Popular Catch Argument: Can You Hear Me Now?

Cochlear implants are becoming more and more popular now. Even babies as young as 12 months are receiving a cochlear implant. For hearing parents it’s more convenient to have their child get a cochlear implant rather then to learn sign language. Hearing parents usually just look for the simple way out because they don’t want to have a child who is “different.�

(n.d.). Part one: the deaf community and cochlear implants my child can have more choices: reflections of deaf mothers on cochlear implants for their children. Cochlear Implants: Evolving Perspectives. Retrieved February 09, 2018, from http://gupress.gallaudet.edu/excerpts/CIEP.html

This entire movie offered a new perspective towards Deaf culture that we have not explored in detail in class. A lot of the Deaf culture we have learned about had to do with learning as a Deaf student or the history behind Deaf schooling. This movie showed me what it was like to be affected by Deafness without being Deaf yourself. Margaret had so many extra struggles in her life that may not have been an issue if her parents were hearing. For example, Margaret wanted to go buy a dress to wear for graduation just like all of her friends were doing. When Margaret told her mother that her friend’s father could give her a discount on a store bought dress her mother did not even consider it and told her no. Her mother insisted that they would not be beggers and that she would make her a dress. Since Margaret’s mother was unable to communicate without help from other people I think that she did not believe in accepting help from other people no matter what the help was for. Even though Margaret’s friend was being nice by offering her a discount the mother felt it was a handout because they felt bad for her. This showed how Margaret’s mother was very proud and taking care of herself and

Studies have shown that if a child receives a cochlear implant before the child is 18 months old followed by intensive therapy the child is likely to develop language skills that are comparable to their peers and many children are able to attend mainstream schooling. This sounds great to parents, but what happens when the cochlear implant doesn’t work or if the child doesn’t receive the necessary therapy for understanding sound using the cochlear implant. Because the children were not exposed to American sign language (ASL) this can delay the children education and learning compared to their peers. When children are born to hearing parents they want the child to be like them and be able to hear. To the hearing, deafness is a disability and if there is a way that they can make their child hear, most parents will do everything in their power to make sure they can give that to their child. Then again, many parents forget is that living with a cochlear implant is a lifelong process and involves years to decades of therapy for their child. And if a child receives the implant later than 18 months old it becomes harder for the child to understand speech from a cochlear implant and more intensive therapy for the child. Children start learning language from their parents listening to them talk to others and talk to the baby. If the child is deaf, they are missing this important development of speech, which makes it harder for the child to learn to speak and understanding language. Also, most hearing parents don’t know ASL or sign fluently to be able to teach their children the language and help them to start learning and be able to communicate with society. Today there are still parents that will not learn ASL even though their child is deaf or maybe they received a cochlear implant and it didn’t work. This

The documentary Sound and Fury by Roger Weisberg takes its views inside the rarely seen world of deaf culture for the family struggle over controversial medical technology known as the cochlear

According to Edwards, the Deaf community began to rise in response to the social view of deafness as a handicap rather than a difference that a whole “Deaf” community is characterized by. Their shared

Through watching this documentary, my understanding on the many modalities people who are deaf use to communication was expanded. During many of Aneta’s interactions with her new friend Tahani, while they wrote their slam poem, she not only relied on an

Most doctors recommend that children with cochlear implant only use spoken language as a method of communication so they can maximize the benefits from the cochlear implant. However, the popular method of communication for children with cochlear implants is total communication which is the integration of oral communication and ASL. Although Heather Artinian was fluent in ASL before she received her cochlear implant, she was able to communicate with hearing and deaf people through both ASL and spoken language after years of intensive speech therapy (Aronson, Sound and Fury: Six Years Later). When cochlear implant users take it off, they cannot hear any sounds so they are technically still deaf. Even though they are able to hear sounds, cochlear implant recipients will not be able to identify themselves as hearing individuals. When they bridge the gap between the deaf and hearing world, they can still be a part of both cultures without defining themselves as a part of only one culture (TedX: The Heather World). Therefore, the cochlear implant can be a great device for deaf people who want to stay in the Deaf community but still be able to take advantage of additional opportunities in the hearing

