Implants for deaf people are miraculous

Smithtr

Smithtr

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Deaf caseworkers bring vital skills to their job" was an interesting article by Cynthia Billhartz Gregorian to say the least.

We have a 10-year-old grandson that was diagnosed as severe to profoundly deaf shortly after birth. He began speech therapy at a few months old, attended St. Joseph Institute for the Deaf as a preschooler and received a cochlear implant as a first grader. He has been mainstreamed in a parochial school since then, is a straight "A" student and, most importunately, speaks and hears as well as any of us.

The point is, don't ignore the possibility of an implant; it is a miraculous solution. If you were to talk to Benjamin today and didn't see the implant, you would never know he has a hearing loss.
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Implants for deaf people are miraculous : Stltoday
 
Cochlear Implants are NOT miraculous -just an electronic device that does "assist" in "hearing" assuming one fits the criteria.
 
I still hope he will learn some sign language, in case he is ever stuck in a power out for more than the battery life of his aids.

Her usage of he word "miracle" kind of irks me but I don't think it was her intention.
 
Whether one should learn ASL et al to compensate for a potential "power outage" thus renders their batteries-"charged out". Of course does lead to "who do they interact with-knows ASL et al"? An alternate consideration-short term solution-write on a notepad-assuming the outage doesn't last for months.
 
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Well, DrPhil, if more people would learn ASL, there would be more people to interact with, right?

Hopefully more and more high schools will start offering ASL as an option for their "foreign" language requirements. Our school system now allows it, but, unfortunately, we need the colleges/universities to accept it for their entrance requirements. Otherwise, kids who are college bound won't take ASL.
 
shimo said:
I still hope he will learn some sign language, in case he is ever stuck in a power out for more than the battery life of his aids.

Her usage of he word "miracle" kind of irks me but I don't think it was her intention.
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Yes, but have you ever interacted with parents of oral only kids? They just GUSH about the fact that their kid can OMG TALK!!!!!!!!!!!
I hope he learns ASL too.....back in the day when St. Joseph's, and CID were res schools, it was fairly common for grads to learn ASL as a second language, after they graduated. There are some kids who attend oral schools/programs to improve their speech...
 
The reason why the ASL using population is small is b/c the pediatric dhh population is small overall. Most people with hearing loss aquirred it later in life or aquirred it as a result of aging.
 
AND, 25 years ago you most likely would have seen simlair articles about CID, St. Joe's but the miracle was that "OMG hearing aids allow complete and total access to the hearing world....and look at these amazing schools!"
 
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