Re: AV philosophy? (ANY philosophy)

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 5/2/2004 1:48:27 PM Eastern Daylight Time,

colpax2000@... writes:

**end of rant**

Colin

_____________

Colin,

And what a wonderful rant is was! Well spoken and clear ... I'm printing it

out and saving it.

Thanks -- Jill

[Guest guest]

RE:

" In my letter to the teacher I wrote, " It concerns me sometimes that some

may

lose sight of his hearing disability and perceive him as hearing once that

listening device goes on, but there are many challenges that he faces and we

can’

t lose sight of the big picture. "

When she responded to me she said she was confused by my statement because

she was under the impression that the AV philosophy advocates teaching and

treating the CI child as a hearing child. "

Yes, a very gross oversimplification of AV therapy may be " to treat a CI

child as a hearing child. " HOWEVER, it is very specific in what it does -

recognizing auditory mistakes and tailoring therapy specific to

them...understanding how the hearing loss is affecting the learning

process...tailoring therapy to guide a child through natural stages of

learning. Do you do this with a hearing child? NO! Why? Because they do it

naturally. We don't have to do it because they are naturally exposed to

language from 6 months gestation and they amazingly learn it on their own.

Just because a child gets hearing aids or a CI and can hear " perfectly " on

an audiogram doesn't mean that we expect them to learn speech and language

the same way a normal hearing child would. They need help - they are behind

and need to catch up with peers, and until this is done they need

intervention to speed up this process. They also need help because even

though the audioigram may show they have " normal " hearing, this is not the

case. The cochlea may be damaged - distorting or modifying sounds we all

hear similarly. There may be brain damage in auditory areas, which may

affect their hearing in ways we don't know or understand.

Sometimes it seems that because we can't " see " a hearing loss it doesn't get

the respect or attention it deserves. Would they tell the parents of a child

with Cerebral Palsy " Oh, she gets around OK so we aren't going to give her

physical therapy. " ????? NO - partly because you can see CP and what it does.

Or any other physical disability. The teacher needs to understand that your

child simply does not hear as well as her, or any other child in the

classroom, and needs specific, tailored intervention for his individual

needs.

**end of rant**

Colin

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