I am a very fortunate girl, sometimes I just need to say it out loud to remind myself. I can say it inside my head or write it, but giving some sound to the words somehow makes it stick. We play games on a daily basis using both sound and silence. I was chilling with Perla today trying to chew out this blog topic and bounce it off of her fourteen year old head, never underestimate a fourteen year old Italian girl. She likes this guy who never calls, he plays the silence game because every now and then, when he feels like it, he'll send her a text message. Perla is the cool type, so if she gets pissed off, she'll tell him straight up where to go with his games, but sometimes the games even get to her. Silence leaves room for interpretation and the mind wanders creating interesting scenarios. Then...sound, reality. Reality erases those images as quickly as a rag on a wipeoff board.
My son moves in and out of the worlds of sound and silence, literally. He has the ability to choose which world to live in and experience. How powerful is that? He turns a potential disadvantage into an advantage and manipulates his worlds...even at age eleven.
Since Jordan was an infant, he has loved the swimming pool. We enrolled him in swimming classes because he smiled the most in the water, didn't have to talk and revelled in his world of silence. Nope, no hearing aids in the water, although he did jump in a couple of times with them, sheer nightmare. As a hearing mamma, perhaps the closest I can come to his world is by staying underwater as long as possible to experience true silence. But, it's just not long enough to really get it. If I try to imagine being deaf, the idea of being alone in my own head terrifies me, I have very loud thoughts in this period. Yet, I imagine I would really get to know myself for better and worse. Jordan wore hearing aids for eight years before receiving the cochlear implant and has never requested to hear while swimming.
The other day, a mom and dad posted this video on the Pediatric Cochlear Implant Circle of how to "waterproof" a cochlear implant, because their child wants to hear while swimming. Just amazing. It overwhelms me how parents become creative and motivated to offer every single possible opportunity for their child to be comfortable in any environment.
Speaking of sound and silence, my dress that I just got for the wedding in April is all about sound! Whoa...it is irridescent deep purple sleeveless, empire waist, balloon cut REALLY short and H-O-T! After all, I must represent Tuscany at a New York wedding, I can't be going in no rags...Gotta go to dinner at Rhonda's, her Dad's in town, so I am going to chat all night long in English, the only problem is that I'll have to control my use of inappropriate language. *smile*
Showing posts with label CI CIRCLE. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CI CIRCLE. Show all posts
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
My Eleven Year Old Deaf Italian Ci-Wearing Stallion
Here's a little history on my Italian Stallion in training...can't imagine who he gets it from! These are some old posts from the Pediatric Cochlear Implant Circle that I wanted to share, so you have an idea how every part of the growing up process is a deaf ci kid moment...
Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2007:
Okay. My husband and I have been outside with Jordan, Sofia and six
other kids chasing each other on roller-blades. There is this one
adorable girl named Benedetta on the street and my son is chasing her
around and vice versa. He's in love. He asked me to ask her to be his
girlfriend. I tell him, that that is just not happening, I have to
draw the line somewhere with this parent advocate stuff. So, I take
him into a corner and do the role-play thing to prepare him what to
say to her so he can ask her to be his girlfriend. He tells me he's
going to ask her in front of everyone and I suggest that he invite
her into his personal office (the bench in the court) and do it
privately instead so as not to embarrass her. He accepts this advice,
yet bides his time. Just when the girls are leaving to go home, keep
in mind it's ten thirty here, he calls "Benedetta, I have to tell you
something!" She's madly racing home cause she got the come
immediately home call from her mom, so Jordan pulls the "Agnese"
(Agnis) card and pulls aside their mutual friend. He says, as
rehearsed, "Agnese, tell Benedetta that I think she is beautiful,
would she like to be my girlfriend?" So Agnese, the good friend that
she is, races down the street after Benedetta to tell her the
request. I'm of course hiding behind a bush observing everything and
my husband is just behind me laughing.