Mark Drolsbaugh’s Deaf Again book gives a detailed account of his experience with becoming deaf in both a hearing and deaf world. It includes the awkwardness and un-comfortability he felt in hearing environments, within is personal family dynamic and in deaf safe havens where he learned to adjust, and grow for the betterment of him learning ASL and in general, becoming emerged within Deaf culture. Drolsbaugh starts the book off by introducing how life for deaf people, even when giving birth, can be a struggle (due to society not being well informed on how to effectively communicate and treat Deaf individuals). Drolsbaugh’s mother, Sherry, wasn’t properly given epidural while giving birth to him, and as she made noises to best express that something was wrong, the nurse brushed it off. Once Mark was born, and Sherry got up the needle wasn’t in her back but on the bed. Looking at how communication issues can lead to negative results, throughout the rest of the book Drolsbaugh sheds light on this phenomenon, specifically focusing on the educational environment and the interactions between and among hearing and deaf communities.

While reading this book, there were several things that stood out to me, one of which being how Brandi struggled so much as a child trying to be a part of the Deaf world and the hearing world, think that was what was expected of her instead of asking herself what she wanted. While not everyone experiences this struggle on such a large scale as Brandi did, many people, especially teens, can put themselves in that mind set of looking for themselves and trying to find who the person they want to be much as Rarus did later in life. She talks about the struggle to prove herself as being able to “stay hearing” was vital to her as a child. “I thought I was too smart for the deaf classes. I didn’t know that deaf kids who are only exposed to sign language and don’t use any speech whatsoever – like the kids in the class next door to me in elementary school – often read below grade level because their English isn’t honed” (22) She believed, at the time, reading at a

She explains that being part of a deaf home was louder than most believe to be true. The sounds that occurred were constant and no one else seemed to care because they could not hear the loud noises they

Marie and her family grew up in Worcester. Her Deaf parents attended oral schools. Her father, John was a well-known person in New England. He is recognized in the Hall of Fame for playing basketball and softball for Worcester Deaf Club. He was involved in many activities for Worcester Deaf Club. Her mother, Doris is a housewife, raising three daughters. She always enjoyed taking her daughters to the zoo and including them in the Deaf community. When she was 8 months old, her mother dropped a drawer of clothing, Marie didn’t wake up, and her mother realized that something was wrong. By using homemade tests like letting the alarm ring and noticing Marie didn’t respond her mother

Those that oppose cochlear implants argue mostly from a minority standpoint. The deaf community feels that as the minority, the hearing majority is threatening their way of life. “The deaf community is a culture. They’re much like the culture of the Hispanic community, for example, where parents who are Hispanics, or shall we say deaf, would naturally want to retain their family ties by their common language, their primary language, which is

CI’s were manufactured in order to create ease of function in day to day lives of deaf people but has conjured up ethical and social issues amongst specific cultures. Across different cultures there are opposing and parallel beliefs regarding cochlear implants and the benefits and harms regarding the process of implanting one. Many deaf communities within western cultures such as America and Australia view CI’s as unnecessary and offensive towards deaf culture. According to a majority of cultures, receiving CI’s is seen as inappropriate and takes away a person’s identity. Heather Artinian, in the annual TED conference who is a deaf person who wears cochlear implants explained that receiving cochlear implants places the individual between two identities, neither deaf nor hearing. This is because once receiving her cochlear implants, the deaf community within her western culture no longer perceives her as a deaf person because, following receiving the implants, she was able to hear sounds and communicate in ways which deaf people who hadn’t received the implants could not. She too described that she was also not part of the hearing culture as she was not considered as a hearing individual due to being born deaf and despite receiving the CI’s, is still regarded as deaf opposed to as a

The story begins with Margaret, a young girl living with her Deaf parents and hearing brother. Her brother dies at a young age, leaving her parents with only their daughter to help them communicate verbally with the hearing world. As Margaret grows up, she notices their distrust and weariness of hearing people and that without her, they don’t have an easy way to communicate. She feels pressure and responsibility to take care of them and to be their ears in the world. Margaret doesn’t like feeling “different” because of the fact she knows sign and her parents are Deaf, so she doesn’t have many friends and only signs at home. When she meets and marries a hearing man named William, she is torn between helping her parents communicate with hearing people and being with him. Her parents struggle to adjust and accept Margaret’s new life with William, especially when she moves away and they don’t have a translator.