Why is Red County blogger Allen Wilson against choice for parents of deaf children?
UPDATE: Click here to see the latests news on AB 2072 (June 12, 2010)
Remember when bilingual education activists went nuts and fought tooth and nail to keep children who were not fluent in English from being taught in English? The Unz initiative put an end to that nonsense, despite heavy pressure from educators who were making money off these programs.
Well, here we go again. This time the folks who teach sign language are trying to stop Assembly Bill 2072, a new bill that will give parents who discover that their newborn infants are deaf a chance to do something about it. This bill is written by Assemblyman Tony Mendoza, from the 56th Assembly district, which includes Buena Park and Whittier.
Currently the state mandates that the hospital tell the parents about their “options.” However, thanks to the sign language lobby, the options are limited to teaching the deaf kids sign language – a language hardly anyone knows.
The new law will instead mandate that the parents be informed about all their choices, which inlcude surgical ear implants, reading lips, etc.
Here is what the proposed bill actually states:
Existing law, the California Early Start Intervention Services Act, commonly known as the Early Start program, provides various early intervention services for infants and toddlers who have disabilities to enhance their development and to minimize the potential for developmental delays.
This bill would also require that the parents of a newborn or infant diagnosed with a hearing loss receive written information on all communication options for children with hearing loss by an audiologist or other related professional at a followup appointment after diagnosis with a hearing loss, and by the Early Start Program when a child enters the program and when a child is referred to the program by a state agency.
It would also specify that the state shall not incur the cost of or implement this bill.
You can read the rest of the bill at this link.
Why would anyone oppose this bill? Simple. The sign language lobby is insane. They don’t want deaf children to learn how to speak. They want to keep them in the sign language ghetto. It is ridiculous.
Barry Sewell, a deaf blogger, supports AB 2072
Are they options to sign language? You bet! Surgery is one option, another is special schools that immerse children in language. For example, the Oralingua School in Whittier. Their mission is to “To immerse children who are deaf or hard of hearing in a language-rich environment that promotes listening skills, spoken language, problem solving and social interaction that will enable them to function effectively in society while supporting their families who share those goals.”
Parents of children at Oralingua swear by the curriculum. And almost all of them will tell you that their children were negatively affected by the current dogma at the California Department of Education, which refuses to tell parents that they have options besides sign language.
So what’s next? Proponents and opponents of AB 2072 spent the day in Sacramento today, contacting the members of the Assembly Health Committee, which will be voting on AB 2072. Click here to see a list of the members and their email addresses.
I spoke today with Elisa Roche, a parent of a profoundly deaf child who is doing great at Oralingua. Roche is also the Executive Director at Oralingua. She was in Sacramento all day and met with most of the Health Committee members.
She also told me that Red County blogger Allen Wilson was up there this week as well. And he was using the sign language lobby’s talking points!
According to Wilson’s Red County bio, he “is a hearing-impaired GOP activist.” But he can speak. And he uses hearing aids so that he can hear who he is talking to. The irony is that the sign language lobby would prefer that he not speak at all. And yet he is lobbying for them.
I wonder if Wilson is getting paid to shill, like Red County editor Matt Cunningham and Red County publisher Chip Hanlon do?
Remember that kids brought up in the sign language arena cost the state hundreds of thousands of dollars. It actually costs a lot less to teach kids via alternative means. And the results speak for themselves. Yet the supposedly conservative Wilson is able to lobby the legislators against AB 2072 only because he can speak. If he could only speak via sign language he would be of no use to the sign language lobby, as a lobbyist. Oh the irony…
Isn’t it time to give parents of deaf children a full complement of choices? Please contact your state legislator and ask him or her to support AB 2072.
UPDATE: Allen Wilson admits to having met with several legislators, in opposition to AB 2720, but he says he was not doing so for money. My sources tell me that his message to the legislators was right out of the sign language movement’s talking points. He appears to be against options for parents of deaf kids. Almost every other state in the nation offeres choice to parents. Not so California. Millions of dollars of federal education money is stuck in the sign language camp, at the discretion of the State Department of Education. You can read Wilson’s take on this at this link.
Rachel, I feel sorry for you. Your mom did a number on you. You aren’t giving yourself enough credit. All these activities which you feel made possible by the cochlear implants, you could have done them anyway due to your strong personality, ambition, and determination.
Rachel, know something? Get over yourself. You are not so special as you think you are. Many Deaf people have done them, too. In fact, there is a profoundly Deaf and legally blind young woman traveling all over the world alone. There are Deaf pilots, Deaf globetrotters, Deaf doctors, Deaf accountants, Deaf dentists, Deaf inventors, Deaf psychologists, Deaf professors, Deaf Biologists, Deaf mountain climbers, Deaf business owners and so forth. As an independent woman, I traveled all over the world, did scuba diving, bungee jumping, cliff climbing and rappelling, cave spelunking, piloting a plane, hiked through states, camped solo for several weeks few times, chaired a hearing committee several times, won awards in hearing schoos and universities, including a foreign language, swam marathons, and worked with hearing kids. I also can speak four languages. I don’t have a cochlear implant. Am I dependent on someone else to be successful? No. Do I go around bragging about myself and my ‘exceptional’ skills? Nope. I am not alone. Many other Deaf people are very successful. If you stop sticking your nose up in the air and take the time to get to know other Deaf people instead of putting them down, you’ll know that. Give yourself, not your cochlear implants, the credit and don’t be so narcissistic.
Geez, to the supporters of the bill, what is with the lot of you?? The bill is not about YOU that we, opposers are AGAINST. We very much empathize with parents who get overwhelmed when they first learn about their baby having a “hearing loss.” As you know before discharging from the hospital, babies are required to go thru an ABR test (auditory brainstem response) testing responses to sounds. As quoted, if “healthy” response is recorded, then the infant has “passed” the hearing screen. If not, parents get a report worded as…I am sorry. Your infant has FAILED the test (the very note we got, let alone us deaf parents. Of course, we were offended by “I am sorry…”). We need to think of those parents who are overwhelmed when they receive information from doctors, audiologists, from ENTs with CI info, and other sources they visit. From this, many probably do not even READ detailed information as they grieve or deny. The drawback is WHAT information is given. HOW it is given. WHEN it is given to parents as not every baby are identified “deaf” at the hospital. Many are not referred to Early Start programs in time because they do not have a hearing loss until much later. Being naive and uneducated about their child being deaf has caused TOO many problems. Parents have come forward as they share how they were steered to the option favored by the very creators of this bill. As parents, they NEED to have all unbiased information. All we ask is to make time to WORK TOGETHER through legislation as this bill was rushed by “special interest groups” that harbor its own specific biases and agenda, developed without Deaf ASL/English stakeholder input, and does not go far enough to give parents and deaf babies the information they deserve. This bill is about parents’ right to get information that does NOT steer them into one communication “option” over another. We need to do this right!
p.s. Art Pedroza, you had better correct yourself with the Health Committee as you misled them about the purpose of our opposition to the bill. An apology is due from you to us opposers of this bill.
I’ll chime in…
I’m from Greece , and I’m bilingual.I was raised speaking Greek , and I learned English from 2nd grade and I can communicate in my local dialect too if I so desire.No GSL or ASL though.And I wasn’t in the top students , but I have a passion for language and I read a LOT.My favorite thing to do is to look in origin of any word.How’s that for language acquisition?I can read in Ancient Greek and Formal ( 1930 era ) Greek , English , and I know some primitive Russian and Turkish words.And I enjoy learning from anyone.Everyone can offer you something to you that you can learn,every day.
My parents chose the oral route for me , and it was beneficial for me,but it made them struggle in the early years.