We see Agnese come racing back and Jordan, I swear goes, "Agnese,
tell me in my ear!" What does she say? "Benedetta said, she'll tell
you tomorrow!"
So now we're sitting here sweating it out, Jordan walks in and
says, "Thank God she didn't say "No" or I'd be crying all night!!!"
And so the wait begins...JodiResult: rejection
September 21, 2007:
HI EVERYONE!
Well, Jordan Eric started Middle School one week ago and already
amazing things are happening. Yesterday, he came home from school
and began the Middle School pace around the kitchen. Usually, after
Elementary School he would come home, slam his books on the sofa,
demand his lunch and not talk to anyone for an hour...his unwinding
time. Now that Middle School has begun...he paces. He said to
me, "Mamma, two incredible things happened today in Italian and
during Recess...but I'm not going to tell you what they were!" As
I'm thinking whether to approach this with the "Oh, tell me tell me"
method or the "Whenever you're ready to tell me you'll tell me!"
method, he suddenly says, "Okay, I'll tell you!" (He was dying to
spit it out!) He said, "Today in Italian, I talked for two hours
about being deaf and my cochlear implant. I told all my new
classmates about going on tv and talking about my cochlear implant
(in Italy)and I talked forever. I also asked the whole class if they
wanted to go on a field trip to the USA. *grin* Then, the two most
beautiful girls in my class asked me questions about being on tv and
what I could hear, and I answered them. Then, another beautiful
thing happened at recess, all the girls in the class came up to me
and said, "JOrdan, you're the best!"
So, I am listening to all of this in awe, watching him tell me
everything and he is so excited, bouncing. Of course I give him
the, "I am so proud of you!" and I'm smiling the rest of the day for
my son who has just started Middle School and who is proud enough of
who he is to explain it to a new class of 27. The teacher had asked
each child to explain something about themselves. He could have
talked about baseball or his summer at the beach or anything,
instead he chose to explain his cochlear implant.
This would have been enough, but the day did not end here. After
lunch he went back to school for his first guitar lesson at Middle
School. He attends a Middle School specializing in Music Education
and he takes guitar lessons. Note: after the Benedetta saga and his
rejection, just before Middle School started he decided he liked a
new girl, Erica, who is also one of my students. She comes once a
week for English lessons. She goes to his school and is a YEAR
OLDER. She happened to be at the Middle School because she had her
violin lesson the same time he had his guitar lesson. She finished
before Jordan so our families were outside talking. When Jordan
finally finished he came outside and saw Erica. He played it cool.
He talked to her about school stuff for a little and then it was
time to go. Luca, Sofia, Jordan and I started to head for the car
and Erica and her mom began walking to their car. Keep in mind,
Jordan had already asked me to ask Erica to be his girlfriend and
once again I had to go through the speech that I will not "get him a
girlfriend." So, I pulled him aside and said if you're gonna ask
her to go to a movie, now's the time, there are no kids around so if
she says no, no one sees it. He got the shy, what if she rejects me
face, and as Luca and I looked on, he made his move. He slowly
walked to Erica's car, I closed my eyes, it was just too much to
bear, then I looked at Luca who looked at me...we were I think,
praying.
When I looked back at Jordan walking back towards us, he had this
little grin on his face and he was walkin' like a man! He reached
the car and in this nonchalant voice said, "I asked her to the
movies and she said, 'okay, yes!'"
SHE SAID YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!she said yes,
oh my gosh, a girl said yes to my son!
Before dinner, later that night, he called the family and told all
of this to my mother-in-law, then my mom. When he sat down at the
table, he said, "Mom, this has been a beautiful day!"
Unbelievable...JodiResult: Got the "yes," but never went on the date...
