Hearing Loss & Deafness Support Group

Hi irishmomma,

I wanted to comment on your decision for not getting your daughter coclear implant! I am happy that you made that decision. It's the right decison you did for your daughter.

I refused to get Coclear implant and I believe that I was born deaf for a reason.

The best thing you can do for your daughter to get socially with deaf children. She will learn fast with american sign language. American sign language is a huge deaf culture for deaf people. I encourage you to check out for deaf schools that she will fit in with other deaf groups will turn out wonderful opporunitity for her.

I am profound deaf and fluent in american sign language. I am happy that you bought that up because I can relate to it.

I was never attend deaf school but graduated in a hearing high school. Any thiing you want to ask, please feel free to ask me anytime. I'd love to hear from you.

Thanks for bring that up and I hope that this help you in some way.

I HAVE A 4 YEAR OLD AND IS PROFOUND DEAF. I WILL IMPLANT HER WITH THE COCLARE. OF COURSE IS YOUR DECISION AND SURE IT DOES NOT WORK FOR EVERYONE. SHE DOES ATTENT ASL I WANT HER TO COMMUNICATE WITH US AND I AM LEARNING HER LANGUAGE. OF COURSE WHEN SHE GROWS UP SHE WILL DECIDE WHERE SHE FITS. WE AS PARENTS DO TRY OUR BEST TO DO THE RIGHT DECISIONS. GOD WORKS IN SO MANY WONDERFULL WAYS. I DONT LOOSE MY HOPE AND FAITH THAT SOME DAY MY LIL ONE WILL HEAR AND TALK. I DID ASK A HARD OF HEARING PARENT AND SHE SAID SHE LEARN TO LIP READ BY HER SELF AND BY THE WAY THE DEAF SCHOOL WHERE I LIVE IS A TOTAL SILENT SCHOOL NO ONE IS ALLOWED TO TALK SO LIP READING SHE WILL NOT LEARN THERE. WE ALL ARE TRYING OUR BEST. I LOVE MY DAGUTHER BUT SHE CAN BE A HANDFULL WHEN SHE IS TRYING TO COMMUNICATE. U WILL SURE FIND OUT YOURSELF WHEN TIME COMES. I DO GET DEPRESS WHEN I CANT COMMUNICATE WITH HER. IN THE EVEYDAY DAY. SHE HAS BEEN IN THE PRESCHOOL PROGRAM SINCE SHE WAS 2 THAT IS WHEN SHE WAS DIAGNOSE. AND STILL BARELY KNOWS TO SIGN 2 THINGS. IS A LONG PATH GOOD LUCK AND WISH YOU THE BEST IN WHAT EVER YOU DO DECIDE. WE ARE OUR CHILDRENSS VOICES FOR NOW. WHEN THEY GROW UP THEY WILL DECIDE. BYE

Hello Irish,
You & your hubby doing the correct way for your daughter. By strating her off with SEE sign. Why? Cause when she is older she will be able to learn ASL. If that the way she and your family want to go. Yes some people say learning ASL is hard,But if you have already learn SEE. You can pick up ASL alot easier. While she's young learner be alot easy also.
Also you & your family will have a long road ahead of your, But please don't let the bumps stop you. She & you will have many trails , that may be long & hard. When she's learning vib's. It will maze you & family. Her other senses will take over, She will adapt to her own hearing. She will be able to hear the sunshine going throu the tree. As hearing people will may tell her.,"There's no such sound for sunshine going throu the tree's." Becauce she hears the sound with her eyes, Does that mean there's no such sound?
Since she's only 9 months old , She may never have a voice. You & family may have to be prepared for that one. Even with all the therpy. Now she she loss her hearing after she strated to speak, then she would have a better chance st speaking & a good lip learner. No, I'm not putting you & family down for anything you do with her. I'm just voiceing my fingers.. LOL.Smile

Most of all the inform I type , Is from my own knowledge, obsevation, and exposure of my own learning of two differnert world's.
I learn that hearing people want me to be someone I wasn't. Then I found MY own world The Proud Deaf Community. They accpet me with open arm's & heart. I have being in my world for many years.
I don't put the hearing world down. But the down fall is they do make alot of mistake's when it comes to our world & need's. Take my resent experiment with a doctors appointment. They know each appt I have to have an ASL Interpreter their.I sign in, Then waited waited & waited. Finally I wrote note." Where's terp?" She wrote back,Sorry we thought you had your own. No, In my chart it says you have to Call Deaf terp sevice for this client. She's Deaf! for their mistake it cost them double amount. I had to wait 1/2 hour, thank God it was that fast, Sometime's you have to wait hours. It's very frustraition, When Doctors, Hospitals know you have a right to have terp's. They think You are the one to hire your own terp! We have told & told them over& over again and in my chart it say about the law to have a terp. You need legal terps in setting's like this. It's very important So when your daughters older she knows she have right's & be able to understand what people are saying. If any one refuse to hire a terp for your daughter or anyone esle's it's a Federal & State Law.Even if they claim she has you to terp for her, No. she will need a terp, When she's old enough to understand sign.
The Deaf Community will be happy to also help you & family NOW! They will give you & family some Evey Good advice. They understand that yourr family's hearing, That will NOT make you any less then a person. They will weclome you & family with open hearts & thoughts They will make you feel the PROUD they & I share.
As you & faimly will learn your child has a voice, It may not be the same as yours, But it will be a beauiful voice.Even if it's her hands voicing.
I wish you, family & daughter all the best weclomes from one Deaf Member.
Wish you with the best choise's you 7 family make.I'm Happy you & family have your eye's open to this.
Have a great day... Smile
Big Paws