If I had learned GSL ( Greek Sign Language ) I would have been mandated to go to a GSL boarding school and see my family in the summer and official holidays only.I wouldn’t have known my extended family as well as I do now, and I wouldn’t have this strong bond with my parents and brother.I wouldn’t been able to speak with my nieces and cousins.I wouldn’t be able to enjoy my cousin’s pregnancy if we didn’t have this strong bond and had not grown up together.I have some signing friends that cant communicate with their family fluently, and feel alone as a result.I might not have as much international friends as I have now and with each other we share a passion or have walked similar walks.Or share a new passion with them and be enlighted.
Also I wouldn’t have even been able to move away from my family as in Greece , having interps in hospital, and other work related things is a HUGE JOKE.No offence , but we aren’t the most organized country.I currently study in a college , where they fired the interp for budget reasons , as we’re under austerity measures.Plus , assistive measures for deaf people ( aside from the interp , are non existential. ) I would still rely to my parents – which I don’t.I rely on them only for my monthly money for expenses as I’m a college student , but I also made them proud, and they feel happy I can continue to be on my own if anything would happen to them.
As me and my brother learned English from a young age ( my brother is hearing ) I was able to bond and communicate with friends all over the globe , and host some people over the years.I just reconnected with a childhood penpal.*smile* and my life is enriched because I can talk with just ANYONE.Be it the neighbour that helps me with any fix-it solution for my home , or with my godfather who cares for me very much and have a strong bond , or with the shopkeeper when I ask their opinion for what I’m getting from their shop, or with my international friends that we share our views and customs.Our similarities and differences.Even a simple conversation about a TV show makes me learn.
Plus , it was my active CHOICE to get CI, as it was my parents CHOICE to raise me oral.They wanted me with them , and to have a strong bond with their siblings and my brother.They succeeded.Also – I sometimes think its the easy way out with GSL since my parents did struggle at their journey to make me oral.Ask ANY parent that is raising oral deaf children.it IS a struggle.But they care enough to put their relationships in test.
Yes they could have learned GSL and sent me away.But..ok , my family would have to learn to communicate , but it wouldn’t be easy for them.and what about their families ? What about trying to bond.It just is so EASY for me and mum to bond over getting flowers to plant in my porch now , just with talking and smelling flowers.Or having a simple cup of coffee and cake and chat.Or me and my cousins.Or with just anyone.
I can talk, I can call them.They still had to make some concessions – they learned to log in the internet so we can talk freely for important things since I live away.They learned to keep their faces turned always to my way.My brother learned when he’s to visit me , he is carefully trimming his facial hair so I can lipread him if I can’t understand him.
So why the fuss with the bill ? As I see it this bill was a good thing even for YOU! And don’t forget most deaf children have hearing parents who want to know what their choices are.Plus , it is THEIR right to be informed about any choice and choose what they want.That is all about freedom – and US is stating it is the country of freedom, right?
To ‘rolling my eyes at rachel’- why don’t you roll your eyes to yourself? I don’t think you know Rachel very well like I do. She’s one of the most successful deaf people I’ve seen, and it’s because of her CI. In the future she will be even more successful than y’all. Just wait and watch.
From a kid.
Rolling my eyes at Rachel…
I don’t see myself special or a star at all. I’m not an exception. As you can see here, Mira, Katie, Caitlin, sidhanthmelvani, and Iaonna are all doing very well with their CIs like me. I did not state that I would not be as successful as I am today and not be able to travel the world without CIs. I’m just sharing my story so that parents of deaf children know that deaf people who learned the language by speaking and hearing via cochlear implants can lead a successful life too. My goal is to debunk the myths that DBC and AFA claim, which they state that deaf children who do not learn ASL, but learn the English language utilizing the auditory-verbal approach or the auditory-oral approach and use CIs cannot be successful.
Learning ASL is not the solution. Like Auditory-Verbal therapy and Auditory/Oral therapy, parents who choose to use sign language have to be committed and work hard in order for their children to be successful. Learning ASL is like learning a whole new foreign language, according to many people who learned it. Parents have to attend courses and immerse themselves in a community where sign language is used in order to be able to learn the language. In addition, we would have to ask the entire extended family to learn the language so that deaf children can communicate with the whole family. Like Auditory-Verbal therapy and Auditory/Oral therapy, ASL will not magically cure the problems. Strong parental involvement is the solution.
I’m just creating awareness that deaf children can learn the language utilizing the auditory-verbal approach or the auditory/oral approach and be successful without the use of sign language.
to “rolling my eyes at Rachel”:
Funny, every time I encounter a Deaf person, I ALMOST walk away thinking “Wow, he/she was quite immature for his/her age”, as it seems the general case with Deaf people. Congrats, you also accomplished doing the same thing for me. “Your mom did a number on you”? You don’t even know her mom, who’s probably one of the most dedicated, hard-working parents I know. We may not agree on everything, but I sure as hell do respect her. You should be ashamed of yourself.
And Rachel wasn’t bragging about herself. People giving out false accusations about the affects of the cochlear implants, so what do you expect Rachel to do? Say “Yeah, they’re right. I’m not successful at all”? Funny thing is that I hear more about people who have accomplished things in life that people in the past weren’t able to do due to lack of technology or knowledge. Deaf people have done GREAT accomplishments, so don’t get me wrong, but that’s in the past. We’re in the 21st century, where advanced technology has allowed us to accomplish “science miracles”, and I only hear about people with CI’s accomplishing great feats, but nothing of Deaf people. Deaf people have already done their “one small step for man, a giant leap for mankind” part, and now it’s the CI’s turn. Who knows, maybe one day they’ll have some sort of pill that deaf children can take that will allow them to regain hearing? If that happens in my lifetime, I will make sure that I won’t be like “hearingmom” and try to bash it.
We ARE aware that you can still accomplish great things while being Deaf and only communicating via ASL, but you are still LIMITED, whether you like it or not. It baffles me why people would want to hinder us from accomplishing great things in today’s world that people like Einstein could have never imagined.
Grow up.
I have been silent on this issue until today. I operate a small center for the hearing impaired in Orange County.
As society advances, all members under the societal umbrella must advance with it. Failure to advance with them makes a group, a class, feel like cannon balls chained to ankles. Cannon balls like these become costly drags on society in terms of costs, and lifetime support. Cannon balls like these drain public resources.
The deaf community, specifically the dependency caste, have been highly resistant to the societal advancements. That’s why there have to be new laws made to make sure deaf children get on the advanced platform to optimize their potential for success without relying on dependency services.
The cost to society is much less in terms of language acquisition, personal productivity, self reliance. Did you know it costs over $800,000 to teach a deaf child sign language? And that’s not all. There’s dependency costs like interpreters, relay service taxes, and much more not excluding litigation costs. A $40,000 cochlear implant serves society better than sign language in terms of cost.
Of course, there’d be resistance and the resistance have been very prolific in the past week with their opposition to AB 2072. With Marcella Meyer and Dr. Larry Fleischer being gone, the resistance is visibly a lot weaker than the first 2 times these ideas have been brought to the state legislature.
It is sad the resistance are believers of dependent lifestyles. And laws like AB 2072 are required to give the new deaf generations the maximum options and opportunity to independence.
The best solution for our society is a new deaf generation that is independent with optimum chance to be contributors.
I as a person can both sign and recently can speak now. Thanks to training from a Pasadena audiologist who has been a family friend. I still sound funny when I talk. I cant hear what I say so I cant change my tones to make it right. Therefore I speak with a deaf or hard of hearing accent.
People would rather hear a deaf accent than have to hire and pay expensive interpreters in order to communicate with them. They are very accommodating when I ask them to write what they’re saying it on paper.
Being able to speak on my own actually frees me to say what I want. Interpreters on the other hand don’t say exactly what I signed to them. Polarity remains in the interpreting industry. I still am dependent on them because I’m not fully trained to read lips yet. But I am getting there.
If I had gotten all this training when I was a baby, I would be completely independent today. But then the technology and the training was not available when I was a baby. Now it is.