This is the latest:
Jordan is still in love with Sara. Yesterday, during our weekly English lesson, his friend Luciano dropped the bomb - he has a girlfriend - the most beautiful girl in his Middle School that a couple other of my students had told me THEY were in love with. So, I said,"Luciano, what is your secret?" He went on to tell us how he had professed his undying love to this girl Ilaria only to be rejected. Then, he had a brilliant idea. The latest craze in Italian tween fashion is a brand called GO 101, which are black tees, sweatshirts, hats, etc. with a stick figure little man and a saying under the character like "Clueless," "VIP," "BOSS," "GANGSTER," (the one I bought for Jordan says, "NEVER GIVE UP," AND despite the fact that I'm old, mine says "CRAZY-MESS":)As if there were any doubts)so Luciano apparently bought this girl one that says, "IN LOVE!" She melted, appreciated the creativity and sincerity and agreed to be his girlfriend.
You can only imagine what Jordan's next question was...(to be continued...)
Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2007:
Okay. My husband and I have been outside with Jordan, Sofia and six
other kids chasing each other on roller-blades. There is this one
adorable girl named Benedetta on the street and my son is chasing her
around and vice versa. He's in love. He asked me to ask her to be his
girlfriend. I tell him, that that is just not happening, I have to
draw the line somewhere with this parent advocate stuff. So, I take
him into a corner and do the role-play thing to prepare him what to
say to her so he can ask her to be his girlfriend. He tells me he's
going to ask her in front of everyone and I suggest that he invite
her into his personal office (the bench in the court) and do it
privately instead so as not to embarrass her. He accepts this advice,
yet bides his time. Just when the girls are leaving to go home, keep
in mind it's ten thirty here, he calls "Benedetta, I have to tell you
something!" She's madly racing home cause she got the come
immediately home call from her mom, so Jordan pulls the "Agnese"
(Agnis) card and pulls aside their mutual friend. He says, as
rehearsed, "Agnese, tell Benedetta that I think she is beautiful,
would she like to be my girlfriend?" So Agnese, the good friend that
she is, races down the street after Benedetta to tell her the
request. I'm of course hiding behind a bush observing everything and
my husband is just behind me laughing.
We see Agnese come racing back and Jordan, I swear goes, "Agnese,
tell me in my ear!" What does she say? "Benedetta said, she'll tell
you tomorrow!"
So now we're sitting here sweating it out, Jordan walks in and
says, "Thank God she didn't say "No" or I'd be crying all night!!!"
And so the wait begins...JodiResult: rejection
September 21, 2007:
HI EVERYONE!
Well, Jordan Eric started Middle School one week ago and already
amazing things are happening. Yesterday, he came home from school
and began the Middle School pace around the kitchen. Usually, after
Elementary School he would come home, slam his books on the sofa,
demand his lunch and not talk to anyone for an hour...his unwinding
time. Now that Middle School has begun...he paces. He said to
me, "Mamma, two incredible things happened today in Italian and
during Recess...but I'm not going to tell you what they were!" As
I'm thinking whether to approach this with the "Oh, tell me tell me"
method or the "Whenever you're ready to tell me you'll tell me!"
method, he suddenly says, "Okay, I'll tell you!" (He was dying to
spit it out!) He said, "Today in Italian, I talked for two hours
about being deaf and my cochlear implant. I told all my new
classmates about going on tv and talking about my cochlear implant
(in Italy)and I talked forever. I also asked the whole class if they
wanted to go on a field trip to the USA. *grin* Then, the two most
beautiful girls in my class asked me questions about being on tv and
what I could hear, and I answered them. Then, another beautiful
thing happened at recess, all the girls in the class came up to me
and said, "JOrdan, you're the best!"
So, I am listening to all of this in awe, watching him tell me
everything and he is so excited, bouncing. Of course I give him
the, "I am so proud of you!" and I'm smiling the rest of the day for
my son who has just started Middle School and who is proud enough of
who he is to explain it to a new class of 27. The teacher had asked
each child to explain something about themselves. He could have
talked about baseball or his summer at the beach or anything,
instead he chose to explain his cochlear implant.
