RE: Re: Family sets up foundation to help inform others about CI-off...

[Guest guest]

Thanks, and feel free to pass the article around too. Just give credit to the

author. Some people feel that the CI surgery should wait until the child is

an adult and that may be too late for language skills. Parents need to know the

other side of the story.

Hermine Willey

Columbus OH

[Guest guest]

<< Some people feel that the CI surgery should wait until the child is

an adult and that may be too late for language skills.>>

Just want jump in here with a minor clarification. Language skills and

SPOKEN language skills are not the same. If a child has full access to

language visually *ASL, Cued Speech) then there doesn't always need to

be such a rush.

<<Parents need to know the other side of the story. >> Actually as a

parent, I want to know ALL sides of the story, not just the story

colored by the doctor or audiologists' bias or limited knowledge.

I continue to be bothered by reports from parents that they are being

told that implantation is the ONLY hope their child has at literacy, a

" normal " life, etc. This is often being said before any real attempts

at non-surgical amplification or visual language stimulation. The

reality is that cortical language competency and written English

literacy equal success in America, not speech. Too many studies of CI

success compare kids who have the best auditory experience (CI, FM and

great habilitation) to " TC " kids with very poor controls on language

model quality. If you compare kids from excellent AVT programs like

Hopkins and Beebe to kids from excellent ASL programs like the Learning

Center for Deaf Children, you will find that their LANGUAGE and English

literacy levels are very similar. To compare AV kids with all the best

opportunity to TC kids with poor quality teachers and sub-optimal

amplification is " cooking the books. " It very well may be that if one

did a truly balanced study, CI's would prove to have some advantage, but

the advantages and conclusions stated in several studies are overstated

at best.

I'm all for letting people know about options, but when information is

one sided, regardless of the side, it is, in my opinion,

counterproductive.

____________________________________________

Best Regards,

Brad Ingrao, M.S.Ed. CCC-A, FAAA

Editor

EDEN - The Electronic Deaf Education Network

www.bradingrao.com

e-mail: info@...

[Guest guest]

Brad,

There is also the risk of ossification! I remember losing more of my hearing

due to ossification after having meningitis several years earlier. After the

ossification, I started getting headaches too frequently. I would recommend

surgery now before ossification because the child will NOT have to suffer

headaches the way I did!

A.

In a message dated 3/6/04 7:08:32 PM Pacific Standard Time, bingrao@...

writes:

> << Some people feel that the CI surgery should wait until the child is

> an adult and that may be too late for language skills.>>

[Guest guest]

Good point Anneliese,

However, there are a lot of kids (and adults) not deafened by meningitis

who are being " fast tracked "

Brad

____________________________________________

Best Regards,

Brad Ingrao, M.S.Ed. CCC-A, FAAA

Editor

EDEN - The Electronic Deaf Education Network

www.bradingrao.com

e-mail: info@...

Re: Re: Family sets up foundation to help inform

others about CI-off...

Brad,

There is also the risk of ossification! I remember losing more of my

hearing due to ossification after having meningitis several years

earlier. After the ossification, I started getting headaches too

frequently. I would recommend surgery now before ossification because

the child will NOT have to suffer headaches the way I did!

A.

In a message dated 3/6/04 7:08:32 PM Pacific Standard Time,

bingrao@...

writes:

> << Some people feel that the CI surgery should wait until the child is

> an adult and that may be too late for language skills.>>