 
Jarodm said:
Hello all!

So my son Toby is 9 months old and deaf. We have another son who is 2 and hearing. Both my wife and I are hearing, however I am losing my hearing and will likely be in hearing aids within the next couple if years. We are against CI and we have been learning ASL since we learned Toby was deaf. We want to raise him to be capital D Deaf! We attend a Deaf church service once a month and will be moving to Kentucky so Toby can attend the Ky School for the Deaf. It's a pleasure to meet you all. I have used this site a lot and figured I should make a username and introduce myself.
Click to expand...

Welcome!!!!!! That rocks so much that you're raising him with ASL right off the bat! May I ask why you're looking into KY School for the Deaf specificly?It's always good to look into Deaf Schools.....and I think as always KSD is most likely one of those schools that have a significent subpopulation of very academic kids....but there are also a lot of other really good options as well....if you're making the effort to move,maybe it might be a good idea to move to a state with a REALLY good Deaf school/program......like Maryland School,Texas School, (Texas School is turning out to be one of those schools that parents move for!)TLC (lots of hardcore Deaf students there) Indiana School WPSD,St Rita's ,Kansas School etc..of course,most deaf schools do tend to have a significent minority of academic kids.. ,Are you guys members of the American Society of Deaf Children yet?American Society for Deaf Children - Home
 
Jarodm said:
Hello all!

So my son Toby is 9 months old and deaf. We have another son who is 2 and hearing. Both my wife and I are hearing, however I am losing my hearing and will likely be in hearing aids within the next couple if years. We are against CI and we have been learning ASL since we learned Toby was deaf. We want to raise him to be capital D Deaf! We attend a Deaf church service once a month and will be moving to Kentucky so Toby can attend the Ky School for the Deaf. It's a pleasure to meet you all. I have used this site a lot and figured I should make a username and introduce myself.
Click to expand...

You are against CI? That's kind of like being against television.

It's only an electronic device.
 
I was born deaf, and I have a C.I. Lots of deaf people I know have a C.I. It does open up a lot to you when you have it. I'm still Deaf, but it has helped me tremendously. Your child will always be Deaf with or without a C.I. A C.I. doesn't make you or anyone else hearing.
 
deafdyke said:
Welcome!!!!!! That rocks so much that you're raising him with ASL right off the bat! May I ask why you're looking into KY School for the Deaf specificly?It's always good to look into Deaf Schools.....and I think as always KSD is most likely one of those schools that have a significent subpopulation of very academic kids....but there are also a lot of other really good options as well....if you're making the effort to move,maybe it might be a good idea to move to a state with a REALLY good Deaf school/program......like Maryland School,Texas School, (Texas School is turning out to be one of those schools that parents move for!)TLC (lots of hardcore Deaf students there) Indiana School WPSD,St Rita's ,Kansas School etc..of course,most deaf schools do tend to have a significent minority of academic kids.. ,Are you guys members of the American Society of Deaf Children yet?American Society for Deaf Children - Home
Click to expand...

We have family in Kentucky and it's where my wife and I met. KSD is the best of the three in Ky. We aren't members of ASDC, thanks for the link!
 
To make myself more clear: we are against CI for Toby. It doesn't feel like the right move for us. He wears HAs and seems to be responding to some sounds so we will see how he does. We are not against CIs in general, just not for us.
 
good on ya for being realistic!...i am a researcher (in post grad studies) Im Deaf, but raised a deaf in the hearing aids era (ive been pushed to go with CI i said no to doctors idont trust it.)
there is so many things they (doctors and pro-ci teams) dont tell you

the high rate of variation is something they tend to cover up...

same thing happened in the 70s' so many bullshit about HA's and oralism as 'working' as they 'hand picks' the best students for 'case studies'...
im wary of it...etc etc

heck would you like to read an article? PM me and i can pass on a copy about 'Harm of CIs' its not to scare or anger you you made a good decision) i think its cruel to chop open them up...without much thoughts...
CI people always concerns about hearing levels...and leave up the speech (often times speech and 'hearing-like behaviors (urgh)...to teachers...weird pseudoscience whatever...

its an excellent article so that maybe you can print out, read it, pass on electronically (its a PDF)...to other new parents, bloody people need to know 'full story' as in 2 sides of the same coin...

Cheers
 
Jarodm said:
To make myself more clear: we are against CI for Toby. It doesn't feel like the right move for us. He wears HAs and seems to be responding to some sounds so we will see how he does. We are not against CIs in general, just not for us.
Click to expand...

IMHO, that's part of why I am a bit skeptical re CI early implantation....It's just REALLY too hard to tell how well a baby can hear. It's awesome that he's responding to some sounds....There ARE still audilogically deaf kids who benifit from HAs.......you have some wiggle room there! Hate it when people act like CIs are the ONLY/best choice for deaf losses........It can be an indivdual thing how kids respond to hearing technology....heck there are people for whom a CI works in one ear,and an aid works in the other ear.
 
Not to mention Grummer that the ONLY area that pro oralists seem to fixtate on to define sucess is speech and hearing.......Yes, SOME kids with CIs are doing amazingly well...(ie minimal accomondations,graduate completely from speech therapy,superstar by ANY account)..but they represent a very small percentage of dhh kids.......
 
Back
Top