Irishmom, You are going in the right direction, but do not discount the implant. My son is 13 and is severly to profoundly Deaf. He does not have the implant, but that was a personal choice for our family. He has many friends that do have implants and are doing very well. The surgery is no more dangerous then any other.
recooperation
time is
quick. My sons friend just had it 2 weeks ago and was back to school in 4 days which has been the case with all of the children I personally know that have had the surgery.(25 children in my sons school, there are more with it, but I know 25 personally and they are fine) When your child is older if she decides not to wear it, she can just take it off. She will be accepted in the Deaf community by caring and wonderful people and in the hearing community. I know I will regret this and will probably get some hate mail for it, but I will say it anyway. The only people that are going to tell you that the implant is bad are the Deaf militants that are resistent to change. They believe the hearing world is trying to fix something that is not broken. That is not true! It is just another means of trying to communicate and hear what is going on in the world. If it's so bad then why to Deaf people wear hearing aids?? We too believe that our son was given to us by God to enrich our lives and show us that a child is a gift no matter what they are like. She will grow and have a wonderful life in both the hearing community and the Deaf community as long as you submerse her in both. Educate yourself and your family. Deaf culture has a rich and colorful history. ASL is a beautiful language. S.E.E. is also wonderful for learning to use proper sentence structure and grammer. Depending on the type of school she goes to (hearing or Deaf) you need to make sure she learns what she needs to know. In a school for the Deaf she will be taught by her teachers to use S.E.E., but when with her peers, she will most likely use ASL. If you learn S.E.E., it's great for homework when working with your child, but you will find that as she grows and your trying to have general conversation, ASL will be used more and more. Trust me, in 1or 2 years from now you will
just want to communicate the best you can and S.E.E. is a very long drawn out method. ASL puts whole phrases and concepts together in 1 or 2 signs sometimes. We use a total communication system with our son, that is sign, lip reading , cued speech, captioning and listing devices. A choclear implant is not a horrible thing, but researh it better and talk with your doctors and the people in the early intervention program, and then make your decision. I'm not saying to get it or not get it, like I said, it is a personal choice and one that you need to be completely informed about and then make your own personal choice for your daughter. Do not let others sway your decision. I hope this helps and if I have offended any one, I am sorry, but I feel esch individual should make a choice on there own and not by word or force of others beliefs.

I applaud your decision not to imbed a coclear implant into your baby. It makes my heart weep when society makes a parent believe there is something wrong with their child who is deaf and that they have to fix it.
When she is older she may decide to get one. I believe each person should make that decision for themselves.
She will fit in everywhere! Does your family have other deaf members?
As far as education, as you can see by my name - ASLGAL - I am for ASL useage. ASL is the language of the deaf culture. It is fine to look at classes in lip reading and speech but they are not good to concentrate on. SEE is not great either because of syntax problems. Everywhere your daughter goes there will be ASL. Of the deaf I know, only a small percentage feel they read lips well and very few (especially profoundly deaf) rarely use voice.
Good luck to you and your family.

Good for you Portugallady, I am glad you stood your ground and refused the implant ! Two Thumbs Up!!

Sorry about the second reply -
Newbie here and did not see the other entries.

BigPaws and Foreal make an interesting case for SEE. I guess I am just too ASL. I had always been instructed that SEE or too much pidgeon sign was not a good thing. Thanks to you two for your take on SEE.

You learn something new every day :)

ASLGAL

Cochlear Implants is a personal choice. Honestly, I can't have CI because I have too much residual hearing, and with the CI, it destroys that. A few of my friends (20s to 30s), just got CI because it was their choice. So, honestly, I think you should allow your child make that decision, not you.
If you expose your daughter to BOTH deaf community and hearing community, she'll find where she belongs. When I was young, I lived 5 mins away from my school, and rarely ever go out with my friends (they all lived far away), so I wasn't involved with the deaf community until later in life. In a small way, I wished I was more involved when I was younger.
Maybe your daughter wants to be involved with both. I'm not sure where you live, but if you find yourself some deaf community events (NAD - National Association for the Deaf, etc), you can bring your daughter there to communicate with her peers. There are even events for hearing children who brother/sister is deaf to be along kids that knows what it's like to have a deaf brother/sister.

I have a daughter who are wearing the 2 hearing aids. Today, she are young lady of age 23 years old. She was born that way. I am also hard of hearing. I have 2 hearing aids too. Can you tell me a little bit more about your daughters.
I do agree with the Potugallady; you made the right decision for your daughter NOT to get a coclear implant. God loves you. Luci

i almost can relate. i'm a child that grew up with hearing and gone severly deaf by my teens i would seen your child to deaf school if you want them to be in the deaf culture and take that route. and then you can man stream then if they wish to in high school to get both worlds. but coclear implants is a choice given to the famliy and the child can choose to do that they get older if they chose. I choose not to for the fact the hearing aides was to much for me. i can just ima gine what the im plant s would have been like. if you like to ask me more questions just email me back thansk. hope this helps.

Hi, Iam mod-severely hearing impaired adult women. I wear aids and read lips. The hearing world is tough. I went to regular schools and was treated normal. Which was cool, except I never admitted to learning disabilities. Only a select few friends, knew of my hearing aid (only 1 K-12th). I've missed ALOT, said, my whole life, still do. Now wear 2 siemens aids, best I've had ! Your child should learn ASL and speech therapy and get to know deafs & Hearing people alike : ) Nothing to fear, she is young and born into a new era, knowing more about Deafs/HOH. Hearing Impairments ARE THE MOST MISUNDERSTOOD DISABILITY.
Iam 42, mom of a Hearing daughter, in college
lets chat : )
tomi/shelli