Should Deaf People Receive Cochlear Implants Or Communicate Through Sign Language?

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.�

Walker, M. (2017, June 12). Deaf kids with cochlear implants do better without sign language. General Pediatrics. Retrieved February 09, 2018, from https://www.medpagetoday.com/pediatrics/generalpediatrics/65968

In today’s society there is an ongoing debate of weather children who are deaf should receive cochlear implants. A cochlear implant is a device that takes sound wave and changes the waves into electrical activity for the brain to interpret. Wire called electrodes are surgically implanted into the cochlear nerve which receives a signal from the microphone attached to the transmitter and speech processor. The microphone captures the sound from the environment and the speech processor filters the noise versus speech. Then the transmitter sends an electrical signal through the electrodes to stimulate the cochlear nerve. Every person has a different thought depending on their experiences in their life whether deaf children should receive cochlear

When your child is born, you want to make sure they're healthy. The doctors tell you that your child cannot hear and that he/she is a perfect candidate for a cochlear implant (CI). You have to decide, as a parent, whether to give he/her an implant and to be oral, not to give the implant and to be Deaf, or both. My decision is to give my child a CI, teach he/her to be oral, sign language, and being Deaf.

To implant or not implant? Many parents’ who are hearing that have deaf children contemplate this question. Because they want to fix the “problem” of deafness. For they want the best for their son or daughters and the “best” is to hear. For those of the deaf culture, they believe a parent who implants their child is abusing the child. Deafness is not a “problem”, but a way of life. Who is right? Unfortunately, there is no right or wrong answer, there is no manual, or signs that say “this way will lead to a better future”; it’s a personal judgement call.

Cochlear Implants are an object that is very controversial in the deaf community. “A Cochlear Implants is a device that provdes direct electrical stimulation to the auditory (hearing) nerve in the inner ear.” (“Cochlear Implants”) Cochlear Implants bypass the damaged hair cells, and directly stimulate the auditory nerve. Depending on when the Cochlear Implant is implanted it allows people to hear sounds, and sometimes even their own voice. While it does not cure hearing loss or deafness, it does allow people to hear. On more technical terms a Cochlear Implant includes parts like a microphone, speech processor, and a transmitter which each play a different part in the Cochlear Implant. The microphone picks up sounds, sends them to the speech processer, and then the speech processor analyzes and digitized the sound signal, thus sending them to a transmitter worn on the head. The debate of whether or not Cochlear Implants are right in the deaf community is one that has been going on for years. People believe having Cochlear Implants are a good thing, because they allow deaf people to communicate with hearing people, it allows people who are not helped by conventional hearing aids to be helped, and it creates new possibilities for deaf people. However there are also people that argue that having a Cochlear Implant is a bad thing, because it proposes the idea that deaf people need to be fixed, it can give deaf people false hope, and it proposes the idea that deaf people have a

A Cochlear Implant is an electronic device that partially restores hearing in people who have severe hearing loss due to damage of the inner ear and who receive limited benefit from hearing aids (http://www.cochlear.com/wps/wcm/connect/au/home/understand/hearing-and-hl/hl-treatments/cochlear-implant). In some cases there are patients whose hearing did not adjust correctly, having a risk of developing a virus, complications after the surgery, the benefits of sign language without a cochlear implant and lastly children or adults with cochlear implants may not even develop a good speech. There are many positive and negative articles I have read on cochlear implants. As a parent you are not only putting your child at risk, you are also withdrawing them from the deaf community, the one they were naturally born into. I do not support cochlear implants, children should not be implanted until they are grown to the point where they can make their own choice

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

Furthermore, a mandatory cochlear implant would place restrictions on the Deaf child’s free will. For starters, a forced cochlear implant would be seen disrespectful to the family’s ability to make their own decisions. As such, one of the major factors of the cochlear implant is the decision-making process that accompanies it; this concept is necessary in order for a family to conclude on whether or not they wish their child to have a cochlear implant. Studies show that many aspects of the decision-making process are influenced by outside sources such as extensive research from professionals and media portrayals of cochlear implants; they influence the parents, who are directly involved in the decision-making process, to be keenly aware of

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

This article "I Have a Child With a Cochlear Implant in My Preschool Classroom. Now, What?" by Carrie A. Davenport and Sheila R. Albert-Morgan dealt with the issue of exploring the fact that although cochlear implant technology is progressing rapidly through the years, there is however still a lack of capacity at the school level. This article also provides awareness of what individualized education program (IEP) teams can practice while raising the learning skills of a deaf child who uses cochlear implants. The main focus of this article is to help teachers provide the best education for children who are deaf and use cochlear implants while in classrooms, by implementing ways teachers can provide the appropriate accommodations to their students,

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

could you imagine a world where you aren’t able to hear a sound? Well, for hundreds of thousands of people this is unfortunately their reality. However, with advances in technology people are now able to hear for the first time and let me tell you, that’s certainly music to my ears. A new piece of medical technology known as the cochlear implant is a life changer that helps the deaf to live a normal life.

The article “Parents of deaf children with cochlear implants: a study of technology and community” focus mostly on the clinical structures and how parents decide to use cochlear implant or not. The data shows that the clinic, the state and local school districts are working together to anticipate parental needs.

The Bionic Ear has revolutionised the lives of deaf individuals all over the world, it is not only a great scientific achievement, but also a great progression in a socio-cultural context within the lives and communities of the deaf and hearing-impaired individuals. The Bionic Ear with the aid of IT has provided new capabilities and in turn gives individuals new choices of