That’s what AB 2072 is all about. Giving future deaf babies the blessed gift of being able to hear and speak.
The dependency caste, as I call them, in the deaf community have been extremely cruel toward me in my efforts to help deaf and hard of hearing people get the same opportunities to safe, healthy, and productive living as everyone else. They did that through many ways and I can go to explicit details.
The upshot is we have a bill in the assembly that is the yellow brick road toward independence for babies with hearing disabilities. I support the bill and encourage the California assembly to support it as well.
Deaf children who can speak, enjoy it and dont suffer because they cant sign. Believe me I’ve TALKED with children with cochlear implants in our deaf center’s ice cream socials last year. They are leading very happy lives.
You need to ignore the pleas by the sign language lobby that deaf children are suffering for which they are not. The sign language lobby comprise of people who believe in depending on others for many aspects of their lives. Yes many from interpreting to social life. They live in a closed society. I used to be part of them, but I escaped and they punished me severely for it and still are doing it as of today.
I don’t want my life journey to be repeated with future deaf children and AB 2072 will set the platform for a healthier raising of deaf children than it has been.
Pardon me? You don’t know who we are, what we know and what we don’t know. Many readers are very familiar with Rachel and her mom due to Rachel’s blogging in deaf aggregators for some time. Consistently she and her mom show condescending attitudes toward Deaf people not raised in the AVT/CI system. After reading her ceaseless bragging and put downs again in this blog, I feel sickened to my stomach. Don’t you all know it’s not polite to brag and also to state that the culturally Deaf people aren’t doing so well? Her insistence about Deaf people being jealous due to her listening and speaking abilities is a big turn off. Are you aware that’s a grave insult to that group? With that statement, she is showing incredible ignorance and insensitivity toward a proud and bilingual minority. So do you, too *Gasp* Some of the culturally Deaf people can even hear and speak. After all, the majority of them have oral upbringings. Should some be ridiculed because the oral education system have failed them miserably?`
What you don’t understand that some Deaf people, content with ASL and English, have NO desire to fix themselves. Is it wrong for Deaf people to accept themselves as they are and not fix themselves? Isn’t that indicative of an eugenic thinking? Rachel’s mom even stated one time in Rachel’s blog that she thinks all deaf children should get C.I.s Now that’s a scary thought. While we are at it, let’s fix the gay people, people of color, gifted people with Asperger’s Syndrome, etc. Some of the short people and high functioning autistic people are satisfied with themselves. The public appears to have no beef with that philosophy with these two groups. Why cannot you accept the Deaf people without putting them down? Is it ok for a person with a limp to look down on a wheelchair user? No? Then tell me why you are doing this to the culturally Deaf people? Perhaps they do have different experiences than yours and that their histories shouldn’t be discarded or suppressed? That they and their families were repeatedly lied, deceived, and harmed should be acknowledged?
Extremism breeds more extremists. No wonder we are witnessing a big backlash by the Deafhood people fed up of being treated as second class citizens by oral advocates. I don’t agree with their philosophy, and also the AVT/CI mind set. Unfortunately the oral proponents have created a monster after treating Deaf people despicably for decades.
To think I used to respect you and your mom. I’m glad my mom taught me differently. Had I shown that attitude of yours to Deaf people, she would have a serious talk with me about respect and tolerance.
I have been reading this discussion with interest but have opted to stay out until now. When Rachel was little and we received much criticism for choosing to teach her to hear and speak and for not teaching her sign, I would tell them to just wait until she was old enough to speak for herself. Now that she is not only doing this but doing it so well, it’s easier to let her speak because her voice is a more powerful one than mine since she is speaking for herself. I am also happy to see others Rachel’s age chiming in. I personally know Caitlin, and she is another example of a happy, successful young adult whose future is open to her because of her parents’ choices and hard work combined with her own intelligence and determination.
Richard, I want to thank you for getting it and for taking the time to learn and understand what it is like for children born deaf today who receive CIs and learn to hear and speak, that they are not experiencing the struggles of previous generations who had to learn spoken language without the benefit of hearing. Children born deaf who learn to hear and speak well have easier lives and more opportunities open to them. That is not to say that those who communicate primarily with sign and who can’t hear or speak well can’t lead happy, productive lives. There are certainly many examples out there of deaf adults who have accomplished this. As a parent, though, my goal was to provide my girls with as many opportunities as I could not just for a successful future but also for a future as free of obstacles as possible. Being unable to communicate through spoken language creates obstacles. All children born deaf today deserve the opportunities that my girls have, and this bill ensures that parents will learn of this possibility. California is often ahead of the rest of the country, and I hope that this bill not only passes but also sets a precedent for the other 49 states.
Finally, to Hearing Mom from another hearing mom – I don’t even pretend to understand why you made the choice you did for your daughter when her deafness was first diagnosed. I appreciate that you are proud of what your daughter has accomplished as I am proud of mine. However, in this day and age there is no reason for a parent to choose your path, and I would suggest that for you to push your choice on parents of babies newly diagnosed as deaf is selfish and thoughtless. There is no reason today for children to spend their lives in a silent world. We cannot fully understand what we have never known, and so those who have lived their lives without sound cannot know the richness that sounds bring to our lives. All children deserve the chance to enjoy what living in the hearing world can offer them.
You mention that your daughter graduated from Gallaudet. Gallaudet has served a purpose, but I am willing to bet that 25 years from now it will be defunct. The fact is that most of its graduates cannot compete with graduates from top universities in the U.S. See p. 52 of http://aaweb.gallaudet.edu/documents/msche/2007-04-GU-MSCHE-SupplementaryInfoReport.pdf as just one of many citations of the lack of academic rigor at Gallaudet. As Caitlin, Rachel and others have indicated, having their choice of university unlimited has been an advantage they have enjoyed. Certainly, a signing deaf student could go anywhere as well, but the need for interpreters and difficulty communicating with their hearing peers makes this process significantly more difficult. I am glad that, when Rachel goes off to London for graduate school in the fall, we do not have to worry that she is not entitled to accommodations as a foreign student there. She can take her portable soundfield and be on her way.
Rolling My Eyes – I do not appreciate being misquoted. I have never said that all deaf children should have CIs. I am all for parental choice, but I am also for parents receiving accurate information about all choices. As Rachel mentioned, this was not the case with us. All the audiologist and social worker we were sent to within minutes of receiving Rachel’s diagnosis of deafness told us about was Total Communication. There was an excellent Auditory-Verbal therapist in our area, but they didn’t tell us about her or about the approach. There was an outstanding oral preschool program, but they never mentioned that. There was an oral school in our state, but they didn’t recommend that we visit it. All they told us about was a supposed TC school that was, in truth, just about a Voices Off signing school. All parents need to know about CIs and the Auditory-Verbal approach. I never would and never have said that all parents must choose the path that we did or that all deaf children must receive CIs. I do believe, though, that CIs and AVT are the best choice for most children born deaf today, and I make no apologies for my beliefs.
Second, there is no correlation between advocating for CIs and AVT and gay rights. Deafness is a disability. Being gay is not. I have known many parents of children with Autism and Asperger’s Syndrome, and the comment that one made to me stands out in my mind. She said that she wished that there was an equivalent of the CI to help her child overcome his autism. Being autistic or deaf is not something that anyone should ever be ashamed of, but they are also disabilities that make life more difficult. I cannot imagine a parent of an autistic child not opting for a cure if one were available just as I opted for the CI for my girls. What’s interesting to me, though, is that you have equated deafness with autism. Yet, I don’t see an “Autistic Culture.”
I acknowledge that the deaf community’s representation and its requests for ASL as a communication option have long been ignored by the hearing majority, by hearing loss professionals and deaf educators (of whom many are hearing), to name a few groups.
