Guest guest Posted October 10, 2006 Report Share Posted October 10, 2006 Hi and all, Yes, my son was screened at birth. He failed the OAE but " passed " the ABR that they gave him when he was 2 days old. I've contacted two schools already... AZ School for Deaf and Blind and Desert Voices Oral Learning Center. I'm meeting with ASDB tomorrow and with DVOLC on Friday to check out what each has to offer. My understanding from what little I do know is that ASDB does a mix of Sign and Oral where OVOLC is all oral. My fear is that if I go all oral that my son won't have a way to communicate should there be a delay between hearing aids and cochlear or if in the future the cochlear has a problem. I have mixed feelings about it. Should i worry about having a " back up communication system " or is going oral the best way to go? Jen M Jansen <nucleus24@...> wrote: Welcome aboard, Jen, Was your son screened for hearing at birth? Universal newborn hearing screenings are something AGBell organization is striving to make a reality. They are a good source for you right now. www.agbell.org They will help you advocate for your son to have an oral education. Your school system is required to provide certain things for him right now, so contact the AGBell organization in your state and get the ball rolling. Good to try the hearing aids, see if they help. If not, the implant is a good move. The sooner the better. You don't want your son having to play " catch up " when it comes to being oral. Let us know if you have any questions we can answer. They implant children as young as 12 months of age. There is a lot of great information on the website: www..com Welcome aboard, The Original Posted by: " dippy_megajinks " dippy_megajinks@... dippy_megajinks Mon Oct 9, 2006 4:50 pm (PST) Hi all, My name is Jen. I'm the proud mommy of a wonderful 17 month old son who was diagnosed last Tuesday with " profound hard of hearing. " (No response at 90 decibels on ABR.) No family history of deafness or ear infections. Anyway... I just wanted to say hi and let you know I will be loitering about reading as time permits. We will start the hearing aid trials in a couple weeks and move towards cochlear implants at the beginning of next year. Thanks for letting me join your group and to learn from your experiences. Jen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 11, 2006 Report Share Posted October 11, 2006 Hi Jen, My son started with total communication (sign plus speech), and when he only had hearing aids, he mostly relied on the sign language end of this. But once he got his first CI at age 4, we switched gradually but quickly to an oral approach and an auditory-oral school. We were worried that the sign would interfere with him really learning to listen with his implant, especially given how old he was when he got the CI. He's become a really amazing listener, and I routinely talk to him from a completely different room and he can understand me thanks to the miracle of CI technology. He gave up signing on his own a while back. When his processors are off, he still speaks, but I still sign to him a little. This, with some lip-reading (and thank goodness he can spell now, as he and I have forgotten many signs), helps him get by for those very few moments of the day when he is without hearing. Having bilateral CIs makes his soundless time almost non-existant during the day, since he can still hear through all battery changes. He does not have an interpreter at school, or even an aide anymore. If I were you, I would research the approaches. Sure, it is nice to have an alternate communication mode, BUT bear in mind that the time you spend learning to sign will take away from the time you will spend learning how to be most effective in teaching him to listen and talk. Having tried both methods, I can tell you there is plenty to learn either way, and some methods are even a bit contradictory. Also, there is research out there that suggests that kids who learn to rely on audition and as opposed to sign have better speech and spoken language skills (go to www.pubmed.gov and look up articles by Ann Geers). My personal feeling is that today's implants work so well that a child who gets an implant at a young age can't help but listen, and that sign language isn't going to interfere that much because listening will come naturally. Still, if I had another deaf child, I think he or she would get two implants from the get-go and signing would be no more relevant than for my hearing child. And there is that tiny bit of doubt that if sign might interfere, then I'd rather delay having the child learn it until after his auditory and spoken language skills are fully developed. In addition to the 2 schools, if I were you, I would also research whether there are any Auditory-Verbal therapists in your area. You can look here: www.agbellacademy.org You may decide to go this route. It emphasizes listening, parent-as-teacher, and mainstreaming with hearing peers from day one. Lydia Mom of , 9, Nucleus bilateral, 1/01 at age 4 and 3/05 at age 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 11, 2006 Report Share Posted October 11, 2006 Jen and other interested: In regards to the signing/oral concerns... I am a Deaf adult whose first language is English. I learned to lipread from an early age...and while no one really knows how old I actually was when I began losing my hearing, I was fitted with my first hearing aid at age 4. My Deaf sister began wearing hers at age 3. Regardless.... I grew up in public schools, learned to lipread, but struggled in a HUGE way. When I was in my early 20's I was introduced to the Deaf community...I learned ASL and today am fluent in ASL as well as my first language, English. It wasn't until I learned ASL that I finally UNDERSTOOD everything. Yes, I understood many things, but was lacking in a big way as well. For