Two Boys, Same Hearing Loss
August 16th, 2007, 10:30 am · 3 Comments · posted by
A story from a mother of a deaf son. She has requested names to be confidential as it is a strange story that she still has trouble believing. Even I did, after I heard it.
Her Deaf son met a relative the same age as him, with the same level of hearing loss, which is 110 decibel in the right ear and 70 decibels in the left ear. He had a cochlear implant behind the left ear, her son did not. Her son has BTE (Behind The Ear) hearing aids. Both boys were in mainstreamed schools but in different states. Both knew American Sign Language and could hear quite well with their hearing aides. Both had speech therapy but the boy with the implant had additional cochlear implant training to become strictly speaking and hearing without using sign language.
Guess who spoke the most clear?
The Deaf son with BTE hearing aids who continued to communicate in American Sign Language.
The mother told me that very meeting made her realize that cochlear implants do not guarantee anything. She had once considered having her son implanted but chose to let him make the decision. He chose not to be implanted and identifies himself as Deaf.
Who knows? Maybe the boy with the implant did not have a good therapist. But it was rather strange that two boys who are nearly identical, would have such different results.
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The circumstances could be many on why the two turn out very differently. Although in your writing are you implying that signing (ASL) helped one deaf son with BTE hearing aid to speak better than his deaf brother who had CI and was trained in the auditory-oral method without signing?
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HANA: I am not suggesting anything. I am telling stories as they were told. The interpretation is open to all. Like you, there could be many circumstances on why the two turned out differently. Also, the two are cousins, not brothers.
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This anecdote is supported by research. I recently wrote an entry on the topic. Please forgive the brevity - am on pager now.
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That is something I was looking for statistics… Doctors & Audiologists would not report such like that!! Thanks.
BTW, I have heard such like that, just through mouth, not on statistic or reports…we need to do something about that.
thanks. deafk