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Cochlear Implants

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90% of deaf children are born to hearing parents (Michell 138-163). 40% of deaf children are exposed to signed language before school age (Dougherty). Cochlear implants are approved by the FDA for implantation into children as young as two years old (FDA). A hearing parent with a new deaf child is faced with choosing between two distinct lifestyles and paths for their children within weeks; oral or manual. The oral method relies on lip reading, mainstream schools, and nowadays, cochlear implants or hearing aids. The manual method relies on sign language, residential schools, and accepting Deafness as a culture worth nurturing. Both methods have their strong suits. Both have their weak points. But first, a vocabulary lesson. The word ‘deaf’ …show more content…

To parents of a deaf daughter named Julia; “for all the beauty and history of sign language,...signers are equipped to interact primarily with other signers” (Reisler 2). This means that Deaf children raised manually are isolated from their peers, their family, and most of the world. Though their parents may be willing to learn sign language, the world is not. All countries rely on spoken languages and only few people learn sign language. With a cochlear implant, children, according to the FDA, “detected medium-to-loud conversational speech and environmental sounds, such as doorbells and car horns. Many showed improved ability to identify the the timing and rhythm of speech - a few actually recognized speech - without lip reading” (FDA 1). This new technology allows people like Julia to hear. Though this technology is not perfect, it can be a tool used to improve the oral approach; lip reading and speech therapy. This approach has gained strength and numbers with the recent improvements of the cochlear implants, of which the FDA says that only thirty-three out of two hundred children had an adverse reaction to the implant (FDA 1). They claim that the cochlear implant, along with other new inventions, can allow deaf children to be on the same level as their hearing …show more content…

It is a linguistic minority that is worth exploring, with a rich and vibrant language. This language shapes the community. Daniel S. Koo, a member of this community explains that, “‘ASL exposes children to the world's knowledge," he says, "and it incorporates self-esteem and aspects of deaf culture’” (Bollag 1). Unlike with Julia, Deaf students who are placed in schools for the deaf, which use sign language as the primary language during classes, Deaf children do not feel isolated or weird for their inability to hear. Instead of reaching out to other isolated kids, they walk through their schools making effortless friendships and learning just as hearing kids do. The only difference? The language they use. Before ASL was accepted as an official language in these schools, many educators and school prohibited signing and, “students had to wear mittens or sit on their hands as a punishment for signing. Other schools used more severe reprimands” (Oral 1). Because of this history, the modern community strives to create an environment of open communication, where the stories that are told to friends could be seen as oversharing to hearing people unused to Deaf culture. But this environment creates a close-knit community where everyone seems to know everyone. Some parents, aware of this closeness, opt to learn ASL themselves and immerse themselves into the Deaf community to be a part of their child’s source of

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