Now to my story.
My husband and I are both hearing and have no history of hearing loss in either family.
We were so excited to have our first baby. She was born last May with a bilateral and profound hearing loss. She received hearing aids at 4 months and her first cochlear implant in May of this year, at the age of 12months and 3 days. (She’ll be receiving her second CI this November or December at about 18months.) Our little girl couldn’t hear a lawn mower next to her head before her implant. And now, she wakes up every morning and with some assistance assembles all of her external components and tries to aim the magnet for the correct spot on her head. Everyday, when she turns her processor on, she grins from ear to ear. She tells me when she hears birds and airplanes. She tells me when she recognizes the absensce of sound, for instance, the A/C turning OFF. Our little girl is only 16 months old but she has no language delays, NONE. She is on target with her hearing peers. She may never need special services in school. She’ll surely be mainstreamed and she’ll surely be successful.
All that being said, I would like to add that a deaf person will always be deaf just as an amputee will always have one less leg or arm. That person without a leg or arm gets a prosthetic leg or arm. Would anyone ever tell that person not to attempt to use that leg or arm? I think not. The thing is, not everyone is capable of using those prosthetic legs and arms. So, not every prosthetic leg or arm is successful. A cochlear implant is a prosthetic device, according to most insurance companies. So, if a CI is defined as a prosthetic device why wouldn’t one at least attempt it? It’s just a prosthetic device. Here’s the reality of failed CI’s. Most do not fail anymore. The information so many seem to be quoting is from old studies. There have been so many advances in CI technology that there are actually very few failed CI’s. Those that do faily are usually do to some defect or issue with the actual device and can simply be replaced.
Another thing I feel it’s important to say, 1 baby is born every other day with some degree of hearing loss and 70% of new mothers go home with a baby without knowing their communication options. The majority of babies born in North America with a hearing loss are born to parents with typical hearing. Those families are not speaking ASL prior to their child being born and need to know what their options are. Some families choose not to implant and use only ASL while some families choose to implant and not use ASL and still others might choose a total communication option using both a CI and ASL.
Isn’t it most important to just inform everyone of all their options? Then those families can make their decision based upon truth, information and not someones opinion of what’s best for someone else’s child.

Feel free to visit us at http://thestotts6.blogspot.com/

Thanks for reading:-)

There is never a unilaterally succesful piece of technology.

It is much more experimentally valid to include both successes and failures for parents to make an informed decision, than to say “All you parents know that the cochlear implant produces amazing results, and certainly the child is better off with them than without” That statement is patently false. Children have DIED as a result of cochlear implantation, but of course no one wants to admit to such results — least of all the cochlear industry and “professionals” like speech therapists, audiologists or the educators who practice auditory/oral indoctrination of children.

Please present both sides of an issue — especially when you stray into an area so controversial as this.