I understand you, rolling eyes, extremism begets monsters. Which is why this ASL-first policy in California’s Dept. of Education has created this backlash of angry parents and thus, the rise of AB 2072 to counteract that extremism.
Just because the deaf community wants to have ASL as an option doesn’t mean it should be the exclusive one.
Two wrongs don’t make a right.
By the way, limited is a state of the mind. One can permit oneself to be limited or not. For some people, being Deaf give them more opportunities than they would have if they could hear. Frequently I do see signing Deaf people and people wearing cochlear implants doing more things than their hearing peers. I also see many abled people limiting themselves, not pushing themselves to new challenges.
Please do not assume people using ASL is limited to only ASL. They know English, too. Some of them can talk and hear or lipread, some functioning successfully as orally, too. A common fallacy is to think all cochlear implant users speak and hear successfully. We should be aware of the dangers of the generalizations.
A newer tool may not always be necessarily better. If a person has complications with the device and/or not responsive to the therapy, the person may fare much worse than the one without this tool. People assume wheelchair users are more ‘limited’ than people walking with canes. Is that so? Perhaps the walkers limit the amount of time walking due to difficulties in moving around, breathing, or/and pain whereby the wheelchair users don’t face the same limitations.
Too many times I’ve seen deaf people crippled by the oralism along with others thriving well on oralism.. This still persists to this day. The parents need to be made aware that it can go either way and that there are no guarantees. The cochlear implants aren’t always the miracles you proclaim them to be. They do work for some children and they do with you all. I’m happy for you, seriously. They also may make some children sick, with the complications, side effects, and the brain not deciphering sounds properly, though the parents may do all the recommended procedures. Even the doctors and audiologists share with the parents this tidbit. Why do they insist the parents sign waivers?
Hello readers! I have something to tell you.
I am terrified! I am afraid!
When I speak my mind, I will be attacked.
When I pick a side, I will be attacked.
When I explain my reasons for supporting
or opposing an issue, I will be attacked.
I am fearful! I am intimidated!
“They” will call me names.
“They” will twist what I have already said.
“They” will lie about me.
Who is “They”? “They” is them. “Those” people.
I am dismayed! I am alarmed!
Hate-mongers, Anti-oralism, Anti-freedom of choices.
Those that wants to silence you.
Those that demand you to submit to them.
Those that call you “traitors”, accused you of “hate-crime”.
I am scared! I peed my pants!
“They” that expected you to just shut-up, and agree with them.
“They” that expected no opponents against them.
“They” that send John Warren to lectured Deaf Americans to submit.
I am weary! I am rattled!
No longer! No more!
I shall preserve my right to speak.
I shall preserve my freedom choose.
I shall preserve my strength to take a stand.
I am fearless! I am unafraid!
I will not let those people deter me.
I will not be intimated by those people.
I will not be silenced by those people.
I am bold! I am confident!
I stand strong. I will not let those people bother me.
I stand composed. Those people are not me.
I stand correct!
I am free! I am an individual. I speak my mind!
I am BigBenFactor.
Rolling my eyes at Rachel…
I think you’re reading too much into things. You think that I’m acting like I’m superior simply because you and others are jealous of my simple ability to hear, and some little things that I’ve been able to enjoy in my life.
Parents of deaf children DO WANT to hear what deaf children who can speak and hear via cochlear implants can do today. They want to hear their success stories because it gives them hope and acknowledges that their children will grow up and become successful people as long as they are committed parents.
If you want parents of deaf children to teach ASL to their children, then you DO NEED to talk about your accomplishments, and they DO NEED to hear stories from successful deaf people who uses ASL. Your harassing parents by telling them that they must teach their deaf children ASL will only scare them away from you all.
I receive emails through my website all the time from numerous parents thanking me for sharing my stories because it gives them so much hope for their children.
If I were bragging, I would have mentioned that I’m graduating from college with summa cum laude in a few weeks, I got accepted to all six grad schools to where I applied and many other things but I didn’t bother to mention it in other posts because there was no need to do that because those accomplishments are not because of my cochlear implants and ability to hear and speak. Please do excuse me for mentioning those little successes.
Rachel, I apologize for calling you a narcissist. This is so unlike me. I guess I’m frustrated by your attitude toward others and I need a break from the communication politics. Rachel, you are a sweet person and I hope you will examine the issues below the surface. It took me a while before I understood why others became the way they are now. I don’t agree with all their points, but I understand where they are coming from. The philosophy of oralism had created the breeding grounds for this movement. Yin and yang. Please accept my sincerest apology. I won’t be back to this blog. Have a nice evening and I wish you the best of luck with your endeavors. You are and will continue to do well, especially with your drive, ambitions and persistence, not recognizing any obstacle 🙂
Melissa, your anger is very much justified. The school was very wrong in not informing you of other choices. By doing that, it had harmed you and Rachel, costing precious six months in delays. Totally unacceptable. Back then, the cochlear implants didn’t have a good reputation, but that didn’t excuse the school’s biased advice. This shows even the importance of all schools, including AVT schools, and professionals to present unbiased and accurate information as to enable the parents to make informed choices. First of all, the wishes of the parents how to raise their deaf children must be honored.
About disability. that is the crux of the issue. The majority of the hearing people views deafness as a disability. A small minority of Deaf people sees it a precious cultural more. Values are held differently by all of us. Hindus believe cows too sacred to eat. Who are we to tell them they are wrong? They also worship people with more than four appendages. Are they wrong? Different cultures, different values.
The problem here is a lack of respect for each other’s values. It began many decades ago, long before we were born, and had turned into a vicious cycle. We cannot manipulate the laws to force parents toward methodologies they disagree, not in America. Ann is correct. Two wrongs don’t make it right.
Melissa, despite your attitude, you are a good mother. In spite of the obstacles, you raised a fine and outstanding daughter who will continue to do very well. You have every reason to be proud of her. I hope you and Rachel will reconsider your attitudes toward Deaf people and realize not all are the same 🙂
*You think that I’m acting like I’m superior simply because you and others are jealous of my simple ability to hear,*
Rachel, you still don’t get it. We aren’t jealous. Some of us do not want to hear. We are content the way we are. Is that such a difficult concept for you to grasp? Maybe some day you will understand. Maybe not.
I’ll leave now. Good night, all
Rolling my eyes at Rachel…
I know who you are. We’ve corresponded with each other by e-mails. You published my story on your blog one time. Everything that you’re commenting on this blog to me is nothing new. You’ve accused me of bragging too much in the past and tell me that I will never get it.
Rachel, you said: If you want parents of deaf children to teach ASL to their children, then you DO NEED to talk about your accomplishments
That’s the glaring differences I’ve seen among those that are deaf and use ASL compared to those that have CI and utlilize AVT. I think the reasoning behind not seeing enough stories about deaf people w/ ASL and their successes is due to the attitude. Many do not see the need to showcase their success to the world, they simply felt it was sufficient to only prove themselves and no one else. I have always had this attitude that I don’t need to prove anything to anyone. I’m just as normal as anyone and I do lead interesting life in spite of my hearing loss. I find that my life is much more interesting and fuller than my hearing peers when we converse about our lives to one another. But, you do make a point. If they wanted to promote ASL, they need to use that story telling as a platform to boost their reasoning why ASL is better. Short of mandating it. My family never saw the need to promote that, it’s like, big deal, we’re just like everyone else. Whereas with this technology that offers more, probably prompts CI recipients and their parents to promote it more due to the fact that it is a newer technology and the need to help lessen the grief that the majority of parents go through when they find out about their child’s deafness. I brought that up a while back and mentioned that could be one of the platform that DBC use instead of protesting and wasting their time admonishing people about the choice they make.
Definitely an excellent point. It surprises me that simply by seeing so many CI blogs, that didn’t even occur them to tell their own ASL stories.
So you do have an agenda Rachel….
