Psychology of Parents on CI

natty_4ever said:
Oh, I didn't say it had to be mandatory for ME, but I'm saying for those CI professionals and those related to the CI procedure, that is their goal--speech and hearing.

If I ever were to implant one of my future children (I'm honestly wary as to what I would do if I faced the situation), I would choose ASL and speech. But I know some parents think that the CI will just "fix" everything, so they do not need speech therapy, etc. should they want their child to speak. I think that is why they do the psychological evaluation, though it isn't right that the parents MUST go through the speech therapy and whatnot if ASL is going to be their preferred language.

I think it would be better if they established that they will be helping their child adjust to the CI in generally and securing A language, period. Even better if they chose both their spoken and signed languages.
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I don't think denying to implant a child is going to solve the parents neglectful ways if they refuse ASL. As long as there is communication, everything should be fine.
 
flip said:
If I got you right, that's what I think, too. The biggest problem is not that parents just want to put on that CI and wath TV or doing something else, as that's as bad as overdoing speech therapy. I find it worrysome that doctors approve the latter, but not the first.

It's funny, but this is perhaps the main reason I think CI are scary on kids. The CI attracts hell bent speech professonials and people with an awry view on what deafness is about. Just giving kids HA, will make people leave them alone better, and let the kids be kids.
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I guess it depends on what it means when you say "kids be kids". This week end my daughter and I went to a summer camp for oral deaf kids. We played games and did fun activites. Her camp leaders were all graduate SLP or Deaf ed students. We all played games and had fun. But at the same time, all the games were also language opportunities. We expanded her vocab and language, modeled appropriate speech and grammar, etc. Why can't it be fun and language learning?
 
be careful about overfocusing on hearing and language. Your child may depend on it too much that when she get to the real world, it's a struggle because no one is teaching her anymore.
 
A said:
be careful about overfocusing on hearing and language. Your child may depend on it too much that when she get to the real world, it's a struggle because no one is teaching her anymore.
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How is learning a language ever a bad thing? How can you be "too dependant" on a language?
 
flip said:
If I got you right, that's what I think, too. The biggest problem is not that parents just want to put on that CI and wath TV or doing something else, as that's as bad as overdoing speech therapy. I find it worrysome that doctors approve the latter, but not the first.

It's funny, but this is perhaps the main reason I think CI are scary on kids. The CI attracts hell bent speech professonials and people with an awry view on what deafness is about. Just giving kids HA, will make people leave them alone better, and let the kids be kids.
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I totally agree with you that sticking the CI on and leaving the kids in front of the TV is definitely not going to help them in the slightest. I do not think regular doctors approve of that, because my nephew is in speech therapy (he's hearing though), and the doctors suggested that he be interacted more one on one, and less in front of the TV.

I think no matter what, ASL is necessary. English is good too, but if you cannot understand it (because duh, lip reading is hard), then at least you have ASL. English is sort of like a bonus to me, but a good bonus to have if you are going to get implanted, or get aids, etc. I grew up only knowing English, and am just now learning ASL, and it feels so much more at home to me than the difficulty I have trying to understand people everyday. I will teach my future children both languages if they are deaf, but I won't die if their English isn't the equivalent to that of a Harvard grad. I know FJ and others with implanted children feel the same way, and they just want their children to be happy and learn English too.

For those who cannot get aids, I can understand why the parents might want the CI, but they ought to make sure they understand that with or without that CI, their child is still deaf, and that the CI will not make their hearing perfect by any means. Therefore, they should be able to accomodate their child and make them feel at home regardless of the hearing device they might choose. If the implants or aids or whatever broke, got lost, etc., then they need to be prepared for it and be able to fall back on ASL.
 
you can focus so much that you forget the whole concept what's being talked about. And you are not used to normal way of how hearing people talk that it become hard to understand. You constantly keep looking for someone to help you.
 
faire_jour said:
I guess it depends on what it means when you say "kids be kids". This week end my daughter and I went to a summer camp for oral deaf kids. We played games and did fun activites. Her camp leaders were all graduate SLP or Deaf ed students. We all played games and had fun. But at the same time, all the games were also language opportunities. We expanded her vocab and language, modeled appropriate speech and grammar, etc. Why can't it be fun and language learning?
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What about staying on the topic and try to comprehend what other posters actually write?
 
A said:
I don't think denying to implant a child is going to solve the parents neglectful ways if they refuse ASL. As long as there is communication, everything should be fine.
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Totally agree. Without ASL though, if they get a CI and don't do speech therapy either, you're messing with the child's future in a detrimental way. Which could be why they require it, so to have the relief that the child will have to have at least some language. I don't necessarily agree with it, but I can somewhat make sense of it.
 