This would have been enough, but the day did not end here. After
lunch he went back to school for his first guitar lesson at Middle
School. He attends a Middle School specializing in Music Education
and he takes guitar lessons. Note: after the Benedetta saga and his
rejection, just before Middle School started he decided he liked a
new girl, Erica, who is also one of my students. She comes once a
week for English lessons. She goes to his school and is a YEAR
OLDER. She happened to be at the Middle School because she had her
violin lesson the same time he had his guitar lesson. She finished
before Jordan so our families were outside talking. When Jordan
finally finished he came outside and saw Erica. He played it cool.
He talked to her about school stuff for a little and then it was
time to go. Luca, Sofia, Jordan and I started to head for the car
and Erica and her mom began walking to their car. Keep in mind,
Jordan had already asked me to ask Erica to be his girlfriend and
once again I had to go through the speech that I will not "get him a
girlfriend." So, I pulled him aside and said if you're gonna ask
her to go to a movie, now's the time, there are no kids around so if
she says no, no one sees it. He got the shy, what if she rejects me
face, and as Luca and I looked on, he made his move. He slowly
walked to Erica's car, I closed my eyes, it was just too much to
bear, then I looked at Luca who looked at me...we were I think,
praying.
When I looked back at Jordan walking back towards us, he had this
little grin on his face and he was walkin' like a man! He reached
the car and in this nonchalant voice said, "I asked her to the
movies and she said, 'okay, yes!'"
SHE SAID YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!she said yes,
oh my gosh, a girl said yes to my son!
Before dinner, later that night, he called the family and told all
of this to my mother-in-law, then my mom. When he sat down at the
table, he said, "Mom, this has been a beautiful day!"
Unbelievable...JodiResult: Got the "yes," but never went on the date...
This is the latest:
Jordan is still in love with Sara. Yesterday, during our weekly English lesson, his friend Luciano dropped the bomb - he has a girlfriend - the most beautiful girl in his Middle School that a couple other of my students had told me THEY were in love with. So, I said,"Luciano, what is your secret?" He went on to tell us how he had professed his undying love to this girl Ilaria only to be rejected. Then, he had a brilliant idea. The latest craze in Italian tween fashion is a brand called GO 101, which are black tees, sweatshirts, hats, etc. with a stick figure little man and a saying under the character like "Clueless," "VIP," "BOSS," "GANGSTER," (the one I bought for Jordan says, "NEVER GIVE UP," AND despite the fact that I'm old, mine says "CRAZY-MESS":)As if there were any doubts)so Luciano apparently bought this girl one that says, "IN LOVE!" She melted, appreciated the creativity and sincerity and agreed to be his girlfriend.
You can only imagine what Jordan's next question was...(to be continued...)
Thursday, January 10, 2008
LISTEN...
Living in Italy and approaching Jordan's deafness using the oral approach, we have had extremely limited contact with the Italian Deaf Community. Jamie Berke's strong moderate voice was the first person I found whose blog (please blog more) touched me and led me to begin investigating the American Deaf Community. When taking a closer look at the Deaf Community, I found a powerful sense of community and identity, which is unfortunately highly exclusive and riddled with fear. There are too many judgemental voices unwilling to take a liberal stance in regard to the cochlear implant and hearing parents. These radical voices are overpowering those moderate voices, at least in respect to many hearing parents whose deaf children will not need to become part of the Deaf Community. I posted one of Geo's videos a while back about how he ran into a parent and a child with a ci, and I liked him. (I also liked the Harry Potter jelly beans video - hysterical and the hat thing works for him!)
Anyway, there is no need to feel a sort of false empathy for our kids, because they are not missing out on anything and will have every opportunity in the future to find whatever it may be that they will need when that time comes. The Cochlear Implant Community is growing, just to give an example - the Pediatric Cochlear Implant Circle led by one amazing mom together with the Gift of Hearing Foundation, has created a PARENT TO PARENT: COCHLEAR IMPLANTS FOR KIDS BROCHURE and the demand has been both overwhelming and gratifying to all members of the Circle who put a helluva lot of love and heart in creating the brochure. Hearing and Deaf parents alike need to have access to a growing CI Community that does not judge any person regarding communication methods. We will create our own community whether or not the Deaf Community wishes to partake, but just think how powerful a collective voice could be in educating others regarding DEAFNESS...we are in the year 2008.