“My goal is to debunk the myths that DBC and AFA claim, which they state that deaf children who do not learn ASL, but learn the English language utilizing the auditory-verbal approach or the auditory-oral approach and use CIs cannot be successful.”
DBC has never stated what you said above. That is ridiculous. The purpose of DBC is that Deaf children have a right to be bilingual in ASL and English (written and if desired spoken) and parents have a right to know about this and get accurate information about ASL just as equally as they get information about cochlear implants and AVT. Plain and simple.
DBC has used various types of social activism to get the message out to the public. One of which was ASL rallies. You want to call them protests then so be it. The woman’s movement, the Gay Rights advocates, and the newly formed Tea Party have done the same thing.
Your oral extremist attitude is very condescending. There is more than one choice for parents other than extreme oralism for which you preach. It is upsetting that you demean those who choose to be bilingual in ASL and English. It is sickening to see you rant about how successful you are and that those who sign are not.
It’s sad that you cannot respect other deaf people especially being deaf yourself. (Or maybe you don’t consider yourself to be deaf anymore?)
Hearing mom…
DBC does NOT support parental choice. It is a fact. DBC has clearly stated that ALL deaf children must learn sign language. Here is some proof:
http://www.dbcusa.org/index.php/component/option,com_joomlapetition/Itemid,/catid,1/func,viewcategory/
“We resolve to advocate for the basic inalienable human right to a natural and fully accessible language – to understand and be understood naturally – to be a part of the Deaf infant’s and child’s birthright. Be it further resolved, the EXCLUSION of a bilingual-bicultural approach to the Deaf child is no longer a tolerable “option” for civilized society.”
http://cochlearimplantonline.com/site/?p=103#comments
See comment #14 where I stated, “Choosing to use ASL should be a personal choice, not a mandatory choice.”
Then see comment #19 where Barb DiGi, one of DBC’s core members, stated, “Choosing ASL is not a personal choice but a language right for Deaf babies.”
John Egbert, DBC’s founder, equates those who choose cochlear implants with Hitler, as he supported this letter to LA Times that he posted on his blog:
” I hope this message helps the LA Times, and the readers understand fully how this constant promotion about cochlear implants in deaf babies and children, is the promotion of an antiquated concept that deaf children can be made to be hearing, mirroring that of Hitler’s racist ideas of ‘anyone not like me must be changed or eradicated’”.
DBC DID protest. Here are pictures that clearly show that DBC was protesting: http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=24786272492&v=photos&ref=ts
DBC had a sign demanding AG Bell to “tear down the wall” at the AG Bell conference in Milwaukee in 2008.
There were also signs stating, “Don’t deny sign language to deaf babies!” , “Language for all” , and “Deaf babies and children have a right to ASL.”
Here’s a press release written by John Egbert stating that DBC did PROTEST at an AG Bell conference in 2007: http://www.ereleases.com/pr/deaf-bilingual-coalition-to-protest-ag-bells-summer-conference-10243
DBC is definitely affiliated with Audism Free America (AFA). Ella Lentz was at the AFA “rally,” which was located at the AG Bell headquarters. John Egbert was there too. Here is a link that has photos of John and Ella at the rally – http://jehanne.wordpress.com/2009/04/04/audism-free-america-friday/ . You were there too. Here are photos of you at the “rally” – http://jehanne.wordpress.com/2009/04/04/audism-free-america-thursday/ . AFA presented three demands to AG Bell and one of the demands showed that you all had concerns about cochlear implants: “to join AFA in calling for an impartial and independent investigation of the physical, psychological and social impact of cochlear implants on Deaf children and adolescents.”
http://audismfreeamerica.blogspot.com/2009/04/afa-press-release-about-historic.html
These are the REAL facts about DBC.
I just realized that I didn’t attach the link to John Egbert’s article regarding his equating cochlear implants with Hitler – http://blog.deafread.com/egbertpress/2009/08/26/parent-blast-la-times-and-shari-roan/
BBF good post!
I want to add a note that this sordid behavior by the ASL extremists are well documented in Tom Bertling’s book “American Sign language : Shattering The Myth”.
Its been going on way back then and its going on now, the extremists would do anything to intimidate free thinkers, truth seekers, and open minded people. They did that to me many times I’m glad I have the thick skin to weather these petty assaults from the old deaf guards.
Deaf babies belong to their parents not DBC, AFA, or the like. The deaf community dont own deaf babies and DBC and AFA need not to meddle in family affairs.
Allen Wilson, the deaf GOP activist, I remember him well and hes none other than a simple puppet fed with a silver spoon.
WG: As usual, you took my comments out of context. Worried? What an absurd statement but that is to be expected FROM people like you.
BS: *yawning* You bore me already.
If this was occurring in PERSON, you’d lose badly. That’s why these losers wanted to attack pro-ASL and/or pro-Deaf-related issues through the internet. They knew they can’t come up with facts and evidence in person.
People who spins the lie has continued to amuse me to no end.
R-
Mira, Caitlin, Amy & Katie: What you tried to do is to place your stereotypical views and generalize Deaf people who does not bray, yowl or bark.
You all may succeed in braying but nearly 90% of Deaf children are not like you. They all failed and migrate to Deaf communities because they knew that we understood them better than their hearing peers do. Was it our fault that the scores of average Deaf individual is low? No. The majority of Deaf schools are ruled by whom? Hearing administrators & teachers. One by one, Deaf people are starting to take it back. That’s when the scores eventually will improve in the long run.
Your claims that you can speak very well is amusing. I have had heard many who claimed that they can bray to whoever they met – but yet, when I saw them do that in person, it often failed miserably.
Ga Tech? Bleargh.
R-
sidhanthmelvani: Umm. Your reasoning is absurd. I never had a *desire* to hear anything else. Never had, has and probably never will.
There are some people I met who has CIs – they were proud of it. Then 10 years later, they are more likely to dump it in some dresser and said that the nostalgia is so yesterday.
Umm? Oh, since you live in Singapore, be sure not to dance in public or you’ll be canned.
R-
Rachel, I know you would recognize me. Maybe some day you will get it, like I did. 🙂
When I shared with hearing friends who are unfamiliar with Deaf aspects the deep divisions between the oral deaf people and the culturally Deaf people, they were astounded. They were horrified when they learned we were taught to look down on those who couldn’t talk, lipread, and/or hear and that both groups were segregated from each other. Looking back, I see that a terrible tragedy.
When you have some free time in the future, perhaps you could read some books about the history of deaf education and oral education to help you understand the complicated issues. Take some time to talk to some people on the other side, especially those who grew up using cochlear implants. If you are going around giving presentations on early oral deaf education and cochlear implants, you would be more prepared if you familiarize yourself with the history, both the positive and negative aspects. Maybe this will help you understand how Deaf people do treasure their Deaf-centric lives and their language, etc.
Rachel: If the CIs are so successful for you, it’d make sense that you’d integrate and disappear among billions of hearing people who yowls, barks and brays.
But no, you still hang out with Deaf peers. You write blogs talking to Deaf readers. You subscribe to DeafRead, you even participate in Deaf-related events. If the CIs are so successful, you can just slip away and we would not even miss you at all.
Melissa: Gallaudet going defunct in 25 years? That is what they said more than 100 years ago. And guess what? We’re still here, like it or not. And much to your chagrin, as long as Deaf people remains on the planet, sign language will be still around.
R-
Rachel: You said that you got accepted into six grad school. They probably accepted you so fast when you wrote on the application & essay with heavy emphasis that you are Deaf individual who has CIs.
All grad schools are desperate to have disabled person to enroll in their grad schools.
I am willing to bet that if you did not include Deafness & CI, you would not be accepted in these grad schools. Again, like many others, you would use your CIs or deafness to get what you needed or wanted. Then you would go on and tell Deaf people that you’re successful on your own when in reality, you were using Deafness to your advantage.
