God I've missed you, Drolzy! And I almost completely missed your post despite the fact that your blog is listed on my blogs-to-watch list-got so used to seeing NO ACTIVITY for the past three months-it's about damn time! LOVE reading your posts, especially when you post about your son's experiences. My child just like yours is living his life as a deaf individual, just under different circumstances, I guess based above all on parental choice.
Yet, when they go to school, they have no parent to hold their hand, to smack their ass or to hug them. Your child is "onestreamed" as the only deaf child with an interpreter. My child is "onestreamed" as the only deaf child with a cochlear implant in a class of 29 monsters-luckily 20 are girls. Adaptation. Not an easy concept or even a fair concept to have to learn. I try to facilitate my son's life in the classroom by providing him with bimodal hearing, an fm system, a support teacher. You breathe down the school's backs to ensure that your son has an interpreter who meets his needs.
*But*
There's still that damn "train gone" concept. The important thing is that we don't throw our kids on the tracks...and sometimes, I feel like I do. Unfortunately, not even adding ASL (LIS) to his repertoire would improve the situation.
Signed,
Desperate American Mamma...with a great deal of faith in my son
1 comment:
Hi Jodi,
Aw, thanks so much! I really appreciate your kind comments! :)
Even though our kids are using different approaches, there are just so many parallels in their experiences (and the way we pull our hair out over them LOL).
Related to that last entry: I contacted my son's school district to see if there was a way to get all the signing deaf/hoh kids together for a monthly event or something just to see that they're not the only ones working hard to get by as the only deaf kid in their respective schools.
The response I got floored me. They said that thanks to digital hearing aids, FM systems and cochlear implants, "the need for ASL and interpreters has decreased significantly."
Whew! I have such mixed emotions. On the one hand if the auditory-verbal / CI kids are really doing that great, then more power to them. (If not, then that's a whole 'nother discussion.)
On the other hand, I used to groan when some people accused the CI industry of trying to eradicate Deaf culture - and ironically, now that I'm having a hard time finding signing kids who are just like Darren, it really does feel like we're being phased out. It suuuuucks.
Am really in the dumps over this - am thinking of all the deaf clubs, the deaf performing artists, the great experiences at Gallaudet/NTID, etc, and am wondering if all of that will soon be a thing of the past.
I highly value your opinion as I see that Jordan, too, is one of a kind in his school just as Darren is over here. Do you feel the school district's assessment is correct? Are these kids really doing that great? Or will they be going through the "Met Deaf, Wow!" phenomenon later on (seeing how numerous students with CIs still choose to attend Gallaudet or NTID instead of a hearing college)? What are your thoughts? Would love to get a perspective from a parent as opposed to a school district or medical profession.
Many thanks and keep up with your inspiring posts!
All the best,
Drolz
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