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The cochlear implant question

aeon.co

121–130 of 158 posts

Re: The cochlear implant question

#121
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> being deaf was actually the same as being able to hear. That's not even close to the argument being presented. The fundamental crisis within the deaf community is around the fact that deaf people share a common language . This is very different than most other disabled communities. Language is fundamental to shared culture. To be clear, I'm not saying that deaf children should not be given cochlear implants, but th…

Cultures come and go, arising from circumstances that can change. Does preservation of a living culture take priority over the wellbeing of its members? Perhaps a culture is something that can be decommissioned humanely.

[deleted]

Re: The cochlear implant question

#122
post #48
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have "met" people who are both blind and deaf. They use sign language by putting their hand on the hand of the signer and follow that way. (I only know a couple signs so it wasn't worth trying to talk to them except via interpreter and so saying I've met them is a bit strong) This also is proof that sign language works in the dark.

ASL (and sign language generally) and tactile sign are two different languages, and language types that are at least as different as verbal languages and seen/sign languages - an American deafblind person who uses tactile sign and meets someone who uses ASL isn't necessarily going to be able to communicate with them. The signs and underlying language structure (morphology/syntax/etc.) are all different. I wouldn't co…

They can definitely be distinct languages as is the case with protactile. For the deaf-blind people I've met, ASL is their first language and protactile is more of a second. Maybe it's different in other areas of the world.

What I've noticed is that in deaf-blind contexts plain ASL is terrible for back-channeling information... is the listener paying attention? Agreeing? Disagreeing? Laughing? Protactile communicates these back to the signer using touch, and not touching is considered rude.

Re: The cochlear implant question

#123

I can't see anywhere any mention of the fact that the implant portion of the Cochlear implant has been improving. It might be prudent to consider that in the future more capable implants might be available. AFAIK implants can't be removed and upgraded. So it might be a consideration that a child could have a superior implant by waiting a couple of years. Of course the external portion of CI are being upgraded over ti…

The internal part can be replaced too. The gain you get from implanting as soon as possible is massive compared to waiting it off. No one truly considering it should be waiting and instead actually pushing for an implant as soon as possible. For our son, in the UK in 2019, they asked us to wait until our son was one year old. We insisted to have him implanted as soon as possible and us being ready to do it at 6 month…

Hi, I have an 8 week old deaf daughter in the UK and id love to talk to you about your experience getting the cochlear implant, particularly how you were able to get it so early

If you're happy to could you get in touch via my email in bio? Thanks

Re: The cochlear implant question

#124
Is there such thing as an extensible or upgradeable cochlear implant? My understanding as a layman in audiology is that the silia or tiny hairs are essentially emulated or designed manually at specific frequence-reverberations and this results in some quantifiable Resolution of Hearing. My question is, is there a way or maybe a hardware technique where we could, as equipment improves and nano-scale is reached, add more "hairs" to the board? If not, can someone please make?

Re: The cochlear implant question

#125
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> being deaf was actually the same as being able to hear. That's not even close to the argument being presented. The fundamental crisis within the deaf community is around the fact that deaf people share a common language . This is very different than most other disabled communities. Language is fundamental to shared culture. To be clear, I'm not saying that deaf children should not be given cochlear implants, but th…

Cultures come and go, arising from circumstances that can change. Does preservation of a living culture take priority over the wellbeing of its members? Perhaps a culture is something that can be decommissioned humanely.

Realbeing > wellbeing

Re: The cochlear implant question

#126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> being deaf was actually the same as being able to hear. That's not even close to the argument being presented. The fundamental crisis within the deaf community is around the fact that deaf people share a common language . This is very different than most other disabled communities. Language is fundamental to shared culture. To be clear, I'm not saying that deaf children should not be given cochlear implants, but th…

Aside: We're teaching the kiddos ASL but all of us are hearing. Yeah, it is a different language and culture as a result. Not any worse or better, just different. You have to be a lot more expressive in ASL to get the points across and just more active in general. Also more patient as it takes longer to communicate, but maybe that an 'us' thing. We like it a lot, and it's a lot of fun really. We;re thinking of tutori…

"All of us are hearing" really?

We already use sign language, we already use our entire body to communicate, infact 55%, more than we do speaking and listening.

Re: The cochlear implant question

#127
post #59

My wife and I faced a similar situation and found it a simple decision. We both carry GJB-2 gene mutations that will likely result in profound non-syndromic hearing loss. We went through Orchid Health to get a whole genome sequence of our prospective embryos and then selected one that was not affected by the condition. We have 1 more carrier girl and 2 more unaffected girls to work with, and if we want boys later in…

We have the same mutation and have a deaf son (we had no idea we were carriers until after he was born and failed the hearing screening). I've often wondered if we had decided to have another child if I would have done IVF and selected a hearing child. And I don't think I could do it. It's not rational at all, but it would feel like a rejection of my son (who is doing amazing with his cochlear implant).

Stop wondering, you are wasting energy you could be spending on them instead - they were born out of a beautiful, real event that happened exclusively between 2 people. Enjoy all of that.

Re: The cochlear implant question

#128

I have two deaf daughters, both have cochlear implants and I’m very happy with the decision. My wife and I both learned sign, and let our kids wear or not wear their cochlear’s as they see fit. The youngest is too young to really understand but the oldest understands and almost exclusively selects to wear them. She is in main stream school but does spend time with her dhh friends. She 100% prefers to be with other dh…

[deleted]

Re: The cochlear implant question

#129
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have "met" people who are both blind and deaf. They use sign language by putting their hand on the hand of the signer and follow that way. (I only know a couple signs so it wasn't worth trying to talk to them except via interpreter and so saying I've met them is a bit strong) This also is proof that sign language works in the dark.

That is so painful to hear. Having those two disabilities at the same time cut you out of so much of the world

The people who come into your world spend their energy to get there.

Re: The cochlear implant question

#130

> it is unarguable that only signed languages are easily accessible in all situations Even in the dark? Or at a distance? Or not facing the signer? Or with arthritis? Differently abled folks are entitled to their own culture and beliefs. Yet claims like that seem to be trying too hard to find a silver lining.

My deaf coworker does not even know sign language, she uses phone for everything. She lives perfectly normal life. Entire office is not going to learn new language, just to speak with an odd deaf person. And communicating specialized stuff like technical programming is not possible, gestures only cover basic words.

"Entire office is not going to learn new language, just to speak with an odd deaf person."

Same as...

Entire England is not going to learn new language, just to speak with an odd French person.

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