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What are your thoughts and experiences about CI's? Different for children and adults? How?
Is deafness something to be fixed? Is it a handicap or more like an 'accent' or foreign language?
Is the surgical risk always worth it? Does CI therapy impede more natural learning?
Does the child still learn ASL? Will/should the parents learn ASL?
Will the child identify with both the Deaf culture and the Hearing culture? Neither?
It depends. Will the parents put in the work that is necessary to help their child develop language skills (whether it is through sign language, spoken language, or both) and to effectively utilize their CIs?
ReplyDeleteBased on the students I have worked with, adults with CIs I have met, it is worth the risk. Most of the students with CIs I worked with were/are very successful and happy (some sign and some don't). The few whose CIs did not work for them came from difficult situations while receiving very little to no support from their families.
It depends.
Thank you for your comment. I agree it probably depends on lots of factors; not the least of which is the attitude of the parents regarding questions you didn't touch on such as whether or not the parents think their child needs to be "fixed", how learning occurs (or doesn't) and the issue of Deaf Culture identity. Particularly, I read that most CI's users do not truly identify with either culture; and if that is true for the majority, is this a concern to anyone? Should it be?
ReplyDeleteJust some more thoughts on this controversial subject...