Hearing people's view of CI

[DeafCaroline]

I'm sure there are plenty of hearing people that would have a hard time imagining pure silence.

Of course, I have no memory of having that kind of hearing... Maybe a hearing person can chime in and add their thoughts.

We all have hearing family and friends - I remember when Children of a Lesser God came out, suddenly hearing people were all like "yeah, I can imagine what's it like being deaf because I went swimming underwater and couldn't hear anything."

lol. Ok.

 

[Cloggy]

?........ It's a type of hearing, but it's as comparable to normal hearing as kissing a good friend on the cheek is to actually making love with your soulmate is.

interesting comparison... How did you get that one.??

When my daughter who has bilateral CI can imitate the sound of a cat... Do a perfect "miauw".. I doubt that the difference is as you explained ..

Didn't we agree somewhere that results differ. That some people have great experiences with CI and some don't?

 

[Cloggy]

I got my implant, 11 years ago. I didn't get it cos I wanted to be "normal" It's just a tool to hear. Plus my CI is only on at work :P so most of the time I am totally deaf even with my HA.

Just to check.. You have 1 CI, and 1 HA?

 

[flip]

Once one of my mother's maids told me that she thought my CI was a miracle. My CI is just a tool and an imperfect one at that.


What makes people think that parents of deaf kids would be any better informed than my mother's maid?

The maid has the advantage of not been caught in the emotional ASL vs oral drama that many parents are a part of, having bigger changes to make rational reflections.

 

[Cheetah]

The maid has the advantage of not been caught in the emotional ASL vs oral drama that many parents are a part of, having bigger changes to make rational reflections.

One would hope, but somehow I suspect that the maid in this situation is like a paid family member.

I think the point is, many of the deaf here in AD feel that hearing parents were not given the information we thought they most needed to hear: the experience of deaf people growing up in a hearing world.

The support we needed, the isolation we felt, the ignorance we experienced... I don't believe these issues all go away just because a child receives a CI.

 

[Cloggy]

Any more ironic that someone that professes to know what is best for a child but having never experienced deafness or the challenges that go into growing up with a CI?

EDIT: this was in response to Rick48.

Do you need to experience deafness in order to make a decision for your child to hear?
You don't even need to have experience hearing for that decision. Even a deaf person could make the decision for their children to hear.
(I started a thread on deaf parents choosing CI for their children, but this thread was removed.)

Parents make the decision for their children, and whoever the parents - deaf or hearing - I will assume they will give a lot of thought to their decision....

 

[flip]

interesting comparison... How did you get that one.??

When my daughter who has bilateral CI can imitate the sound of a cat... Do a perfect "miauw".. I doubt that the difference is as you explained ..

Didn't we agree somewhere that results differ. That some people have great experiences with CI and some don't?

I dunno, but I had expected a bit more from a CI success than making animal sounds.

 

[Cheetah]

Do you need to experience deafness in order to make a decision for your child to hear?
You don't even need to have experience hearing for that decision. Even a deaf person could make the decision for their children to hear.
(I started a thread on deaf parents choosing CI for their children, but this thread was removed.)

Parents make the decision for their children, and whoever the parents - deaf or hearing - I will assume they will give a lot of thought to their decision....

Knowledge of any kind is not required to make a decision. Experience is not required to make a decision. Research is not required to make a decision. Intelligence is not required to make a decision.

Just think how much better your chances of making good choices if you had some or all of these?

The point is discount the deaf at you and your child's peril.

 

[Cloggy]

Once one of my mother's maids told me that she thought my CI was a miracle. My CI is just a tool and an imperfect one at that.


What makes people think that parents of deaf kids would be any better informed than my mother's maid?

Sure you can downplay miracles... You can look at a rainbow and see a miracle.. or just downplay the beauty and magic and analise it as the refraction it is....

For you CI might just be a tool, for her it's a miracle that a little device implanted in someones ear can help them understand sounds where before sounds were gone, or not understandable.

And to me, when I ask my daughter to make the sound of a cat, and she does that to perfection... that is one of those every-day miracles that I see..


For Lotte - my daughter - and for you it's not a miracle. It's just as it is.. but for the bystander that looks at it... it is..

 

[Cheetah]

Sure you can downplay miracles... For you it might just be a tool, for her it's a miracle that a little device implanted in someones ear can help them understand sounds where before sounds were gone, or not understandable.
And to me, when I ask my daughter to make the sound of a cat, and she does that to perfection...
that is one of those every-day miracles that I see..

