want to hear your opinions about cochlear implant

I'm thinking about misconceptions here....I recall people have commented to my husband about "he speaks so well" and "lucky he could speak at all". I think without his aids he can maybe hear a jet.
<as mentioned, those were people's previous comments to him that I remember or he's told me about - NOW, if I was with him and someone said that, I'd view it much differently but before I was ignorant>. Hubby born with bilat. severe loss due to Rubella syndrome.
Like BecLak, he learned to speak without aids. He had HA's for a couple of years in elementary school <about 7-12> but none before and none for many years after that.

My speech does have an "affect" to it due to early speech issues and delays...doctors insisted I was also missing inner ear bones at birth.
as far as I know, I started losing my hearing couple years ago for unknown reasons. I've had people listen to me and assume I'm deaf.
 
deafskeptic said:
It improved some speech wise and hearing wise. I can make out a lot of words on the radio and even a word here and there when I listen to songs - something I could not do pre-CI.

But though I have good speech skills, I rarely speak anything that isn't monosyllabic and though I have an excellent vocabulary, I have no idea how to pronounce many of the words I know.

I still have trouble in groups and with noisy environments.

CIs can help but it's not the same as normal hearing. Nor are they always helpful for some deaf. I know one post lingual deaf woman who used to post here who has said she could hear better with her HAs than with her CI.
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Re bolded - same here and I'm late-deafened and can still hear pretty good with my HAs. :lol:
 
I think sometime some of the deaf's speaking skills are sometime judged based on how good it is "for a deaf person", perhaps on a conscious or subconscious level.

For instance, there were times I sensed I received a "you speak very well" from someone simply based on that I "could talk". Or they may have had encounters with some of the deaf that supposedly don't use their voice as much or may even had this preconceived stereotype that all of the deaf couldn't talk.
 
AlleyCat said:
Yes. And I think there are those who do have hearing-like speech even without a CI. They're told this by various hearing people who don't have a clue that they are deaf because they don't sound like they are deaf. I would never be so presumptuous like another poster who stated that we just think we sound hearing.
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It's possible that some may just have a severe and not profound hearing loss. That can make a difference. That for as "deaf" some of those with a severe loss could appear to the hearing, you'd be surprised to the extent that those with a severe loss could hear more than those with a profound's.
 
posts from hell said:
Thanks for making one of my points - People are quick to judge others by voice. You don't speak well, you aren't educated - that's society's perspective.

How many deaf people are like that? I'd wager a lot more than these who are "hearing-like."
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You have a point. That even though I do have some speech skills, there were times I did feel it still does not quite match up to my intelligence nor education. However, that also does play a factor in my wanting to improve my skills. To each, his or her own.
 
posts from hell said:
Thanks for making one of my points - People are quick to judge others by voice. You don't speak well, you aren't educated - that's society's perspective.

How many deaf people are like that? I'd wager a lot more than these who are "hearing-like."
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Hearing people rely far too much on their hearing to work out if person is intelligence. If spain person moves to UK/US and is Doctor and got poor English skills cos he just learning, I bet those hearing people think his intelligence levels is low, they don't look person personality, they just judge on how you sound to them.

There are Deaf signers got more intelligence than oral only speaking deaf. That proves speech isn't based on intellgience.
 
Speedy Hawk said:
Hearing people rely far too much on their hearing to work out if person is intelligence. If spain person moves to UK/US and is Doctor and got poor English skills cos he just learning, I bet those hearing people think his intelligence levels is low, they don't look person personality, they just judge on how you sound to them.

There are Deaf signers got more intelligence than oral only speaking deaf. That proves speech isn't based on intellgience.
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A perfect example would be the movie "9 Months" where the doctor who delivered the baby at the end who didnt speak good English due to being from another country. He was portrayed as someone who was not intelligent.
 
Speedy Hawk said:
Hearing people rely far too much on their hearing to work out if person is intelligence. If spain person moves to UK/US and is Doctor and got poor English skills cos he just learning, I bet those hearing people think his intelligence levels is low, they don't look person personality, they just judge on how you sound to them.

There are Deaf signers got more intelligence than oral only speaking deaf. That proves speech isn't based on intellgience.
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The difference is that the UK will be more understanding of foreign language. The USA is hell bent on 1 language.
 
Hohtopics said:
I think sometime some of the deaf's speaking skills are sometime judged based on how good it is "for a deaf person", perhaps on a conscious or subconscious level.

For instance, there were times I sensed I received a "you speak very well" from someone simply based on that I "could talk". Or they may have had encounters with some of the deaf that supposedly don't use their voice as much or may even had this preconceived stereotype that all of the deaf couldn't talk.
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This happened to me in college once. I was called on to read from a book. After class the professor pulled me aside and said the same thing, "you speak very well". I looked at him and thought, what the hell are you talking about!?

