Miss-Delectable
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JS Online: AG Bell and deaf coalition conferences differ on cochlear implants
Eight-year-old Collin Mathias darts out of the house and heads for the basketball hoop, his younger brother and sister in tow.
"Watch me, Mom," calls Ethen, 6.
"Hey, that's my ball," 4-year-old Brandi protests before it rolls into the street, and Collin comes to the rescue with an "I've got it!"
It's a scene played out on countless driveways in America. There's nothing unusual except the small device attached to each child's head, no more obtrusive than a pair of glasses.
All three of Kris and Bob Mathias' children were born deaf. But with cochlear implants and hearing and speech education, each can hear and speak as well as most children their age.
"We wanted to focus on oral/verbal communication," said Kris Mathias, explaining why the family opted not to learn sign language.
"It's a matter of choice, a matter of giving our children everything we could."
The Mathiases chose a path advocated by the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, a national group that supports deaf or hard-of-hearing people who use spoken language and hearing technology to communicate.
"But it's not the only choice," say founders of the Deaf Bilingual Coalition, a newly formed organization that promotes access to sign language for all deaf and hearing-impaired children.
Both meet this weekend
The two groups will bring their competing agendas to Milwaukee in separate national conferences this week: one that views cochlear implants and auditory-based therapies as a way to give children access to the wider world; and the other that sees them as unnecessary and an affront to who deaf people are as individuals.
"We aren't concerned about implants per se," said Ella Mae Lentz of Hayward, Calif., a member of the coalition, who will join in protests outside the Midwest Airlines Center, where the AG Bell Conference will take place.
"We're concerned about the audism behind the implants - this belief that hearing is more advantageous than being deaf. It's the same as racism," she said.
About 12,000 U.S. children are identified with hearing loss in the each year, according to AG Bell. For 200 years, the deaf have signed, creating a rich culture and community whose members excelled in the letters and arts.
But with more infant screening, advances in technology, and education, AG Bell believes deaf children can develop the same listening and speaking abilities as their hearing peers by age 5.
According to the National Institutes of Health, about 23,000 adults and 15,500 children received cochlear implants in 2006.
"We believe spoken language is a viable, available option for parents, professionals and people of hearing loss to look at, understand and make an informed choice," AG Bell President Jay Wyant said.
The coalition, however, argues that American Sign Language is a natural first language for deaf people, and that deaf children who sign before learning English out-perform those who do not in core academic subjects. "You're only learning how to speak, to regurgitate the words, and only a small percentage of deaf people are successful at that," said Lentz, whose parents and brother, like her, are deaf.
"We're very good at language, very good at visual things. Why can't we use that?"
The coalition decries what it sees as AG Bell's oppression of deaf culture.
They blame the organization's vast influence for a shift in the medical community away from promoting sign language and toward expensive hearing- and speaking-based therapies that discourage families from learning sign language.
"We really believe that deaf babies have a right to have access to ASL," said Karla Gunn of Milton, a teacher at the Wisconsin School for the Deaf in Delavan who is attending the coalition's conference.
"We want people to have a choice. . . . Implanted children can still learn ASL. There's no block on our side," she said.
A matter of choice
Wyant agreed that it's a matter of choice.
"Our focus is on spoken language," he said. "If a parent says I want to combine spoken language with other things, we say, 'Wonderful, we'll help you find the people you need.' " Ruth Litovsky, an associate professor of communicative disorders at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the debate is a complex issue.
"For someone to have an implant, they're choosing to be able to hear. It doesn't mean that they are rejecting people who sign," she said. "Everyone has to make their own choice. I don't think cochlear implants make sign language invalid."
Kris Mathias said when she and her husband first found out about Collin's deafness, they struggled with each decision.
The choice was easier with their third child. Daughter Brandi, who was implanted four years ago at age 6 months, is believed to be the youngest child in the United States at that time to receive implants.
Bob Mathias added that the decision to give their children cochlear implants and take a strictly auditory approach was, in their eyes, "the best decision we made."
"The only thing that my wife and I know is being able to hear. And that's the same opportunity we wanted to provide to our three children," he said.
Every time I see or hear about a family with several deaf kids but uses AVT approach, I'd think why on the earth didn't you use sign language?