A said:
be careful about overfocusing on hearing and language. Your child may depend on it too much that when she get to the real world, it's a struggle because no one is teaching her anymore.
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Yes, that's why academic skills among those deaf CI/mainstreamers often stop at the age of 12, while it continues to rise among those in bi-bi programs.
 
flip said:
Yes, that's why academic skills among those deaf CI/mainstreamers often stop at the age of 12, while it continues to rise among those in bi-bi programs.
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Can you show me your sources? I'm not doubting you, I want to show that to someone I know. :ty:
 
natty_4ever said:
Totally agree. Without ASL though, if they get a CI and don't do speech therapy either, you're messing with the child's future in a detrimental way. Which could be why they require it, so to have the relief that the child will have to have at least some language. I don't necessarily agree with it, but I can somewhat make sense of it.
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Yes, makes sense, but fortunately, I am not required to agree on that :)
 
flip said:
Yes, makes sense, but fortunately, I am not required to agree on that :)
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Right. I think instead of having the mandatory speech therapy, I think they ought to maybe have options, but make it mandatory that they follow through with one or more of the options. Like they could have ASL classes, speech therapy, bi-bi options, the list could go on. The parents could choose one. Perhaps they could make basic ASL mandatory and allow for speech therapy in addition to it, or vice versa, like strong ASL with some speech therapy backing.
 
natty_4ever said:
Can you show me your sources? I'm not doubting you, I want to show that to someone I know. :ty:
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Do you have access to "Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education"? You can find this kind of studies there. It's also perhaps posted on CI threads on alldeaf.com a couple of years ago, when everyone was posting research papers. I will post a link if I find it among the papers this week.
 
natty_4ever said:
Right. I think instead of having the mandatory speech therapy, I think they ought to maybe have options, but make it mandatory that they follow through with one or more of the options. Like they could have ASL classes, speech therapy, bi-bi options, the list could go on. The parents could choose one. Perhaps they could make basic ASL mandatory and allow for speech therapy in addition to it, or vice versa, like strong ASL with some speech therapy backing.
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That could be interesting to discuss, what should be mandatory? By looking at the history of deafness the last centuries, I agree that something needs be mandatory. But does all parents agree on that? You know, slogans like "informed choices"/"parental choices" etc.
 
flip said:
That could be interesting to discuss, what should be mandatory? By looking at the history of deafness the last centuries, I agree that something needs be mandatory. But does all parents agree on that? You know, slogans like "informed choices"/"parental choices" etc.
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I think that is one of the problems that many deafies have with CIs: that the parents are not informed of ALL options. They feel like in order to be successful, you must speak, so you MUST get a CI or take intense sessions of speech therapy. They are never spoken to about ASL or the Deaf community, like the woman in the video said. That is why I think they should have a list of ALL the options, INCLDING asl. They could be required to choose at least one, preferably two of the options.

I know I struggled to pay attention at certain points of my education but I thought it was normal that I could not hear the speaker in class or assembly. My parents were never informed about ASL. That is why I would be so strongly for both languages, not just speech. I know that ASL would have been so helpful to allow me to follow along and even just to communicate with others in general. My parents were told that the hearing aids would fix me, and they didn't. All of us are now learning.

Flip, I do not have access to the journal you mentioned, it says you have to pay some sort of fee to register. I will have to check with my university library system and see if they know if I can access it somehow.
 
one mandatory parents seem to hate is ASL from birth.
 
A said:
one mandatory parents seem to hate is ASL from birth.
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That's probably some hearing parents. I think those parents need to be informed that ASL does NOT equal doom, gloom, and an end to the life of their child. I think some parents think ASL is the equivalent to being "dumb," because that's the phrase we were stuck with for so long, "deaf and dumb." They probably have not met a good Deaf role model, or seen that we can thrive just fine and become successful adults.

Either that or they're just plain ol' lazy and don't want to learn, or think it will be useless.
 
They don't want ASL because they are afraid it will make their child more of a visual learner or their auditory part of the brain won't develop the spoken language they need so they can hear and speak pretty (it doesn't matter if deaf people with HA can speak clearly even though they have a deaf accent). That's just the way people think. They have this fear that ASL make them use their voice and ear less.
 
A said:
They don't want ASL because they are afraid it will make their child more of a visual learner or their auditory part of the brain won't develop the spoken language they need so they can hear and speak pretty (it doesn't matter if Deaf people with HA can speak clearly too even though they have a deaf voice) That's just the way people think. They have this fear that ASL make them use their voice and ear less.
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Oh, I know that as well, but I figured that's almost too common among hearing people that it was known. I suppose I should have said that too.

That's what people are afraid of, too, the deaf accent. One of my friends is brilliant, a very intelligent person, but because of his accent, he has been called stupid and other rude names. They equate speech skills to intelligence, so speech therapy is their solution, I suppose. Though many parents' and professionals' reasoning is extremely flawed in the end.
 
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