I then thought what he meant to say was "you speak very well, for a deaf person", because i'm sure he doesn't pull aside random students after class just to tell them they speak well.

So then i punched him in his junk and broke his legs!! :) Well, at least that's what i wanted to do.
 
Danb said:
This happened to me in college once. I was called on to read from a book. After class the professor pulled me aside and said the same thing, "you speak very well". I looked at him and thought, what the hell are you talking about!?

I then thought what he meant to say was "you speak very well, for a deaf person", because i'm sure he doesn't pull aside random students after class just to tell them they speak well.

So then i punched him in his junk and broke his legs!! :) Well, at least that's what i wanted to do.
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This doesn't happen very often but when people say I have good speech in front of my dad, he'll go on and on and on about how my mother worked hard to make sure I could speak well. I usually say what about those mothers with deaf kids with poor speech skills? I'm sure they worked hard too but to no avail. He's like I should be grateful to my mother for her hard work on my speech at which point I feel like screaming at him "IS THAT ALL I AM, GOOD SPEECH?"
 
Hohtopics said:
I think sometime some of the deaf's speaking skills are sometime judged based on how good it is "for a deaf person", perhaps on a conscious or subconscious level.

For instance, there were times I sensed I received a "you speak very well" from someone simply based on that I "could talk". Or they may have had encounters with some of the deaf that supposedly don't use their voice as much or may even had this preconceived stereotype that all of the deaf couldn't talk.
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That's fine if people say that but if communication is definitely happening between the deaf person and hearing non-signer, why dwell on how good the deaf person's speech skills are? Is it really important?
 
deafskeptic said:
This doesn't happen very often but when people say I have good speech in front of my dad, he'll go on and on and on about how my mother worked hard to make sure I could speak well. I usually say what about those mothers with deaf kids with poor speech skills? I'm sure they worked hard too but to no avail. He's like I should be grateful to my mother for her hard work on my speech at which point I feel like screaming at him "IS THAT ALL I AM, GOOD SPEECH?"
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Hmmmm, maybe now is a good time to do so........?
 
My niece took a home movie of me talking with someone (years ago). I was shock to learn that I have deaf accent and talk quite funny almost like Donald Duck. I tried to tell the family members and other people who are not related to us that I have a funny voice and not perfect speech. They still think I speak very well (out of their kindness :dunno:). I am wondering is that the hearing people do not want to bother learning to use ASL and prefer having me talk. Or are they "deaf" not recognizing that I have deaf accent. Also what irk me is the hearing people want to say "You speak very well" gave the idea to the deaf people that they have normal speech and perfect speech and have no deaf accent. No wonder many other oral-only deaf people did not know what they are saying out of kindness but they still do have deaf accent no matter what, even if a hard of hearing can speak like a deaf person. :dizzy:
 
I went to Bridgewater State College. In order to graduate you must take a second language. I figured learning ASL there would fill that requirement. I was wrong. ASL was not considered a second language, it was put in the category of "Communication Disorder".

That pissed me off so much i went and spoke to the Dean. I gave him a hard time about it and he eventually said i could use the class as a second language.

I ended up withdrawing from the class anyways for different reasons, before i had my CI.

I still can't understand why they called it a "communication disorder". Rediculous! I should've sued their ass for lack of political correctness, if that's actually possible. :)

Anyways, straying off topic. Sorry.
 
Danb: Did it occur to you ASL is NOT spoken at all. How could it? Yeah it is translated into English which is a "foreign language to ASL". Correct?

According to my Intro to ASL: "visual gestural" which uses signs that differ from country to country-ASL is not the same BSL or NZSL., Ausl (?) whatever.
For most- speaking means using your vocal chords.
I have known that ASL is sign communication for a long time which is why "many" don't consider ASL a language in the first place. Yeah-supposedly "audist" tendency. I know a few people believe silence/non speaking is a "higher form of humanity". To each there own.

Is that to speak in political correct terms?

Implanted Advanced Binoics-Harmony activated Aug/07
 
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drphil said:
Danb: Did it occur to you ASL is NOT spoken at all. How could it? Yeah it is translated into English which is a "foreign language to ASL". Correct?

According to my Intro to ASL: "visual gestural"

Is that to speak in political correct terms?

Implanted Advanced Binoics-Harmony activated Aug/97
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:roll:
 
drphil said:
Danb: Did it occur to you ASL is NOT spoken at all. How could it? Yeah it is translated into English which is a "foreign language to ASL". Correct?

According to my Intro to ASL: "visual gestural"

Is that to speak in political correct terms?

Implanted Advanced Binoics-Harmony activated Aug/97
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Doh. :roll: I'm glad you figured out that ASL is not a spoken language. It is a signed language. BTW, when we say speak we don't always mean with our tongues.
 
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