Paula Rosenthal has created a community for deaf teenage youth. She said:
There are so many things wrong with the comments you quoted from Rita's Expressive Blog that it would take me hours to respond. In particular I am outraged at the assumption that because we don't choose to teach our kids ASL it means we don't love them! Ludicrous!
This one got me too: "In short, sometimes parents don’t realize they neglect their children by depriving them to full access to communication." Hmm... but teaching them oral language IS full access to communication. We're not neglecting our kids, we're allowing them the freedom to choose to be part of the world at large, the hearing world. If we only teach them ASL they are going to have limited options if they want to become members of the hearing world. Communication with the larger world of people with normal hearing is going to be tough. Not so the other way around. If we teach them to listen and speak and they or we decide to learn and use ASL afterwards, then they have a choice and can go back and forth between the two cultures.
My sincere feeling though is that it is up to the families to make these choices. One choice is not the right one for everyone. Oral language worked for us when both hard of hearing parents were oral and we had a hard of hearing child. No one should criticize me for my choice. I'm her parent, not the collective Deaf community.
Parents need to make difficult choices when they have children with hearing loss. It is up to them to do their own research about communication choices and cochlear implantation. They don't need people (on either side) to say, "This is what you should do."
Abbie said:
Jodi, I swear, again and again you continue to amaze me :) You hit the nail right on the head in EVERY single subject, pure diversity of deafness and you nailed it.
While it took me a very long time to accept being deaf, it wasn't my parents that neglected my access to communication, it was the educational system. I lost interest in signing since I was scoring 100% and picking up the English language quite nicely. The school felt what do I need signing for? On top of that, they felt signing class consisted of learning the ABC's. Looking back at that now, I see the error in the schools ways. With my parents trying to teach me sign at home and the school system telling me I don't need it, that isn't equal opportunity.
No wonder it took me so damn long to say "I'm deaf." My personal belief now is that if a child is deaf or HOH or whatever other acronyms they have for us, is in a mainstream school push sign language as much as possible. Technology fails and its those kind of failures that high school doesn't prepare you for.
And Val, Gage's mom, parent volunteer and co-owner of the yahoo support group learn2hear, which provides parents with a variety of helpful resources, powered in with this biggie:
Listen, we love our kids, in fact we adore our children like most parents do. I don't see why my kids need to learn a second language at such a young age when they have no one to use it with. We know absolutely no other deaf people and no one signs. I mean, they don't need it to talk to us since they can speak. I did teach my first born (deaf)child signs as a baby/toddler, he was receptive but never expressive. He still to this day does not want to learn sign. He has no interest in it. It's been offered several times, and I actually wanted him to learn some now that he's six, at the top of his class and for the most part on a eight year old level in his language and other areas as well!(as per several, several tests by a local Children's Hosp). He still knows what I taught him as a child but has never, other than I love You, signed anything. I don't think searching out and moving where there is a Deaf community is right either, for us. These days kids are getting full access to communication, despite what some want to believe. For my son to sit in a reg. classroom and still bring home 100's and A's consistently, lets me know he's getting full access. When he's happy after school because he and his buddies crawled around like cats during recess, that's heart warming. People need to realize that these kids now, are being brought up by powerful people. We've learned from parents before us and we are teaching parents new to this. Information is powerful. Learning what to do with it, can be evolutionary. And to see my kids teaching other kids about what it's like to wear equipment to hear, spreading information about how some deaf kids can hear and talk is changing our community. To be able to go to the library now and check out a book they can relate to where a kid