So you’re full of crap, Rachel.
R-
Nodding at Rachel… and also Hearing Mom…
I’m not looking down at deaf people who uses ASL at all. In fact, I should note that Katie, an ASL user, who commented here is one of my good friends. She and I both instant message each other frequently via Skype or Facebook. I’ve told Katie that I admire her greatly because she is doing far more productive advocacy than those people in the DBC and AFA group. She is working with various theaters to ensure that they provide good interpreters for deaf people. She has an incredible record of getting various theater companies to provide closed captions on their promotional videos on YouTube. She is helping to ensure that every deaf person has an equal access.
It is a fact that deaf people who use ASL but has absolutely no hearing and speaking skills cannot communicate face-to-face with most people in their country without an interpreter or writing on a notepad. It is a fact that deaf people who do not have the ability to hear, cannot hear the sounds of movies and TV shows including one of the most popular TV show, Glee, which has incredible music to listen, hear the radio, and hear the sounds of many musical instruments. Having the opportunity to hear these sounds do NOT define my or other people’s successes; however, having these abilities are opportunities that make our lives easier and more enjoyable.
Ridor…
Because I was banned from DeafRead in 2008, I am no longer subscribed to it. I rarely blog and comment in these days. DeafRead actually inspired me to blog almost everyday for a few months because I was enraged by many statements written by bloggers on DeafRead. If you look at my site, you’ll see that I have been blogging only a few times a month, and there are even some months where I did not blog at all. I haven’t commented on anybody’s sites in a long time. I am commenting on this site because someone alerted me about this blog, and it’s a news blogging site where people who hear normally and are not aware of the deaf issues, are reading what we’re writing. Plus, I have time to comment at the moment because I’m taking only one class this semester and spending a lot of time relaxing before heading off to London.
I’ve had people contact me asking me to comment on several other particular blogs in the past several months, and I’ve ignored the requests.
To the one and only ridor- pooh! I don’t think you’ve been to my country before! There used to be a few cults here before, and when the government found out about them, the extremists were HANGED as they were terrorizing the locals, and the members were caned and are rotting in jail! So if you bring your nonsense deaf culture here, you can bid good-bye to your smelly fat ass as you’ll be caned and thrown into jail! My country is safe because there are no crazy people here like you.
I don’t understand why you deaf culture people are saying that CI’s are bad. Is it your bloody business if we implantees have CI’s? You can go and live with your ASL, we’ll live with our CI’s, ok?
All I know that CI dose good on post lingual deaf, in ways. On my finding, as a pro se, prelingual deaf with CI can’t do good as postlingual deaf with CI. It is very easy to state a claim in court of law that CI dose in fact discriminating prelingual deaf apart from non-disable and postlingual deaf peer. My finding CI on prelingual deaf isn’t the answer and only lucky few prelingual deaf made it, which I haven’t met one, yet. Very easy for me to rebut any statistics to get to bottom of it. I went to oral school and went to deaf school including private and public schools. I know what is “applied research” (read before you talk about differnet between deaf individuals). I just wish my parents knew about ASL for prelingual deaf 35 years ago, so that I could already got Ph.D or great job or so. I suggest read a book called “Dancing with Words: Signing for Hearing Children’s Literacy,” because it will help other hearing disability and normal hearing about benfit of ASL to do well in school. So, get the facts straight.
TO ALL YOU DEAF CULTURE PEOPLE- please listen to my pleas! If you don’t wanna get implanted, that’s your choice! But please,please do not try to influcence other people who are considering getting themselves implanted! It’s their choice!
Don’t interfere in our lives! And we won’t interfere in yours! It’s the best solution! Telling us that CI’s are bad won’t help! You are just wasting your energy away!
So lets end this war and may there be peace 🙂
I don’t question those who did get CI, but I questions results. I saw results in my eyes. Why deny it?
RR, Thanks for the accolade.
I guess I will be reading Tom Bertling’s book “American Sign language : Shattering The Myth” when school is out.
Yes, it is good thing you have thick skin for I have seen their lashing out on you. They must secretly love you and try their darnest to convert you to their side.
If I had a child, I would tell them to get their dirty paws of my baby. The government will jail the parents if they do not care for their kids. Thus, parents’ choice to determine method of communications for their precious children.
BBF
Dudes/dudettes, don’t be such a retard that you’ll need a lobotomy as opposed to C.I. for “broken ears.”
Put it this way, I would advocate the usage of whatever technologies needed to provide the deaf kids the ability to “hear” but not at the expense of language acquisition skills. Think about it, the ASL provides a very good neural pathway to develop the language/cognitive skills. Sure they could be taught oral/speech therapy, but I would recommend -AFTER- the ASL has been taught. It’s really no brainer a deaf child would be much more “visually” stimulated, otherwise you might need a lobotomy.
I for myself speak with my own experience.
@the one and only ridor
I don’t know why trashing Rachel and saying she got accepted in grad schools bc of her CI’s would justify your reasoning.I rather think she got accepted because of her hard work and high grades.Grad schools don’t accept just anyone ridor…rules apply to everyone , like it or not.
@sidhadthmelvani : you put it very well.it’s all about choices.and even parents’ choices are altered after the children are old enough to do their own choices.
And I do think now that Rachel put it out , there is VERY few blogs with ASL exclusively.So , not to prove anything , even CI blogs don’t need to prove anything..we just chose to share our stories , and bond over them.Share even frustrations.It is like an online diary that is exposed to anyone that can read.
@ Padraic Saich if you went to oral school – I don’t want to offend you , but I can’t read your article right because of some glaring errors.Yes , there are some failures , but parents sometimes want to exhaust ALL choices.And want to hear something ? I AM a prelingual deaf! My parents chose the oral route , but they were prepared for the GSL one if it failed.They just wanted me to be happy and succeed one way or the other.I benefitted from hearing aids and learned to lipread and use the telephone.It was my choice as an adult to get a CI and learn some basic GSL ( exploring to see if I would be better there ) and my parents supported me in BOTH choices.
So instead of claiming that it is not fair to you , you should leave it alone , and try to raise some awareness and not scare anyone away if you want to have more people learn sign language.
I have few signing friends that ARE happy for me and my choices , and SUPPORT me.Because they’re my friends , period!
Also for results ? I can again do simple phone calls.I can hear my family again.Sound is rich , and I did miss it , but I also accepted who I am.I accepted that even with CI I’ll need some accomodations , and that’s all right.you should post these ‘results’ for us to see , but you won’t , because they are not there.
Interesting study reported today: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100419162300.htm – Children With Cochlear Implants Appear to Achieve Similar Educational and Employment Levels as Peers
“The number of grade failures was associated with communication mode at the time of the survey,” the authors write, with those communicating orally having fewer failures than those who used sign language or a combination of the two. “Age at implantation, preoperative communication mode and educational support influenced the final communication mode.”
Nodding at Rachel ..
You claim, “They were horrified when they learned we were taught to look down on those who couldn’t talk, lipread, and/or hear and that both groups were segregated from each other.”
Interesting. My experience as a child was completely different from yours, though I’ve been fluent in ASL/PSE/SEE since I was a little boy, and have ALWAYS appreciated signing and supported sign language in general – unlike YOU. Once upon a time, as you admit, YOU didn’t wanna sign or thought signing people were like John Egbert: weak-minded fools. And ya’ll are both ex-oral deaf folks who gained lots by selling stories as if your stories were the ONLY ones that mattered.
You should see how horrified people become when they hear MY story as a deaf boy, and my story is the complete opposite of yours: unlike you, I’ve been signing since I was a wee lad and have ALWAYS supported ASL/Deaf culture, even if I’ve disagreed with ASL political groups – and almost always at considerable personal risk. And my story ain’t all that rare, neither, so don’t be actin’ like your story is the epitome of ALL/MOST/SOME Deaf people ‘cos it ain’t.
