Mom of a Teen who needs some answers...

I don't think it's fair to say that it will NOT last. You don't know the OP's son. Not saying it will be easy to utilize the CI to the best it can give him and go to speech therapy etc but Deaf people can achieve it. I have a friend who went through speech therapy and she is profoundly deaf and is fluent in ASL, and it's her primary language, but she can speak when she wants to and doesn't have a deaf "accent" either despite being profound/NR.
There are some people on this forum with very strong opinions about how they grew up because there parents didn't give them ASL as children and give them more options to break down communication barriers. Your son already knows ASL but he also wants to be more apart of the hearing world and, personally, I don't think there's anything wrong with that! Sure there will be some ignorant hearing people who won't accommodate or be nice about his deafness but as you know, because you're hearing yourself, not every hearing person is ignorant towards deaf people.

But this is about you helping your son with what HE wants. I think as long as you're supportive, which you seem to be, of what your son wants to accomplish than kudos to you for being an awesome parent :)
 
Amy- as a young person i believe your son is trying to establish who he is among his peers. His likes, desires, emotions, etc.... the only way he has to be himself freely is via sign language. But unfortunately for your son, he does NOT have the signing friends and community as his hearing peers has voices. It's like he is so lonely inside he is thinking the CI will connect him to his peers he sees everyday. But it will NOT last. It will take a lot of training for him to learn the hearing spoken language that he hasnt known and programming mappings on the processor. Thats my humble opinion. By time he masters enough and ready to roll in the hearing teen life he may be 20 years old. Gosh....AGAIN...IM JUST GUESSING HERE. Why not let him try deaf school for week and let him decide what he is comfortable with. He may like being with kids he can freely communicate with and not feel like he is a freak among them....oh i just saw now where he did go deaf school but not work out. Maybe move like deafdyke suggested and let him attend deaf camp.
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Exactly deafgam! It's very important for dhh teens to have a COMMUNITY and a great social experience in high school. That is dhh kids of all flavors (oral, Sign using, both) Unfortunatly in an inclusive setting that very rarely happens. I know many of our regulars know this, but I post for the lurkers. It's HARD being "the weird one" in high school. Inclusive social life isn't " Gosh a rootie, let's go get some milkshakes at Bill's after the Talk on Precious Moments at the Community Center." Sometimes we are popular, but very often we are the freaks...........and not in a good way..... and I mention this not in response to the OP, but just for any lurkers! THAT is why specialized Deaf ed (meaning res school, magnet school and regional dhh program) is so important....it provides a built in sense of community, and fitting in....which is AWESOME for self esteem etc!
 
lovezebras said:
I don't think it's fair to say that it will NOT last. You don't know the OP's son. Not saying it will be easy to utilize the CI to the best it can give him and go to speech therapy etc but Deaf people can achieve it. I have a friend who went through speech therapy and she is profoundly deaf and is fluent in ASL, and it's her primary language, but she can speak when she wants to and doesn't have a deaf "accent" either despite being profound/NR.
There are some people on this forum with very strong opinions about how they grew up because there parents didn't give them ASL as children and give them more options to break down communication barriers. Your son already knows ASL but he also wants to be more apart of the hearing world and, personally, I don't think there's anything wrong with that! Sure there will be some ignorant hearing people who won't accommodate or be nice about his deafness but as you know, because you're hearing yourself, not every hearing person is ignorant towards deaf people.

But this is about you helping your son with what HE wants. I think as long as you're supportive, which you seem to be, of what your son wants to accomplish than kudos to you for being an awesome parent :)
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Yes, but did she have speech therapy as a young kid or as a teen?
 
deafdyke said:
Exactly deafgam! It's very important for dhh teens to have a COMMUNITY and a great social experience in high school. That is dhh kids of all flavors (oral, Sign using, both) Unfortunatly in an inclusive setting that very rarely happens. I know many of our regulars know this, but I post for the lurkers. It's HARD being "the weird one" in high school. Inclusive social life isn't " Gosh a rootie, let's go get some milkshakes at Bill's after the Talk on Precious Moments at the Community Center." Sometimes we are popular, but very often we are the freaks...........and not in a good way..... and I mention this not in response to the OP, but just for any lurkers! THAT is why specialized Deaf ed (meaning res school, magnet school and regional dhh program) is so important....it provides a built in sense of community, and fitting in....which is AWESOME for self esteem etc!
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Deaf school here.

I'll be honest... we were pretty mean to the kids that had CIs back in the day. I'm sure things are different now but just saying how it was. He's got a struggle in front of him for sure. FYI, I'm PRO-Deaf school. Even for him. I would rather us all stick together and get that language fully developed.
 
NitroHonda said:
Deaf school here.

I'll be honest... we were pretty mean to the kids that had CIs back in the day. I'm sure things are different now but just saying how it was. He's got a struggle in front of him for sure. FYI, I'm PRO-Deaf school. Even for him. I would rather us all stick together and get that language fully developed.
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Things are definitely different. I have worked in different Deaf schools while training to become a teacher...I would say at least 50% of the student population have CIs. It is not a big deal like it was 15 years ago.
 
