Looking to Be Educated

[Crickets]

I see points of both DD and Crickets...but what came to mind when I saw that quote from the studies- who paid for them?

....what does it mean to "succeed" - succeed according to Hearing?

....and once again the emphasis on mainstreaming which I've learned from d/Deaf people is actually usually very isolating

and "language skills" -is that code for "speech"? Many times "speech" and language" are used interchangeable, when the actual desired result is spoken language, which is perceived as superior

The National Institutes of Health is 80% funded through grants, so taxpayers pay for most of their studies. (http://www.nih.gov/about/budget.htm) We don't know anything about deafdyke's supposed studies because she hasn't provided any links for where her information came from.

and once again the emphasis on mainstreaming which I've learned from d/Deaf people is actually usually very isolating

Anecdotal stories from people you've talked to is not scientifically valid. Do you have any studies that show that mainstreaming d/Deaf people is "usually very isolating"? "Isolating" from whom? There are no Deaf schools near where I live. If a d/Deaf child goes to stay at a Deaf school that is far away from where their family is, can't that be seen as "isolating" too? If a deaf child grows up using mainly ASL and is therefore unable to communicate well in social and work settings with the 99% of the population who don't know ASL, can't that be considered "isolating"?

Terms and statistics can be twisted by both sides of the issue. That's why it's up to individual people to do their own research and come to their own conclusions. I've provided links for where I got my information so that anyone can investigate further, and I hope deafdyke provides links for her information, too.

Most people who get cochlear implants were at one time at least partially hearing (because only a very small percentage of children are born deaf), so for most children and adults who get cochlear implants, of course they're going to measure their success with cochlear implants according to what they used to have and want to achieve (hearing). The purpose of cochlear implants is to help people to hear. People wouldn't get cochlear implants in the first place if they didn't want to be able to hear.

 

[dogmom]

ok, three questions

why do you think that an ASL user would be unable to communicate well with hearing people in everyday situation?

why do you de-value Deaf experiences?

do you -personally -have your own experience of being or feeling isolated in a mainstream school - as a child?

 

[Crickets]

ok, three questions

why do you think that an ASL user would be unable to communicate well with hearing people in everyday situation?

why do you de-value Deaf experiences?

do you -personally -have your own experience of being or feeling isolated in a mainstream school - as a child?

If ASL users can communicate well with the 99% of people who don't know ASL, then why do they need interpreters? If someone who communicates with ASL came up to me and started talking using ASL and there was no interpreter with them and we had no other means of communicating (texting, writing, etc.), I wouldn't have any idea what they were trying to tell me. If I see an ASL interpreter on tv and turn the volume down and closed captioning off, I don't know what the ASL interpreter is saying. ASL doesn't help Deaf people communicate with the hearing population; other things like writing, texting, lipreading, and having an interpreter do.

I don't de-value the Deaf experience. I have only said that I'm not interested in becoming Deaf myself because I'm hearing (well, hoh) and want to stay hearing. I value being hearing because that's what I am. If you are someone who is Deaf and you say that you want to stay Deaf, there's nothing wrong with that and I wouldn't think you were de-valuing hearing people. I'm not interested in becoming Deaf any more than I am interested in changing my religion or my nationality.

I have known I was hoh (severe) in one ear and a mild loss in the other ear since I was 6 years old (no one knows for sure whether I was born that way or not because I wasn't tested as a baby). I never wore hearing aids until 18 months ago when I realized I'd begun losing more hearing in my "good" ear (now a moderate loss but getting worse). No, I never felt isolated being mainstreamed. But I had almost perfect hearing in one of my ears for a long time, so I'm sure that helped a lot. My classmates and teachers who knew about my hearing loss weren't bothered by it and we all found ways to adapt (I taught myself lipreading out of necessity - without any lessons). I went to a very small school (grades kindergarten through 12 all in one building, with about 300 students in all) and I had no special accommodations for my hearing loss other than sitting in the front of the class. I participated in the chorus and drama club.

Several of my relatives are also hoh (including both of my siblings), so that helped, too. We've never had genetic testing, but with so many hoh people in one family, there must be a genetic reason of some kind. Neither of my parents has a hearing loss, so maybe it's a recessive gene. We (my hoh relatives and myself) were all mainstreamed and we're all successful in what we do. None of us knows ASL. Some of us wear hearing aids and some don't. One of my distant cousins whom I've only met once has a cochlear implant. I don't know how old he was when he got it.

So, that's my story. I grew up hoh in the hearing world. That's the experience that I value because that's what I know and what worked for me. Other things may work for other people, and there's nothing wrong with that.