has an implant and speaks like they do instead of all of the deaf characters singing only, is amazing. We couldn't do that a few months ago. That's thanks to a powerful mom who saw a need and met that need, not only for her child, but for mine and thousands more children. It's amazing to me to see babies that can sign, hearing or not. I wanted that for my kids and it didn't happen. However, we adapted and we moved forward and I realize it just wasn't meant to be. I would have gladly picked up and moved if I had to, to find a proper Deaf Community for my children if they never progressed verbally, so they could be exposed to sign other than just at home. There is one about two hours from here at a Deaf and Blind School which my kids were a part of for three years during their early intervention. We've investigated sign, believe me, and I personally find it interesting. I enjoy hearing how the different signs came about. How many of those opposed to being verbal have investigated AVT-auditory verbal therapy? I know of a couple of college kids who sign only, they were not too happy w/those parents who didn't teach their kids sign. However, when they met with two AVTs, had one-on-one time with them, they got the big picture. They were completely okay with it. I even watched one girl do her "speech" as the interpreter translated, she said she was completely okay now that she understands that advancing language is the focus. I personally don't need other people to be okay with my choices, as I am absolutely, 100% confident, that my kids are okay, they're loved, they're getting full access to communication, they're progressing and happy, and my son just wants to build monster trucks when gets older and my daughter(4) just wants to be a mother. I also saw a family (signing only) writing notes back and forth to a lady who had a kid w/an implant at our audiologist's clinic. Finally the interpreter came in and they were all communicating with ease now and the Daddy who signs was telling the lady that he believed that HER child should've been taught to sign and she of course said that the parents make the decisions on what language is used (Spanish,Sign,Spoken English.,etc) and he simply smiled and agreed with her and followed up with he just wanted the same respect in return. She told him that she fully respected them and not once questioned HIS choice and they both smiled as they walked to their appointments, not sure how they felt leaving the conversations.
p.s. as for the kids'future if devices fail and they can't be replaced...we would have to move anyway, no one in this area signs so I image they'd pick up sign quickly and still use their lip reading when needed, they happen to be very good even though they can't fully rely on that for sure. I like to look at the big picture but I try to live in the moment and enjoy my kids as you never know what could happen. Kids are taught different languages in school these days anyway so I am fully confident that we can cross any bridge that lay before us. Just my thoughts.
AND MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE COMMENT made by Anna:
keep them coming! we fist-smack you (as said in ASL meaning that we just love you).
Whoa! My first fist-smack...beyond an emotional experience.
(Not to worry, I'm sure I'll calm down soon...kind of living a strange period right now.)
Anyway, there is no need to feel a sort of false empathy for our kids, because they are not missing out on anything and will have every opportunity in the future to find whatever it may be that they will need when that time comes. The Cochlear Implant Community is growing, just to give an example - the Pediatric Cochlear Implant Circle led by one amazing mom together with the Gift of Hearing Foundation, has created a PARENT TO PARENT: COCHLEAR IMPLANTS FOR KIDS BROCHURE and the demand has been both overwhelming and gratifying to all members of the Circle who put a helluva lot of love and heart in creating the brochure. Hearing and Deaf parents alike need to have access to a growing CI Community that does not judge any person regarding communication methods. We will create our own community whether or not the Deaf Community wishes to partake, but just think how powerful a collective voice could be in educating others regarding DEAFNESS...we are in the year 2008.
Paula Rosenthal has created a community for deaf teenage youth. She said:
There are so many things wrong with the comments you quoted from Rita's Expressive Blog that it would take me hours to respond. In particular I am outraged at the assumption that because we don't choose to teach our kids ASL it means we don't love them! Ludicrous!