Anyway, your comments reminded me of Jane Fernandes’ recent article, in which she wrote:
“American Sign Language users, now head of a powerful hierarchy through which they receive privileged status at the expense of deaf people with different language backgrounds and races or ethnicities.”
http://jdsde.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2009/07/28/deafed.enp018.abstract
YOU alone have proven Fernandes’ premise to be valid, correct, and accurate. YOU.
So, I thank you.
Wow, Ridor. Wow.
First of all, I don’t think Mira, Amy, Katie, Rachel, and others, including me, purposely “stereotype” every single Deaf person for what the majority of their culture acts like. I actually have reasonable debates or conversations with Deaf people, but unfortunately, most of them come across as “socially immature”. Don’t get us wrong, alright? We’d absolutely LOVE to talk with Deaf people about our differences, but unfortunately, they also “stereotype” us for having cochlear implants, thinking that we’re not independent thinkers and that we’re just products of corporate science. So don’t think that Deaf people are the only victims here. I walked past a group of people who were from Gallaudet hanging out at one of the student’s homes back in my hometown, and one of them actually approached me and asked offensive questions about my CI and obviously had already judged me before even knowing who I was. So, fix y’alls attitudes before you complain about ours. We’re not here to do harm.
I find it funny that you mock Rachel for getting in to all of the grad schools she wanted to and quickly assumed that she pulled out the “I was born deaf, pity me!” card. She actually has great grades to prove that she’s a hard worker, and her being fluent in French also helps. Did you ever consider that? Probably not. I rarely mentioned that I have a cochlear implant in my application, for all I said was that I wanted to be one of the trailblazers for people like me and to change the medical field for the better. Did you assume that I had fantastic grades in high school, participated in marching band and Varsity girls golf for four years, and took college courses? Or did you quickly assume that I pulled the “I’m deaf, pity me!” card? I think the answer’s a bit obvious.
So yes, “Ga Tech? Bleargh.” I agree. The academics here are absolutely rigorous.
Why don’t you just “Observe, but do not interfere”, as your website states? Or we can have a mature, well-mannered discussion on what the solution is to this back-and-forth fighting between the hearing world and the Deaf world.
Regarding the lame comments by “the one and only ridor”, here, the deaf community apologizes for it.
This is one big hairy tube that just likes to make noise out of the wrong end.
He is none other than a pure product of the dependency caste. He thinks all the deaf people belong in a big crab bucket and enjoys making the deaf community the laughingstock of the entire disability class. He likes to embarrass all of us.
He had a website, Ridor Live, which is an online version of the brazen bull torture machine. There he liked to torture open minded people, free thinkers, and the oralists. The website was eventually consumed by its own purpose when Ridor slipped and accidentally fell into the machine himself.
That’s evidence! If toddlers were exposed to ASL, this would not have happened. Read on.
Study: Toddlers with cochlear implants experience slower language processing during a word recognition task
by Mark McGowan
Toddlers fitted with cochlear implants take more time, on average, to process spoken words in their vocabulary than their normal-hearing peers, according to a study led by a professor from NIU.
Tina Grieco-Calub, who was a post-doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison during the time of the 2006-2008 study, said that those time delays – on the order of milliseconds – could impact how children with cochlear implants learn new words.
And, Grieco-Calub said, if these children are taking longer to process the words that they know, they might miss opportunities to learn new words and expand their vocabularies.
Published in the December 2009 issue of the Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, the research funded by a National Institutes of Health grant gives clinicians and parents the understanding that children with cochlear implants need more time to process auditory information.
Cochlear implants are intended only for children who have severe to profound hearing loss or who are deaf.
“There are a number of published studies involving school-age children with cochlear implants that look at their language outcomes – standardized measures of spoken language performance, expressive or receptive – but they don’t tell us how these children are processing auditory information on a real-time basis,” Grieco-Calub said.
“This gives us insight into how children process language, particularly when their vocabularies are starting to emerge – right in the middle of the language explosion,” she added. “Even though their language appears to be developing, many children do not appear to be processing information as efficiently as children with normal hearing.”
Grieco-Calub and her co-researchers, Jenny Saffran and Ruth Litovsky, used video cameras and special software to digitally record eye movements and determine the length of reaction time from spoken cue to visual response.
Forty-six 2-year-old children participated, 26 of whom have cochlear implants.
Four objects – baby, ball, doggy and shoe – were chosen for the study. “We verified with their parents that those words were in their vocabularies,” she said.
Children were seated in a double-walled, sound-attenuated booth. As the researchers played recordings of questions regarding the test words – “look at the,” “where is the” and “can you find” – children turned their eyes toward the corresponding objects.
The toddlers were seated in infant seats or on the laps of caregivers, who were listening to music via earphones to eliminate the possibility that they might bias the children’s behavior during the experiment.
“On average, children with cochlear implants took longer to look at the target objects after hearing the target label,” Grieco-Calub said. “Some did perform similarly to their normal-hearing peers but others performed much poorer.”
Researchers also discovered that adding acoustic competition – a background noise of two-talker babble – further slowed the reaction time of both groups of children. The researchers believe this could have implications for children who need to comprehend language when there is considerable background noise.
Consequently, Grieco-Calub said, parents and teachers should strive to minimize background noise and provide visual cues.
Grieco-Calub is a professor in the School of Allied Health and Communicative Disorders, housed in the NIU College of Health and Human Sciences.
Source:
http://www.niu.edu/northerntoday/2010/feb22/grieco-calub.shtml
Study: Toddlers with cochlear implants experience slower language processing during a word recognition task
by Mark McGowan
Toddlers fitted with cochlear implants take more time, on average, to process spoken words in their vocabulary than their normal-hearing peers, according to a study led by a professor from NIU.
Tina Grieco-Calub, who was a post-doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison during the time of the 2006-2008 study, said that those time delays – on the order of milliseconds – could impact how children with cochlear implants learn new words.
And, Grieco-Calub said, if these children are taking longer to process the words that they know, they might miss opportunities to learn new words and expand their vocabularies.
Published in the December 2009 issue of the Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, the research funded by a National Institutes of Health grant gives clinicians and parents the understanding that children with cochlear implants need more time to process auditory information.
Cochlear implants are intended only for children who have severe to profound hearing loss or who are deaf.
“There are a number of published studies involving school-age children with cochlear implants that look at their language outcomes – standardized measures of spoken language performance, expressive or receptive – but they don’t tell us how these children are processing auditory information on a real-time basis,” Grieco-Calub said.
“This gives us insight into how children process language, particularly when their vocabularies are starting to emerge – right in the middle of the language explosion,” she added. “Even though their language appears to be developing, many children do not appear to be processing information as efficiently as children with normal hearing.”
Grieco-Calub and her co-researchers, Jenny Saffran and Ruth Litovsky, used video cameras and special software to digitally record eye movements and determine the length of reaction time from spoken cue to visual response.
Forty-six 2-year-old children participated, 26 of whom have cochlear implants.
Four objects – baby, ball, doggy and shoe – were chosen for the study. “We verified with their parents that those words were in their vocabularies,” she said.
Children were seated in a double-walled, sound-attenuated booth. As the researchers played recordings of questions regarding the test words – “look at the,” “where is the” and “can you find” – children turned their eyes toward the corresponding objects.
The toddlers were seated in infant seats or on the laps of caregivers, who were listening to music via earphones to eliminate the possibility that they might bias the children’s behavior during the experiment.
“On average, children with cochlear implants took longer to look at the target objects after hearing the target label,” Grieco-Calub said. “Some did perform similarly to their normal-hearing peers but others performed much poorer.”
Researchers also discovered that adding acoustic competition – a background noise of two-talker babble – further slowed the reaction time of both groups of children. The researchers believe this could have implications for children who need to comprehend language when there is considerable background noise.