For Lotte - my daughter - and for you it's not a miracle. It's just as it is.. but for the bystander that looks at it... it is..

There seems to be some confusion on a miracle. My understanding is that a miracle is something God did. And if God made someone hearing, why would they need a CI???

 

[flip]

One would hope, but somehow I suspect that the maid in this situation is like a paid family member.

I think the point is, many of the deaf here in AD feel that hearing parents were not given the information we thought they most needed to hear: the experience of deaf people growing up in a hearing world.

The support we needed, the isolation we felt, the ignorance we experienced... I don't believe these issues all go away just because a child receives a CI.

True. Sociologists have found a lot of uncertainty among parents of deaf children, even after the decision was made. Just notice how perfect some parents here try to appear with their choices and how personal they take everything.

 

[Cloggy]

There seems to be some confusion on a miracle. My understanding is that a miracle is something God did. And if God made someone hearing, why would they need a CI???

No confusion.. A miracle is something that cannot be explained... Or just something beautiful that you don't have an explanation for why you perceive it as beautiful.. Or don't want an explanation..
Some people see more miracles than others...

God doesn't exist.. therefore she has nothing to do with miracles..

 

[Cloggy]

I dunno, but I had expected a bit more from a CI success than making animal sounds.

Really...
So.. you don't get the significance that when some deaf person that can hear with CI, can listen to the sound a cat makes, and imitate that perfectly..

Had the sound be distorted, deformed etc.. .. wouldn't the imitation of that sound be distorted as well..??
You might argue that the distortion is replicated perfectly so that what comes out is correct... but that would bring us to "do I hear the same as another person that can hear"..
It's miles away from "kissing a friend compared to making love with a soulmate".

 

[DeafCaroline]

Really...
So.. you don't get the significance that when some deaf person that can hear with CI, can listen to the sound a cat makes, and imitate that perfectly..

Had the sound be distorted, deformed etc.. .. wouldn't the imitation of that sound be distorted as well..??
You might argue that the distortion is replicated perfectly so that what comes out is correct... but that would bring us to "do I hear the same as another person that can hear"..
It's miles away from "kissing a friend compared to making love with a soulmate".

ah! you think if we hear a sound that's different from the way a hearing person hears it, then when we mimic it, it sounds different from how a hearing person would say it?

that's where you're wrong. So wrong. You have a lot of learning to do still.

 

[Cheetah]

No confusion.. A miracle is something that cannot be explained... Or just something beautiful that you don't have an explanation for why you perceive it as beautiful.. Or don't want an explanation..
Some people see more miracles than others...

God doesn't exist.. therefore she has nothing to do with miracles..

Weird view of miracle. To each their own I guess.

 

[drphil]

To the original question: Cochlear Implants a "miracle"? Any person with one can truthfully answer-NO. In a somewhat similar context a DEAF person utilizing a laptop to "communicate" with someone who doesn't understand ASL et al. Miracle?
Is this computer a "miracle"? Would a person from a 100 years ago-think it was?

 

[Bottesini]

To the original question: Cochlear Implants a "miracle"? Any person with one can truthfully answer-NO. In a somewhat similar context a DEAF person utilizing a laptop to "communicate" with someone who doesn't understand ASL et al. Miracle?
Is this computer a "miracle"? Would a person from a 100 years ago-think it was?

And there it is! Drphil doesn't particularly like the Deaf, but he is putting out an honest answer here as a person who has experienced long term deafness, and also years using a CI.

 

[Beach girl]

True. Sociologists have found a lot of uncertainty among parents of deaf children, even after the decision was made. Just notice how perfect some parents here try to appear with their choices and how personal they take everything.

True, and it works both ways. Parents who didn't implant have a very strong vested interest in believing they did the right thing, and parents who DID implant want to believe they did the right thing.

Parents are like that. Whatever decision they made, they very strongly want to believe that it was correct, regardless of which decision it was.

 

[deafskeptic]

When a child is diagnosed, parents receive all kinds of information. They get linked up with early intervention, which also provides information and skills to enable the child to make progress. Ideally, they go on to seek out more information- which is what I've observed more often than not. So, I'd say most parents know more about deafness than your mothers maid who had limited exposure.

I was dx'd as deaf when I was 7 months old. Both of my parents come from a medical background. Yet their bias toward speech prevented them from seeing things objectively.

 

[blondon704]

Weird view of miracle. To each their own I guess.

My two cents not attempting to ruffle or anything but the miracle is that my son is alive. Hearing or not he is here.