The most important fact here is that many of us in the deaf community either have children with cochlear implants and/or have cochlear implants ourselves. We have many friends within the community who are supportive of our decision, and this number is increasing rapidly. The other side knows it too, and it is hard for them to see past the history of oppression within the community to the facts of the present. With time, hopefully soon, the community will finally come together and embrace everyone for who they are, regardless of their choices.
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36 comments:
Jeffrey W. Lewis of Dept of Counseling at Gallaudet University supports iliveisign.com. His daughter, Tessa, plays one of the roles.
The truth is revealing the hidden past and its sins... more people are realizing that we have been tricked.
Cochlear Implanting is a false facade as well as oralism.
The truth is that we can get along without cochlear implanting or any lies perpetuated by audists.
I suppose if you think that a parent's motivation is to make the child in his or her image, the video might be an apt twist in perspective ('I'm deaf, so my hearing child must be made to be deaf' to 'I'm hearing, so my deaf child must be made to be hearing').
I can only speak for myself, but I suspect this applies to most, if not all parents who decide that their children will use an implant or two: I simply want to make all possible communication options available to my child. In the process of adding access to sound, and the ability to speak, sing, and hear, we haven't sacrificed or compromised anything.
It's too bad so much talent and energy is being diverted to this bitter and futile attack on hearing technology instead of on building access to ASL.
To 1st Anonymous, many of the child actors in the movie are children of prominent deaf leaders in the community. Many of the scenes were filmed at the Maryland School for the Deaf in Frederick. Aidan Mack is a well known anti-CI filmmaker, and I'm not sure if these parents and the school were fully aware of the content and aim of the movie. It would be good to have them come out against the movie so to clarify their positions regarding cochlear implants.
A.L,
I know that you are a hearing parent who has employed many options, not just one, with your CI child.
The funny thing is, your child is still deaf after the CI processor comes off at night. Like Abbie once said, "We all sleep in silence".
Your child has the benefits of both silence and sound.
A plus + plus.
Aidan Mack failed to see that equation.
Ann_C
The speech therapist in the iliveisign film has a bilateral CI child in real life. I don't understand how she can support the film that CI is dangerous! Is she aware of this film or has she changed her mind about CI?
Never heard that CI would cause a brain tumor. Where is that info. in research? CI wouldn't be approved by FDA if that is true. The film is fictional.
It is the hearing people practicing pathologically! Don't you get it?
Isn't this the one Aidan Mack submitted to the Sundance Festival?
You are right that the speech therapist in the film does have two daughters who have CIs. They hate CIs and no longer use them. You can ask them! One of the daughters is in the film. All the parents who let children in the film do know about the politics of CI. They support the film. It is important to present different perspectives.
Where in the film did it say CI CAUSED brain tumor? The child happened to have a brain tumor whether or not it is related to CI. Different interpretations can be made.
1) MRI not allowed because of CI
2) No ASL allowed therefore no communication between mother and daughter about pain in the head
3) CI caused brain tumor
4) Your interpretation
It is just a film, but a powerful one.
The therapist in the film has a bilateral CI child who is doing very well in spoken language. Don't understand why she is in the film.
CI users can receive MRI with low strength or by removing the magnet temporarily. It s sad that there are a lot of misconceptions about CI in the Deaf community.
The film makes CI look bad! It should focus on positive benefits of ASL for all deaf children whether they use hearing aids or CI.
Ann_C, I'm a culturally Deaf parent of a Deaf child with a CI. Perhaps you were thinking of K.L. There are several authors for this blogsite, representing a whole range of people in the ASLCI community, including deaf adults with CIs, hearing parents of deaf children with CIs, and deaf parents of deaf children with CIs. Some of us post more often than others, and we write what is relevant to us and the ASLCI community.
The movie, isignilive, made a huge impact on me because it was filmed at a school for the deaf and with child actors of deaf parents like previous commenters have mentioned. We have a long way to go before the division cochlear implants have made to the deaf community can be eradicated, and this blogsite is just one step toward that goal.
AL
Why can't you accept that many prominent Deaf leaders are not interested in CI? Children at MSD Frederick are very brilliant and they do not have CIs.
That says a lot!
Why can't the Deaf leaders accept our decision of giving a CI to our deaf children? Their attitude towards CI is still negative as shown in the film. I don't care if they aren't interested in CI but the point is that they should respect our choices for our own children!
Do they have a problem with deaf children using hearing aids, too?
CI has nothing to do with children's intelligence but it is a tool to help them hear like a hearing aid. Deaf children can be brilliant with or without CIs or hearing aids.
Why do speech therapists and audiologists participate in all the deaf schools? They should not be there in first place if deaf schools don't believe in speech and hearing. Are the Deaf leaders protesting them, too?