starters, I graduated from high school with a 1.85 gpa....hardly a passing grade!! When I went to college with an ASL interpreter, I made the DEANS LIST!! I'm very proud to be telling the world this I want to add that while the world is primarily hearing and English speaking, those of us who have lived as Deaf children know from experience that we need to have the best of both worlds..a speaking/hearing world and the signing world with closed captioning, CART, interpreters, etc. It is hard to predict just how much we (deaf children) will be able to actually hear, use and understand the spoken English language in our lives, in all situations. I was fortunate to be able to learn English and even speak it quite fluently. Today I am happy that I have my English and my ASL skills as I tend to use both. I was lucky prior to having my CI to be able to speak very good English. I am told that today my spoken English is near perfect. You may be interested in reading my research regarding language acquisition in deaf children: http://users.zoominternet.net/~cindy4baskets/research.html Explore your options regarding your sons needs, and follow your heart. Bombard your child with language in as many ways as you can, both in the school setting and out Freedom 9/21/05 HOOKED!! Sensorineural hearing loss discovered at age 4 > > Hi Jen, > My son started with total communication (sign plus speech), and > when he only had hearing aids, he mostly relied on the sign language > end of this. But once he got his first CI at age 4, we switched > gradually but quickly to an oral approach and an auditory-oral school. > We were worried that the sign would interfere with him really > learning to listen with his implant, especially given how old he was > when he got the CI. > > He's become a really amazing listener, and I routinely talk to him > from a completely different room and he can understand me thanks to > the miracle of CI technology. He gave up signing on his own a while > back. When his processors are off, he still speaks, but I still sign > to him a little. This, with some lip-reading (and thank goodness he > can spell now, as he and I have forgotten many signs), helps him get > by for those very few moments of the day when he is without hearing. > Having bilateral CIs makes his soundless time almost non-existant > during the day, since he can still hear through all battery changes. > He does not have an interpreter at school, or even an aide anymore. > > If I were you, I would research the approaches. Sure, it is nice to > have an alternate communication mode, BUT bear in mind that the time > you spend learning to sign will take away from the time you will spend > learning how to be most effective in teaching him to listen and talk. > Having tried both methods, I can tell you there is plenty to learn > either way, and some methods are even a bit contradictory. Also, > there is research out there that suggests that kids who learn to rely > on audition and as opposed to sign have better speech and spoken > language skills (go to www.pubmed.gov and look up articles by Ann > Geers). My personal feeling is that today's implants work so well > that a child who gets an implant at a young age can't help but listen, > and that sign language isn't going to interfere that much because > listening will come naturally. Still, if I had another deaf child, I > think he or she would get two implants from the get-go and signing > would be no more relevant than for my hearing child. And there is > that tiny bit of doubt that if sign might interfere, then I'd rather > delay having the child learn it until after his auditory and spoken > language skills are fully developed. > > In addition to the 2 schools, if I were you, I would also research > whether there are any Auditory-Verbal therapists in your area. You > can look here: www.agbellacademy.org You may decide to go this route. > It emphasizes listening, parent-as-teacher, and mainstreaming with > hearing peers from day one. > > Lydia > Mom of , 9, Nucleus bilateral, 1/01 at age 4 and 3/05 at age 8 > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 11, 2006 Report Share Posted October 11, 2006 Dear , With all due respect to your experience, cochlear implants have really changed things for kids today. My son does understand everything and functions very much like a hearing child. He learned to read by sounding out words. He has lots of friends, goes on sleepovers, talks on the phone, etc. There is fairly little about his life that is different from his hearing brother's other than the fact that they are different people with different personalities. It is really a different world now for deaf kids because of cochlear implants. And like it or not, they make sign language almost irrelevant. Implants have taken the struggle away of learning to speak and learning a spoken language. There are many young CI users now that are fluent in multiple SPOKEN languages. It is a very, very different world today, and impossible to compare to what things were like even 10 or 15 years ago. Lydia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 3, 2008 Report Share Posted June 3, 2008 Hi Jen, A warm welcome to you, so happy to hear you are finding our discussion network helpful. Ask questions any time, take a look through our rich collection of Files, archived messages and links when your time permits. Early intervention in children is so important, there are some emerging new therapies such as Vitamin C and Citicoline that may prove beneficial after all the research is concluded. I had a childhood diagnosis, foot surgery, physical therapy, etc. and was encouraged to swim, bike and walk in the sand. Now am 55 and still on my feet and very active. My life has been/and is wonderful too. Gretchen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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