Consequently, Grieco-Calub said, parents and teachers should strive to minimize background noise and provide visual cues.
Grieco-Calub is a professor in the School of Allied Health and Communicative Disorders, housed in the NIU College of Health and Human Sciences.
Source:
http://www.niu.edu/northerntoday/2010/feb22/grieco-calub.shtml
Excuse me.
AB2072 is not about what works or what does not work.
Why are we discussing these things?
It’s about allowing parents to choose based on ensuring parents get information on optimizing ASL, Cochlear Implants, AVT, Cued Speech, SEE, and so on…..
AB2072 doesn’t give a fock about which one is better.
http://www.netsignnews.com/Opinion_-_Discussion/Unemployment_Rates_In_The_Deaf_Community.php
Fact. Since you’re using research from 2006-2008, I’m going to use research from that time period as well. Unemployment is drastically higher in the Deaf culture than it is in the hearing world.
According to research, titled “Receptive vocabulary development in deaf children with cochlear implants: achievement in an intensive auditory-oral educational setting” by Hayes H; Geers AE; Treiman R; and Moog JS:
OBJECTIVES: Deaf children with cochlear implants are at a disadvantage in learning vocabulary when compared with hearing peers. Past research has reported that children with implants have lower receptive vocabulary scores and less growth over time than hearing children. Research findings are mixed as to the effects of age at implantation on vocabulary skills and development. One goal of the current study is to determine how children with cochlear implants educated in an auditory-oral environment compared with their hearing peers on a receptive vocabulary measure in overall achievement and growth rates. This study will also investigate the effects of age at implant on vocabulary abilities and growth rates. We expect that the children with implants will have smaller vocabularies than their hearing peers but will achieve similar rates of growth as their implant experience increases. We also expect that children who receive their implants at young ages will have better overall vocabulary and higher growth rates than older-at-implant children.
DESIGN: Repeated assessments using the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test were given to 65 deaf children with cochlear implants who used oral communication, who were implanted under the age of 5 yr, and who attended an intensive auditory-oral education program. Multilevel modeling was used to describe overall abilities and rates of receptive vocabulary growth over time.
RESULTS: On average, the deaf children with cochlear implants had lower vocabulary scores than their hearing peers. However, the deaf children demonstrated substantial vocabulary growth, making more than 1 yr’s worth of progress in a year. This finding contrasts with those of previous studies of children with implants, which found lower growth rates. A negative quadratic trend indicated that growth decelerated with time. Age at implantation significantly affected linear and quadratic growth. Younger-at-implant children had steeper growth rates but more tapering off with time than children implanted later in life.
CONCLUSIONS: Growth curves indicate that children who are implanted by the age of 2 yr can achieve receptive vocabulary skills within the average range for hearing children.
Seems like we’re doing just fine in the hearing world, which has a higher rate of employment.
Confusion happens when an implanted child gets exposed to visual communication while his auditory nerves are stimulated. That leads to the slower learning capacity.
The solution is simply not expose the implanted child to visual communications at all.
Parents want their deaf children to be raised like their own and not be sacrificed to a dependency culture.
AB 2072 will give parents of deaf children that opportunity for the first time and to hell with DBC, AFA, and the like whining about it.
@ Ioanna
you seem to bossy instead being open mind to heard all sides… Please read books from all sides and do the math. Well, I have my rights to speak out. So you seem that you are againt the consitutional rights by asking me to leave people alone… I caught vendors (audioloists) and States’ agency (Voc. Rehab. Services) violated my “informed choice” yes those audioloists should be scared for failed to respect the need of deaf children for get their hands on federal fund. Clark School lied to me that I only need to be there for 2 but 4 years. Based on my tests and my English skill dropping 4 years a row due to IDEA was out of complying with US Constitutinoal rights until 1997 after a case law in CA to ensure that disability students are access to education just as non-disabled peer and not just only place disability into school. Two extra year at Clrake School force me to face high school with two years older than my classmates. Oral schools are screaming to get the money in to keep the jobs regardless of aware of facts that deaf studnes left high school with 3rd or 4th grade reading and writing skills. US Dep. of Ed. know about that for years but can’t tell parents to use ASL because it would violated the US Constitutional rights. But state can so that why we stepping up and federal judge can’t touch what state decied nor what parents think best for their deaf toddlers. I can talk on phone and I am interacting with hearing community and hardly with deaf commuinty for now. Clarke School only keep me there for money they got from IDEA (under 30,000), even I told parents to take their kid out of oral school and put in mainstream and Clarke School scared the parents but I gladly help them. Why need oral school if we got mainstream school? Both under use “speak English.” Just like US Hearings learned lot of flaw in the states system.. US Dep of Ed know that deaf with CI and hearing aid don’t help prelingual deaf acquire language in general and you might happen to be lucky few. Did you know that subject to a case law in BC, Canada, deaf students who didn’t get “acquire langauge” won a lawsuit that deaf school failed deaf to acquire language so they settle out to use ASL from now? If Judge aware of it after got facts. You go tell the judges and US Dep of Ed to go else and to leave you alone.
I am not question if they already got CI. I know some deaf who got CI and tired hearing aid and work far better than using CI. I am not question those who got consent to get CI, which I can easly respect. What about those who don’t have tonge to talk so then need to use ASL to engage. you gotta look at facts about not all CI dose work on prelingual deaf… at hearing school next to airport showed that hearing students are falling behind in grade due to noisy enviormential… it said a lot… I am devoting my time into it to understand what going on with CI businesses not telling the truth, because they got job and doing anything to keep. I am just upset that people will do anything for money instead do what best for deaf toddler!!! Those hearing parents know what best for the hearing toddlers by using ASL long before the toddler start using voice got higher IQ than deaf toddler who don’t use ASL. They don’t care about IQ but get the money on their hand. I called Clark School is a fraud even i know many deaf went there due to their local schools in other countries and States are worst than the school but still worst than BiBi, and BiBi and Hearing toddlers who learned ASL are smarter than those who don’t learn two languages. Speical hearing aids aren’t out for me until 5 years ago, and still Voc. Rehab. Services won’t prescribe me that 3000 buck hearing aids. I caught TX, WA, CA, FL, and MA failed to uphold the US Congress intend. You know that US Congress finding deaf is natuarl part of human being, but they only give to parents of deaf toddlers to decide what best for their kids. Until New ASL organization form, things will be change for better for everyone.
Check this link out. Analysis covers each specified options.
http://www.aroundthecapitol.com/billtrack/analysis.html?aid=37649
It also explains why the bill was written.
http://www.physorg.com/news191000860.html
For children with hearing loss: The earlier the better for cochlear implants
April 20, 2010
Receiving a cochlear implant before 18 months of age dramatically improves a deaf child’s ability to hear, understand and, eventually, speak, according to a multicenter study led by scientists at Johns Hopkins.
The study, published in the April 21 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), is believed to be the first nationwide look at the impact of surgical timing on the success rate of the implants. The surgery consists of placing a small electronic device into the ear that bypasses the inner ear’s damaged nerve cells and transmits sound signals to the brain.
The researchers followed 188 children, ages 6 months to 5 years, with profound hearing loss for three years after receiving cochlear implants at six U.S. hospitals. They tracked the children’s newly emerging ability to recognize speech after the implant, and compared their levels of language development to those of 97 same-age children with normal hearing.
While speech and language skills improved in all children regardless of age after they received a cochlear implant, age emerged as a powerful predictor in just how much improvement was seen. The finding points to a critical window for diagnosis and treatment, one that does not stay open for very long. Therefore, the researchers say, delaying implantation deprives children of essential exposure to sounds and speech during the formative phases of development when the brain starts to interpret the meaning of sounds and speech.
This is why parents need to know ASAP their options, including the CI.