Duh! I will answer your questions.
Why can't the Deaf leaders accept our decision of giving a CI to our deaf children?
--Why should they respect audism? If we see racism, we will go against it. If we see sexism, we will protest. It is the same thing with CI.
Do they have a problem with deaf children using hearing aids, too?
--Hearing aids are not necessary. We should embrace our being Deaf. It is a gift.
CI has nothing to do with children's intelligence but it is a tool to help them hear like a hearing aid. Deaf children can be brilliant with or without CIs or hearing aids.
--Who says CI has to do with children's intelligence? You are right it has nothing to do with children's intelligence. They are just fine without CI.
Why do speech therapists and audiologists participate in all the deaf schools? They should not be there in first place if deaf schools don't believe in speech and hearing. Are the Deaf leaders protesting them, too?
--Deaf schools know that we need speech therapists and audiologists to get kids that would probably end up in mainstreaming schools if Deaf schools can't offer services. I know MSD did not want CI services and accept more CI children, but agreed to accept them in hope they will be influenced by ASL kids. Children without CI have told me that children with CI complained to them that their parents FORCE them to wear CIs. It is very sad, but it makes children without CIs feel very grateful.
So what if a Deaf ASL user like myself chose to obtain a CI? Does that mean I've committed Audism on myself? Of course not. That is a weak argument, esp. with comparing to race, and still comes down to what adults feel is best for themselves and/or for their children, regardless of what other people think.
If you as an ASL user chose to have an CI, I have no problem with that. It is your personal choice. I have more problem when parents CHOOSE and FORCE their children to have CIs. I have seen too many children with CIs complaining they do not want to wear their CIs. I am a teacher and I have to explain why they must wear CIs while their peers do not.
For those Deaf adults who chose to have CIs, dysconscious audism has obviously impacted on their self-esteem that they feel they have to be like hearing or function in the hearing world though auditory. We Deaf people without CIs have been functioning in the hearing world beautifully through reading and writing.
As the parent of a native ASL using Deaf child WITH a CI, I think that Deaf adults should respect parents. If I respect the Deaf community enough to invite thm into my family's life, they should respect my decisions for my child.
I have taken NOTHING away from my child, I have given her ALL the options. That includes the option to listen and speak AND the option to remove her CI and become ASL only. If I had not given her a CI, she would never have the first option, and a door would be closed to her. That is unacceptable to me.
CI does make it a lot easier for a lot of young profoundly deaf children to develop spoken language more quickly with proper training unlike the old times with hearing aids that wouldn't benefit them enough.
Why would you deprive deaf children of this opportunity? Why do you limit them to ASL only? Aren't you open to the new trend of technology or are you still old fashioned? HOWEVER, I respect every parent's choice as long as they know what works best for their own children.
Do you consider hearing aids audism, too? The majority of deaf population use the aids. Would you do everything to make sure deaf children don't get an opportunity to hear any sounds including music? That would sound like an extremist. However, I agree that they should accept themselves as Deaf and be proud of their identity. Deaf culture and ASL are beautiful but in reality, the Deaf community is probably 1% of the population in this country and we need to find ways to relate better to the hearing world. That is my viewpoint and you don't have to agree with me.
Deaf children can learn spoken language with a CI in addition to ASL and that would help them interact with the hearing community more independently without relying on interpreters.
Those kids who complained about CI at MSD may not be accepted or respected as CI users since most students don't use CI there. I don't force my child to use CI as he keeps asking for it all the time and he is doing very well with it. You probably have not seen a lot of successful CI users outside MSD as they are mainstreamed at regular schools.
Don't forget that over 90% of deaf children are born to hearing parents and CI does help them communicate a lot easier with their parents who aren't native ASL users. A lot of them had no or limited communication with their parents in the old times without CI. You can't ignore those children.
Deaf children with Deaf parents may do just fine with ASL only but it s sad that most of those Deaf parents are still ignorant about CI. CI would give them an opportunity to develop spoken language in addition to ASL and may help them relate better with the hearing world, too.
I need to point out, that it is attitudes like the anon against implants that really turns hearing parents against the Deaf Community, before they really get a good idea of what the benefits are.
I am a hearing mother with two deaf children. I realized I made a mistake implanting them. One of them have a lot of emotional issues that require him to be hospitalized. A psychiatrist said the issues are related to having CIs. I keep on beating myself for wanting my children to have access to the hearing world. Now it is not the most important thing. I am willing to pay a lot of money just to remove their implants. I want my children to be happy. They are happy being deaf.