This one got me too: "In short, sometimes parents don’t realize they neglect their children by depriving them to full access to communication." Hmm... but teaching them oral language IS full access to communication. We're not neglecting our kids, we're allowing them the freedom to choose to be part of the world at large, the hearing world. If we only teach them ASL they are going to have limited options if they want to become members of the hearing world. Communication with the larger world of people with normal hearing is going to be tough. Not so the other way around. If we teach them to listen and speak and they or we decide to learn and use ASL afterwards, then they have a choice and can go back and forth between the two cultures.
My sincere feeling though is that it is up to the families to make these choices. One choice is not the right one for everyone. Oral language worked for us when both hard of hearing parents were oral and we had a hard of hearing child. No one should criticize me for my choice. I'm her parent, not the collective Deaf community.
Parents need to make difficult choices when they have children with hearing loss. It is up to them to do their own research about communication choices and cochlear implantation. They don't need people (on either side) to say, "This is what you should do."
Abbie said:
Jodi, I swear, again and again you continue to amaze me :) You hit the nail right on the head in EVERY single subject, pure diversity of deafness and you nailed it.
While it took me a very long time to accept being deaf, it wasn't my parents that neglected my access to communication, it was the educational system. I lost interest in signing since I was scoring 100% and picking up the English language quite nicely. The school felt what do I need signing for? On top of that, they felt signing class consisted of learning the ABC's. Looking back at that now, I see the error in the schools ways. With my parents trying to teach me sign at home and the school system telling me I don't need it, that isn't equal opportunity.
No wonder it took me so damn long to say "I'm deaf." My personal belief now is that if a child is deaf or HOH or whatever other acronyms they have for us, is in a mainstream school push sign language as much as possible. Technology fails and its those kind of failures that high school doesn't prepare you for.
And Val, Gage's mom, parent volunteer and co-owner of the yahoo support group learn2hear, which provides parents with a variety of helpful resources, powered in with this biggie:
Listen, we love our kids, in fact we adore our children like most parents do. I don't see why my kids need to learn a second language at such a young age when they have no one to use it with. We know absolutely no other deaf people and no one signs. I mean, they don't need it to talk to us since they can speak. I did teach my first born (deaf)child signs as a baby/toddler, he was receptive but never expressive. He still to this day does not want to learn sign. He has no interest in it. It's been offered several times, and I actually wanted him to learn some now that he's six, at the top of his class and for the most part on a eight year old level in his language and other areas as well!(as per several, several tests by a local Children's Hosp). He still knows what I taught him as a child but has never, other than I love You, signed anything. I don't think searching out and moving where there is a Deaf community is right either, for us. These days kids are getting full access to communication, despite what some want to believe. For my son to sit in a reg. classroom and still bring home 100's and A's consistently, lets me know he's getting full access. When he's happy after school because he and his buddies crawled around like cats during recess, that's heart warming. People need to realize that these kids now, are being brought up by powerful people. We've learned from parents before us and we are teaching parents new to this. Information is powerful. Learning what to do with it, can be evolutionary. And to see my kids teaching other kids about what it's like to wear equipment to hear, spreading information about how some deaf kids can hear and talk is changing our community. To be able to go to the library now and check out a book they can relate to where a kid has an implant and speaks like they do instead of all of the deaf characters singing only, is amazing. We couldn't do that a few months ago. That's thanks to a powerful mom who saw a need and met that need, not only for her child, but for mine and thousands more children. It's amazing to me to see babies that can sign, hearing or not. I wanted that for my kids and it didn't happen. However, we adapted and we moved forward and I realize it just wasn't meant to be. I would have gladly picked up and moved if I had to, to find a proper Deaf Community for my children if they never progressed verbally, so they could be exposed to sign other than just at home. There is one about two hours from here at a Deaf and Blind School which my kids were a part of for three years during their early intervention. We've investigated sign, believe me, and I personally find it interesting. I enjoy hearing how the different signs came about. How many of those opposed to being verbal have investigated AVT-auditory verbal therapy? I know of a couple of college kids who sign only, they were not too happy w/those parents who didn't teach their kids sign. However, when they met with two AVTs, had one-on-one time with them, they got the big picture. They were completely okay with it. I even watched one girl do her "speech" as the interpreter translated, she said she was completely okay now that she understands that advancing language is the focus. I personally don't need other people to be okay with my choices, as I am absolutely, 100% confident, that my kids are okay, they're loved, they're getting full access to communication, they're progressing and happy, and my son just wants to build monster trucks when gets older and my daughter(4) just wants to be a mother. I also saw a family (signing only) writing notes back and forth to a lady who had a kid w/an implant at our audiologist's clinic. Finally the interpreter came in and they were all communicating with ease now and the Daddy who signs was telling the lady that he believed that HER child should've been taught to sign and she of course said that the parents make the decisions on what language is used (Spanish,Sign,Spoken English.,etc) and he simply smiled and agreed with her and followed up with he just wanted the same respect in return. She told him that she fully respected them and not once questioned HIS choice and they both smiled as they walked to their appointments, not sure how they felt leaving the conversations.
