Re: Ear Implant Success Sparks Culture War for Deaf

[Guest guest]

Oh lord not this nonsense again. Mankind was meant to hear end of story.

The pro Deaf culture people argue that giving a child an implant takes away

his right to be Deaf and a member of a unique culture. Yet they ignore the

simple fact that the decision to NOT implant a child takes away the childs

rights to hear and appreciate music. It takes away the childs right to be

alerted to an oncoming car and it takes away the childs right to interact

with the world at large. Yeah sign langauge might die out (highly unlikely

as there will always be people who do not benefit from an implant) but you

know so did Latin.... (sadly they insist on keeping that alive by wasting

students times in schools on this dead language) but even with the death of

Latin the world continued to move and change , nothing stays the same deal

with it and stop trying to block the progess of technology for the majority

who want it. (Capital D deaf while apparently the most vocal is actually the

smallest portion of the hearing loss population)

On 1/2/07, MacPherson <hohbob@...> wrote:

>

>

> Detroit News, January 2, 2006

> ---

>

> Ear implant success sparks culture war for deaf

>

> Nowak / New Scientist Magazine

>

> C ould the end of sign language for deaf children be in sight? A spate of

> new studies has shown that profoundly deaf babies who receive cochlear

> implants in their first year of life develop language and speech skills

> remarkably close to those of hearing children. Many of the children even

> learn to sing passably well and function almost flawlessly in the hearing

> world.

>

> These findings may sound like a triumph to audiologists and the hearing

> parents of deaf babies. But they have done little to convince those in the

> deaf community who maintain that it is unethical to give deaf babies

> cochlear implants, which bypass damaged areas of the ear and stimulate the

> auditory nerve directly.

>

> " The idea of operating on a healthy baby makes us all recoil, " says Harlan

> Lane, a psycholinguist at Northeastern University in Boston, Mass. " Deaf

> people argue that they use a different language, and with it comes a

> different culture, but there is certainly nothing wrong with them that

> needs

> fixing with a surgeon's scalpel. We should listen. "

>

> Ever since cochlear implants became commercially available 20 years ago,

> they have been seen as a threat to the culture and language of those born

> profoundly deaf. The fiercest opposition has been to their use in

> children,

> who could otherwise grow up proficient in sign language. Until recently,

> there was no good evidence that implants routinely improved children's

> chances of developing normal speech and language, raising fears that those

> fitted with implants would be stuck in a no-man's land -- part of neither

> the hearing world nor the deaf one.

>

> That concern may be put to rest by the new studies. In one, presented in

> November at the Bionic Ear Institute in Melbourne, Australia, a team led

> by

> Dowell at the University of Melbourne showed that 11 profoundly

> deaf

> children who received cochlear implants before the age of 1 had entirely

> normal language development at least up to age 4 to 5. Language skills

> were

> assessed using a battery of tests, including routine tests of

> comprehension

> and expression and observing at what age they started different types of

> babbling and using key words.

>

> Their language development was also superior to a further 36 children who

> had been implanted at age 1 or 2, suggesting that the earlier the implant

> is

> fitted the better. " The kids still don't have normal hearing, but they

> have

> normal language. They can have a conversation, make a joke, lie, tease --

> all those normal things that 4- or 5-year-olds do, " says team member Shani

> Dettman.

>

> The team's findings are supported by other studies, including one from

> Johanna , of Washington University in St. Louis, and Ann Geers of

> the University of Texas-Dallas. It showed a dramatic improvement in the

> spoken language skills of 76 profoundly deaf children at the age of 3, if

> they had received their cochlear implant closer to 1 year old rather than

> 3

> years.

>

> The findings are particularly important because spoken language skills

> seem

> key to a child's chance of fully integrating into hearing society. A

> separate study by Lenarz and Anke Lesinski-Schiedat of the

> University

> of Hannover in Germany found that a child who gets a cochlear implant

> before

> the age of 2 has a 70 percent chance of attending an ordinary school,

> compared with a 30 percent chance for a child who receives an implant

> between the ages of 2 and 4.

>

> Geers agrees deaf culture may be under threat, but says, " there is no

> hostility here. People are doing this so that deaf people can live in the

> hearing world, marry who they like and work where they like, and so that

> hearing parents can have their children as part of their culture. But it

> must seem like genocide to the deaf. "

>

> Until these latest findings, implants had only been shown successful in

> adults who'd gone deaf later in life, rather than in the estimated 1 in

> 2,000 people born profoundly deaf each year. The majority of those born

> deaf

> had had their implants fitted when they were older than 3, and while many

> could understand speech, very few developed normal language abilities.

>

> The new results show that very young children can learn the complex rules

> of

> language using a cochlear implant, presumably because the infant brain is

> so

> adaptable.

>

>

[Guest guest]

I feel I need to apologize to the group. My response was a bit harsh and

also I should clarify my response was aimed at the statement made by Harlan

Lane not the article as a whole. Please keep in mind that I was a hard of

hearing kid who grew up in a DEAF family (no complaints) but when my

hearing bottomed out over night I decided to get a CI and was promptly

disowned by family and friends because I had rejected Deaf culture. Those

wounds are still healing so that is why I responded so harshly. Again accept

my apologies

On 1/2/07, Vacks <vacklist77@...> wrote:

>

> Oh lord not this nonsense again. Mankind was meant to hear end of story.

