shel90

I know...*sighs*

Not that I am against CIs but to call them miracles is misleading. They are devices to assist with hearing and like HAs, some people respond well with them and some dont.

I guess I can call my HAs "miracles" too.

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~Shel~

"A child educated only at school is an uneducated child." -George Santayana

Deafness

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jillio

It truly puzzles me that those who complain that pointing out the negative ascpects or discussing the limitations of a CI is an attempt to give innacurrate information about the devise are the one's who consistently use words like "miracle" in their descriptions. If accuracy is the goal, isn't this a tad hypocritical?

shel90

If I post calling my HAs miracles and that they make me function like a hearing person, I am sure those will point out the limitations of HAs. It is a FACT of life!!!

I am happy that their CIs work for them..great! I just only care that deaf children recieve the appropriate education where language is 100% accessible.

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~Shel~

"A child educated only at school is an uneducated child." -George Santayana

Cheri

Tell me about it, If it was a miracle to them, then they would not need the practices, the follow-up studies, the oral language training etc.

The implant is not turned on until the incision has fully healed, about 4 weeks after surgery. Not everyone performs at the same level with cochlear implants, they need practices, following up, oral language training, listening and realizing sounds sure does not sound like a miracle.

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jillio

Good point, Cheri.

jillio

Here is one of my greatest concerns about the CI being protrayed as some sort of a "miracle" devise.

When a hearing parent first learns that their child is deaf, and has no experience with or knowledge of deafness, they are confused and frightened for their child's future. The first and natural reaction is to hope for miracle that will make it all go away. When the devise is touted as a miracle, and these parents read such inflated claims, their vunerablity is being taken advantage of to promote a personal agenda. We have a select few CI users and parents of CI children making these claims and preying upon the vunerability of parents who have recently learned that their child was deaf. We have the medical community telling them that they must implant immediately or their child's future will be irrevocably and negatively impacted. The message is given that all that is necessary is to create some degree of sound perception in these children, and parents in a vunerable are susceptible to being led astray by these unrealistic portrayals. By the time they realize that they have, indeed, been given an inflated expectation, their child is language delayed and falling behind in school, as well as being delayed in several developmental stages and cognitive development.

Parents of newly diagnosed children do not need to be given the impression that the CI is some sort of "miralce" that will automatically integrate their child into a hearing world. What they need to be told is that the CI is but one piece of the puzzle, and the level of benefit is dependent upon each individual child. They need understanding for the fears they have regarding their deaf child's future and reassurance that with or without CI, their child is capable of achieving educational and personal success. They need time to work through their feelings of grief. They need examples of both successful CI users and successful non-CI users. They need to understand both advantages and disadvantages of implantation. And it takes time to integrate all of this information. They need to understand the importance of early language input in whatever mode is most readlily available to their child. They need to understand that deafness is not a disability that is restricted only to the ability to hear, but has implications that affect every aspect of that child's life because of the liguistic issues.

To portray the CI as a "miracle" does a serious disservice not just to these parents, but to their deaf children,as well. And I find the attempt to do so unconsciounable.

shel90

What I have seen happen, according to many of the parents I have worked with, is that while waiting for their children to get qualified, fighting to get approval from their insurance companies, waiting for the incisions to heal, and the time for the child to learn to process the sounds, the parents were not aware of the importance of sign language for their children to develop language while waiting for all these steps to be taken. They have expressed regrets for letting their child be in a language-deprived environment while waiting. Many of them have told me that they were given the impression that ASL would interfere with their children's ability to develop speech skills.

Someone here on AD (cant remember who) mentioned that their child became language delayed because the child spent 2 years being deaf before the child could finally hear with the CI. That is something very easily preventable.

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~Shel~

"A child educated only at school is an uneducated child." -George Santayana

jillio

Agree 100%. If these parents were given as much information about the importance of early language, and how ASL can accomplish that, as they are about the "miracle" of the CI, these cases would be prevented.

neecy

I respectfully disagree. I consider my CI to be a miracle, even though it required I WORK with it. Being able to hear was the miracle....my practicing and training just made the miracle all the better. Again its depends on one's viewpoint. If somebody wants to call their CI a miracle, that's their entitlement don't you think? I realize there are some people who don't think that being able to understand/hear speech is "miracle worthy" but there are some of us who think it is. Again - we all have our differences.

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Cheri

Good point jillio. I couldn't agree with you more, I too think early language are far more important than the ability to hear.

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jillio

Yes. Language delays are still occurring in CI implanted children. And they are not being corrected just because the child has a CI.

Cheri

That's your opinion, but I don't think you understand the real meaning of miracle.

I somehow knew you were gonna disagree, because every time someone who is cochlear implant or someone who is a hearing parents with deaf children, You always take their side of their opinion over any deaf people. I was more expecting that coming from you, it's no surprising to me. *cough*

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jillio

LOL, not always. I am hearing parent of deaf child and she disagrees with me all the time!

Cheri

Yes, I should have said "Hearing parents with cochlear implant children" to get my point across, but I'm sure neecy knows what I'm talking about.

since you got a deaf son without the use of cochlear implant you're no supporter of neecy. It's the sad truth about some members around here.

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shel90

OMG!!! It is a miracle that I can speak clearly despite having a severe profound deafness since birth.

__________________
~Shel~

"A child educated only at school is an uneducated child." -George Santayana

jillio

Yeah, I was just teasing you!

Tousi

Well, I agree and accept Neecy's personal experience. She got the CI "late" in life and has been very successful with it. She does not have children, etc to make this topic more of a mess than it is now. She MOSTLY talks about herself and that's the part I agree, respect and support as it relates to Neecy.

jillio

Its a miracle that you were able to overcome the hardship of an oral only environment!

Cheri

You got me there.

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jillio

While I can't disagree with what you have said, my concern is the parent who has not learned to differentiate between pre and post lingual issues that accepts the "miracle" claim as generalizable across the board. And as the believers of "miracle" status have claimed that they are here to get out accurrate information, and have expressed concern for the image being portrayed to hearing parents of deaf children, I think this distinction needs to be pointed out. In this thread, anyway, the original topic concerned kids with CIs.

Cheri

And OMG!! I could hear myself farting even though I'm totally deaf!! It's a miracle, hooray!!

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Tousi

Right, Jillio, I really believe Neecy (sticking my neck out here) does see that distinction and I don't know why she doesn't wanna acknowledge it because I think she can while at the same time champion the idea of CI's that will work on folks carefully selected for it for ALL of the right and just reasons.

jillio

**nodding agreement**

Tousi

*Tousi sticking a muffler in Cheri to deaden the sound. Too bad about the smell, tho*

jillio