Before going to bed, I was winding down the night by checking to see what was new on my favorite CI Kid blogs. I saw this, and just had to blog it even though it is my bedtime. Noah's mom was in Walmart with her implanted toddler (who loves to use sign language) and when they encountered some deaf people, the deaf adults were friendly until -- they saw the boy's CI. Then their attitude changed. Their attitude changed to one of outright rejection.
Folks, we just don't have the luxury of treating signing implanted kids this way. Not if we want the deaf community of the future to be a healthy deaf community. These kids ARE the future of the deaf community, like it or not. If we display bad attitudes towards the kids, do you think their parents are going to encourage their youngsters to interact with and be part of the deaf community as they grow?
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
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13 comments:
It doesn't surprise me that they would react this way. If they react to me, an adult oral CI user, then it's not surprising they would react this way to a deaf CI baby.
You quite don't get it.
Read my response on their site. Thank you.
Well being deaf parent--I am a deaf parent of a deaf baby. I grieve to see a child with CI. I am NOT against CI on kids but just felt pain for a child when they HAD to get CI to make hearing parents happy. I understood those deaf parents reacted and changed their attitude toward hearing parents to CI a kid. ONE WORD: SURGERY. I just do not like anyone to put CI on a child. If my child is hearing, I WANT my child to be DEAF. Will doctor allow me to have surgery to make a child DEAF?? I don't think so! My point is that they see deaf child with CI is very PAIN!
Oh please!!! Frankly, us deaf ASL born and bred don't give a damn. CI is really a stupid thing to occur in the beginning. Ya'll should know better than that. :(
This is an ongoing issue for everyone. It is wrong to treat a child that way, and it is wrong for hearing and CI families to attack the Deaf Community for choosing not to be implanted. We all need a healthy dose of tolerance. There are many issues that we should be able to agree on, but if the CI families are afraid of being attacked by the Deaf Community, the two groups will never be able to get together enough to work on those issues.
K.L.
Mom to a CI child.
Anonymous,
A single liner don't mean a thing because you aren't backing up your argument. So, my question is, what are your point[s] that Jamie don't quite get it?
Jamie made a very good point here and hits it on the head without getting too wordy.
Let me end it with a quote by Soren Kierkegaard:
"People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use."
What about not treating any of our kids this way??? Or are you saying not to treat "signing" ci kids this way? Seems like a double standard to me.
Anon,
What doesn't Jamie get? Can you please elaborate further on your comment?
You definitely do "get it" and we have been in the boy's shoes even though our son is not implanted. He is oral and learning to sign. The response from the d/Deaf people we encounter is as varied as you can imagine. Sometimes we are encouraged and welcomed, and sometimes we are treated quite poorly. We choose to ignore the angry people and enjoy the positive ones.
I feel bad for CI child because he is so innocent. Even though I am not crazy about CI myself, but I have to show respect for everyone, even people with CIs. It is not his fault because his parents have decided to have him implanted and their hopes to see his son to speak like a hearing child.
CI is not beneficial for everyone though.
I think Deaf people should not show their negative attitudes toward a Deaf CI child.
Oooh, that's simply horrible behavior. Could you imagine the same attitude directed at a child wearing hearing aids, using PSE/SEE in addition to ASL to communicate with someone, or differing in any other way from some 'approved' approach to being deaf?
We need to embrace our deaf children and accept them into the Deaf community, no matter what tools they use. But we also need to respect that they may reside in multiple communities: their families, neighbors, colleagues may be hearing. A CI does not make a child no longer deaf! And having a CI doesn't mean ASL can't be the child's primary language. It's just another tool available to increase communication. And parents have the right to and *are required to* make many choices and judgments in life (medical and otherwise) that profoundly affect their children. Within the law, other people have no right to say where I live, where my child goes to school (mine goes to a school for the deaf and that was my decision, not some stranger's!), or whether or not her tonsils come out, she gets braces, has eye surgery, gets glasses, or hearing aids, etc.) -- or if I decide that she gets a cochlear implant at the age when the CI is most optimally accepted by the body, mapped to the brain, and when speech development is most easily acquired: which is before the age of 2.
Think how many bridges that couple could have built by simply continuing to sign to Emily's toddler and foster that delight he was showing at finding someone to sign with him.
Well, don't forget their are deaf parents with CI and they have deaf children with CI. Both of my children, my husband, and I have the CI. We are still the same before and after our implant. It doesn't change who we are, it just helps us when we walk in the hearing world. We are talking, laughing, signing, dancing, and hearing so many things around us. That's a myth thinking that CI will take away sign language. People won't attack the deaf community if the deaf community stop criticizing parents about children with CI. The deaf community will get smaller if they don't accept deaf children with CI to be part of it. We have the best of BOTH worlds!
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