p.s. as for the kids'future if devices fail and they can't be replaced...we would have to move anyway, no one in this area signs so I image they'd pick up sign quickly and still use their lip reading when needed, they happen to be very good even though they can't fully rely on that for sure. I like to look at the big picture but I try to live in the moment and enjoy my kids as you never know what could happen. Kids are taught different languages in school these days anyway so I am fully confident that we can cross any bridge that lay before us. Just my thoughts.
AND MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE COMMENT made by Anna:
keep them coming! we fist-smack you (as said in ASL meaning that we just love you).
Whoa! My first fist-smack...beyond an emotional experience.
(Not to worry, I'm sure I'll calm down soon...kind of living a strange period right now.)
Friday, December 21, 2007
RANDOM STUFF
Kind of in a holiday funk today, trying to pull out of it. The holidays are like that, up one minute, down the next and then right back up. Everyone is supposed to be full of holiday cheer and jingle their bells cause Santa Claus is coming to town, but it just doesn't always go down like that, maybe I'm pms, dunno. In any case, if you, too, are in a nostalgic mood and in need of a big, fat cry, I mean a real quality tear-streaming tearjam, go check out Josh Swiller's blog from Dec. 17th. I'm going to post the youtube video he posted on his blog because he's talking on the telephone and the video does a good job showing how frustrating it can be to almost but not quite hear everything with a cochlear implant...and he has a magical telephone reunion going on there.
To deactivate the music (love this song, reminds me of THE VOUS at College Park (it's bad pms when I'm reminiscing about college:)))click on the stop button on the top right-hand corner of the blog...
Be baaaaaaaaaaaack tomorrow...special thanks to Val, Gage and Brook for the magical video they sent me, sure am glad Val has a digital camera gotta make a thousand videos fetish - go girl!
Another highlight of the morning was waking up to find out that there is a new member of the Pediatric Ci Circle thanks to the PARENTS TO PARENTS: COCHLEAR IMPLANTS FOR KIDS BROCHURE CREATED BY THE GROUP TOGETHER WITH THE GIFT OF HEARING FOUNDATION...extremely satisfying knowing that the brochure created by the group reached a mom in need...lotta love going out to all of you...Jodi
To deactivate the music (love this song, reminds me of THE VOUS at College Park (it's bad pms when I'm reminiscing about college:)))click on the stop button on the top right-hand corner of the blog...
Be baaaaaaaaaaaack tomorrow...special thanks to Val, Gage and Brook for the magical video they sent me, sure am glad Val has a digital camera gotta make a thousand videos fetish - go girl!
Another highlight of the morning was waking up to find out that there is a new member of the Pediatric Ci Circle thanks to the PARENTS TO PARENTS: COCHLEAR IMPLANTS FOR KIDS BROCHURE CREATED BY THE GROUP TOGETHER WITH THE GIFT OF HEARING FOUNDATION...extremely satisfying knowing that the brochure created by the group reached a mom in need...lotta love going out to all of you...Jodi
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