Jennifer
Jennifer, I'm sorry about your children's problems. However, it would be helpful if you could contact ASLCI via email to verify the information that you provided in your comment. If this is true, it would be important to document this case and to share with others so that we all can become more aware of the risks associated with cochlear implants. As far as I know, there is no documented case of CIs causing psychiatric issues that require hospitalization.
This is what I sent to ASLCI.
What kind of information do you need to verify? My son is currently in the psychiatric hospital. He is diagnosed with depression. He kept saying it is all my fault. It broke my heart. He does not wish to wear his CIs anymore. I have promised him that I will not make him wear them after he is discharged. I told my other son the same thing. I felt stupid for wanting them to be like me having access to the bigger world. After many sessions with the psychiatrist and a counselor, I realized I imposed my values on my sons.
I was not aware that there are deaf people who are miserable with their CIs until my son got in the hospital. I started doing my research and found a lot of information from other deaf people who were unhappy. I realize that there are some deaf people who are satisfied with their CIs, but I am upset with the fact that my doctors did not bother to tell me that there are many deaf people who hate them, too. Thanks for hearing me out and please do document stories like this.
Jennifer
Jennifer, I am sorry to hear your case. How old are your children? When did they receive CIs? Can you post your research about those who were unhappy with CIs?
While toddlers seem to take to the implant very easily, older kids and teens tend to do worse, and don't like the implant nearly as much.
I met a grandmother the other day who was insistent against all reason that her adult son, his wife and their 18 mo old get implants. I explained to her that while the baby would probably do very well, the adults would have a much more difficult time with it. I tried to discourage it, because I really think they won't get much out of the implant. The are happily married, and communicate well with sign language. Grandma was unwilling to hear any of that. My guess is that in the end, the adults will do it to please her (wrong reason), and will end up not using their implants at all.
I am also sorry to learn of your experience and thank you for bringing it to our attention. We need to be aware of all issues involved. I did wonder if your son was ever introduced to sign language though? Before the implant, during and after? I think that is very important, that the child still has a means to communicate, whether or not they are using the CI.
I am Deaf with a CI and so is my daughter, who has had an implant since age 2. She however was already fluent in ASL before the implant and still is with the CI. ASL is the mode in our household. That's why I always tell hearing parents that there will always be an added benefit with ASL and other modes of communication, to not just expect the CI to do it all.
I do hope your child gets better.
My sons are 13 and 15 now. They got implants when they were babies. They started to learn ASL when they were about 3/5 years old.
They did get implants when they were very young, but they have always hated them! The arguement about implanting at an early age does not seem to be true because our sons did have the implants early.
My research comes from mostly from talking to other deaf people or parents. I suspect that they do not publish research with negative results.
I did email ASLCI and never got a response.
Jennifer
What does "as babies" mean? 12 months? Younger?
Where did you get the CI done? How about MAPing follow ups?
What kind of school enviroment are they in? Have you let your children be a part of the Deaf community?
Just because they choose not to wear their CI's, doesn't mean it was a mistake to give them the opportunity to have them. That is their choice, and that is fine. You simply opened a door for them, which them, which they can choose not to use.
Did they get a full complete insertion of the electrode array? Can you tell us who the doctor was?
know what? i dont care anymore..
when the deaf child reaches age 18 or 21 and decided to rebel, and decided to remove the implant, and decided to throw momma from the train, i will still be here asking , does anybody listen?
Do you actually believe that every child with an implant will have them removed?
We are providing our children with the best of both worlds.
http://krystakree.blogspot.com/2009/12/depression-and-surgery.html
Here is another case about depression and cochlear implants...Jennifer and others may want to see this.
Susan
Thanks for bringing up this blog about relation of depression to CI surgery. It s interesting as I ve never heard of it.
My child who has a CI has been very happy for the last few years since his surgery and there were no health or emotional issues so far. Could it be because he uses ASL for full access as his first language although he speaks and hears well?
See this sad story...
http://misskatsmom.blogspot.com/2009/12/she-doesnt-like-school.html
Many schools are not respectful of Deaf people's natural language.
People who are strong advocates of cochlear implants often put pressure on children not to sign.
My son was also in the movie and he has a CI. The movie was a wonderful experience for him, but I have not yet let him see it entirely, becaue it is so one sided and inaccurate in many details. A CI is no different that having a hearing aid. A hearing aid would not work for him. Now he has a choice. He embraces his ASL and also enjoys things like hearing his dog bark, ice crackling in the trees, rain on the roof, etc. Is it necessary for him to succeed? I think not. Does it enhance his live, environmental awarness and ability to learn another language (English)? Yes. This movie was good for many Deaf awareness issues, but the information on CIs was so dated and inaccurate. A CI would never block the awareness of a tumor. Most Deaf use hearing aids, can hear something and many even enjoy music. My son would not have these same options without the CI.
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