> The pro Deaf culture people argue that giving a child an implant takes away

> his right to be Deaf and a member of a unique culture. Yet they ignore the

> simple fact that the decision to NOT implant a child takes away the childs

> rights to hear and appreciate music. It takes away the childs right to be

> alerted to an oncoming car and it takes away the childs right to interact

> with the world at large. Yeah sign langauge might die out (highly unlikely

> as there will always be people who do not benefit from an implant) but you

> know so did Latin.... (sadly they insist on keeping that alive by wasting

> students times in schools on this dead language) but even with the death of

> Latin the world continued to move and change , nothing stays the same deal

> with it and stop trying to block the progess of technology for the majority

> who want it. (Capital D deaf while apparently the most vocal is actually the

> smallest portion of the hearing loss population)

> On 1/2/07, MacPherson <hohbob@...> wrote:

> >

> >

> > Detroit News, January 2, 2006

> > ---

> >

> > Ear implant success sparks culture war for deaf

> >

> > Nowak / New Scientist Magazine

> >

> > C ould the end of sign language for deaf children be in sight? A spate

> > of

> > new studies has shown that profoundly deaf babies who receive cochlear

> > implants in their first year of life develop language and speech skills

> > remarkably close to those of hearing children. Many of the children even

> > learn to sing passably well and function almost flawlessly in the

> > hearing

> > world.

> >

> > These findings may sound like a triumph to audiologists and the hearing

> > parents of deaf babies. But they have done little to convince those in

> > the

> > deaf community who maintain that it is unethical to give deaf babies

> > cochlear implants, which bypass damaged areas of the ear and stimulate

> > the

> > auditory nerve directly.

> >

> > " The idea of operating on a healthy baby makes us all recoil, " says

> > Harlan

> > Lane, a psycholinguist at Northeastern University in Boston, Mass. " Deaf

> > people argue that they use a different language, and with it comes a

> > different culture, but there is certainly nothing wrong with them that

> > needs

> > fixing with a surgeon's scalpel. We should listen. "

> >

> > Ever since cochlear implants became commercially available 20 years ago,

> > they have been seen as a threat to the culture and language of those

> > born

> > profoundly deaf. The fiercest opposition has been to their use in

> > children,

> > who could otherwise grow up proficient in sign language. Until recently,

> > there was no good evidence that implants routinely improved children's

> > chances of developing normal speech and language, raising fears that

> > those

> > fitted with implants would be stuck in a no-man's land -- part of

> > neither

> > the hearing world nor the deaf one.

> >

> > That concern may be put to rest by the new studies. In one, presented in

> > November at the Bionic Ear Institute in Melbourne, Australia, a team led

> > by

> > Dowell at the University of Melbourne showed that 11 profoundly

> > deaf

> > children who received cochlear implants before the age of 1 had entirely

> > normal language development at least up to age 4 to 5. Language skills

> > were

> > assessed using a battery of tests, including routine tests of

> > comprehension

> > and expression and observing at what age they started different types of

> > babbling and using key words.

> >

> > Their language development was also superior to a further 36 children

> > who

> > had been implanted at age 1 or 2, suggesting that the earlier the

> > implant is

> > fitted the better. " The kids still don't have normal hearing, but they

> > have

> > normal language. They can have a conversation, make a joke, lie, tease

> > --

> > all those normal things that 4- or 5-year-olds do, " says team member

> > Shani

> > Dettman.

> >

> > The team's findings are supported by other studies, including one from

> > Johanna , of Washington University in St. Louis, and Ann Geers

> > of

> > the University of Texas-Dallas. It showed a dramatic improvement in the

> > spoken language skills of 76 profoundly deaf children at the age of 3,

> > if

> > they had received their cochlear implant closer to 1 year old rather

> > than 3

> > years.

> >

> > The findings are particularly important because spoken language skills

> > seem

> > key to a child's chance of fully integrating into hearing society. A

> > separate study by Lenarz and Anke Lesinski-Schiedat of the

> > University

> > of Hannover in Germany found that a child who gets a cochlear implant

> > before

> > the age of 2 has a 70 percent chance of attending an ordinary school,

> > compared with a 30 percent chance for a child who receives an implant

> > between the ages of 2 and 4.

> >

> > Geers agrees deaf culture may be under threat, but says, " there is no

> > hostility here. People are doing this so that deaf people can live in

> > the

> > hearing world, marry who they like and work where they like, and so that

> > hearing parents can have their children as part of their culture. But it

> > must seem like genocide to the deaf. "

> >

> > Until these latest findings, implants had only been shown successful in

> > adults who'd gone deaf later in life, rather than in the estimated 1 in

> > 2,000 people born profoundly deaf each year. The majority of those born

> > deaf

> > had had their implants fitted when they were older than 3, and while

> > many

> > could understand speech, very few developed normal language abilities.

> >

> > The new results show that very young children can learn the complex

> > rules of

> > language using a cochlear implant, presumably because the infant brain

> > is so

> > adaptable.

> >

> >

[Guest guest]

,

The simple fact that you personally encountered bias in the deaf culture

and especially from family is good enough to validate your response, no

apology needed.

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