NitroHonda said:
Deaf school here.

I'll be honest... we were pretty mean to the kids that had CIs back in the day. I'm sure things are different now but just saying how it was. He's got a struggle in front of him for sure. FYI, I'm PRO-Deaf school. Even for him. I would rather us all stick together and get that language fully developed.
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On the other hand, it has been something like 20 years since CIs were introduced. A lot of Deaf Schools have become HOH friendly since then, especially with the fact that Clarke/CID and the other oral deaf/hoh schools are a shadow of their former selves.
And yes, I'm PRO-Deaf School/Deaf program, especially for audilogically or functionally HOH kids, (whether with CI or HA)
 
shel90 said:
Things are definitely different. I have worked in different Deaf schools while training to become a teacher...I would say at least 50% of the student population have CIs. It is not a big deal like it was 15 years ago.
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50%? Really? My son currently attends TSD and I'm just not seeing the same kind of numbers there. There's definitely more now but can't be 50% or can it?

FYI, I'm not saying you're wrong. I simply don't know. I haven't visited another school in a long time.
 
NitroHonda said:
50%? Really? My son currently attends TSD and I'm just not seeing the same kind of numbers there. There's definitely more now but can't be 50% or can it?

FYI, I'm not saying you're wrong. I simply don't know. I haven't visited another school in a long time.
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Practically about 70 to 80% of the young ones in the PreK classes nowadays have CIs. This is from the Deaf schools on the Eastern coast. I dont know about the western coast or the SW.
 
shel90 said:
Things are definitely different. I have worked in different Deaf schools while training to become a teacher...I would say at least 50% of the student population have CIs. It is not a big deal like it was 15 years ago.
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Yes, yes indeed. MANY Deaf Schools have kids with CIs, it's not rare or unusual any more .....Thing is 70 years ago when HAs were first introduced you saw the same thing......Deafies being against them...I remember I heard the mother of a deaf women my age, say that when she talked to older Deafies, they demonized hearing aids.....and now hearing aids are accepted as a part of Deaf culture. Soon CIs will pretty much be accepted.
 
deafdyke said:
Yes, yes indeed. MANY Deaf Schools have kids with CIs, it's not rare or unusual any more .....Thing is 70 years ago when HAs were first introduced you saw the same thing......Deafies being against them...I remember I heard the mother of a deaf women my age, say that when she talked to older Deafies, they demonized hearing aids.....and now hearing aids are accepted as a part of Deaf culture. Soon CIs will pretty much be accepted.
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and I am sure we will go through this again with stem cells. :roll:
 
NitroHonda said:
50%? Really? My son currently attends TSD and I'm just not seeing the same kind of numbers there. There's definitely more now but can't be 50% or can it?

FYI, I'm not saying you're wrong. I simply don't know. I haven't visited another school in a long time.
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Texas School? Tennesse School? I know Texas School is big but then again b/c Texas School is big, you get a lot of different types of dhh kids. I think someone said that there were even a lot of orally skiled kids at TSD.
 
deafdyke said:
Texas School? Tennesse School? I know Texas School is big but then again b/c Texas School is big, you get a lot of different types of dhh kids. I think someone said that there were even a lot of orally skiled kids at TSD.
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Yeah. I'm from Texas. I don't know what the orally skilled kids statement is supposed to mean but TSD is a signing school. Has been for decades. My son's 11 and in the 4th grade now. He first entered when he was in the PIP program back when he was 2.

Me and my wife also met there and have dated since freshman year. Over 20 years now.
 
shel90 said:
and I am sure we will go through this again with stem cells. :roll:
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Nope. Stem cells are still very much a question mark, especially for prelingal kids. There's no evidence that it will even WORK on hearing loss. The ONLY reason people got excited about it, is b/c someone who was getting stem cell treatment for MS. He had associated hearing loss (MS can cause hearing loss) and noticed that the stem cell treatment improved his hearing.
 
NitroHonda said:
Yeah. I'm from Texas. I don't know what the orally skilled kids statement is supposed to mean but TSD is a signing school. Has been for decades. My son's 11 and in the 4th grade now. He first entered when he was in the PIP program back when he was 2.
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Orally skilled means deaf children who have excellent speech skills and can carry on conversations ( more like on a one-on -one basis) without using ASL.

I am one of them.
 
NitroHonda said:
Yeah. I'm from Texas. I don't know what the orally skilled kids statement is supposed to mean but TSD is a signing school. Has been for decades. My son's 11 and in the 4th grade now. He first entered when he was in the PIP program back when he was 2.
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Yeah, I know. But my friend has told me that there's been some orally skilled (not oral only) kids at TSD....meaning they Sign and talk.
 
shel90 said:
Orally skilled means deaf children who have excellent speech skills and can carry on conversations ( more like on a one-on -one basis) without using ASL.

I am one of them.
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Then I am also one of them but I wouldn't say that's TSD's culture which is the sense that I got from deafdyke's post.
 
And the thing is.........now that the private oral schools are no longer residential, orally skilled kids are being sent to the State Deaf Schools when they start struggling. They then get to learn ASL............
 
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