Eight-year-old Collin Mathias darts out of the house and heads for the basketball hoop, his younger brother and sister in tow.
"Watch me, Mom," calls Ethen, 6.
"Hey, that's my ball," 4-year-old Brandi protests before it rolls into the street, and Collin comes to the rescue with an "I've got it!"
It's a scene played out on countless driveways in America. There's nothing unusual except the small device attached to each child's head, no more obtrusive than a pair of glasses.
All three of Kris and Bob Mathias' children were born deaf. But with cochlear implants and hearing and speech education, each can hear and speak as well as most children their age.
"We wanted to focus on oral/verbal communication," said Kris Mathias, explaining why the family opted not to learn sign language.
"It's a matter of choice, a matter of giving our children everything we could."
The Mathiases chose a path advocated by the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, a national group that supports deaf or hard-of-hearing people who use spoken language and hearing technology to communicate.
"But it's not the only choice," say founders of the Deaf Bilingual Coalition, a newly formed organization that promotes access to sign language for all deaf and hearing-impaired children.
Both meet this weekend
The two groups will bring their competing agendas to Milwaukee in separate national conferences this week: one that views cochlear implants and auditory-based therapies as a way to give children access to the wider world; and the other that sees them as unnecessary and an affront to who deaf people are as individuals.
"We aren't concerned about implants per se," said Ella Mae Lentz of Hayward, Calif., a member of the coalition, who will join in protests outside the Midwest Airlines Center, where the AG Bell Conference will take place.
"We're concerned about the audism behind the implants - this belief that hearing is more advantageous than being deaf. It's the same as racism," she said.
About 12,000 U.S. children are identified with hearing loss in the each year, according to AG Bell. For 200 years, the deaf have signed, creating a rich culture and community whose members excelled in the letters and arts.
But with more infant screening, advances in technology, and education, AG Bell believes deaf children can develop the same listening and speaking abilities as their hearing peers by age 5.
According to the National Institutes of Health, about 23,000 adults and 15,500 children received cochlear implants in 2006.
"We believe spoken language is a viable, available option for parents, professionals and people of hearing loss to look at, understand and make an informed choice," AG Bell President Jay Wyant said.
The coalition, however, argues that American Sign Language is a natural first language for deaf people, and that deaf children who sign before learning English out-perform those who do not in core academic subjects. "You're only learning how to speak, to regurgitate the words, and only a small percentage of deaf people are successful at that," said Lentz, whose parents and brother, like her, are deaf.
"We're very good at language, very good at visual things. Why can't we use that?"
The coalition decries what it sees as AG Bell's oppression of deaf culture.
They blame the organization's vast influence for a shift in the medical community away from promoting sign language and toward expensive hearing- and speaking-based therapies that discourage families from learning sign language.
"We really believe that deaf babies have a right to have access to ASL," said Karla Gunn of Milton, a teacher at the Wisconsin School for the Deaf in Delavan who is attending the coalition's conference.
"We want people to have a choice. . . . Implanted children can still learn ASL. There's no block on our side," she said.
A matter of choice
Wyant agreed that it's a matter of choice.
"Our focus is on spoken language," he said. "If a parent says I want to combine spoken language with other things, we say, 'Wonderful, we'll help you find the people you need.' " Ruth Litovsky, an associate professor of communicative disorders at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the debate is a complex issue.
"For someone to have an implant, they're choosing to be able to hear. It doesn't mean that they are rejecting people who sign," she said. "Everyone has to make their own choice. I don't think cochlear implants make sign language invalid."
Kris Mathias said when she and her husband first found out about Collin's deafness, they struggled with each decision.
The choice was easier with their third child. Daughter Brandi, who was implanted four years ago at age 6 months, is believed to be the youngest child in the United States at that time to receive implants.
Bob Mathias added that the decision to give their children cochlear implants and take a strictly auditory approach was, in their eyes, "the best decision we made."
"The only thing that my wife and I know is being able to hear. And that's the same opportunity we wanted to provide to our three children," he said.
Every time I see or hear about a family with several deaf kids but uses AVT approach, I'd think why on the earth didn't you use sign language?
