Just saw the new House episode.
And they did accurately describe the Cochlear Implant controversy, but not the Deaf Culture well enough. The patient wasn't "willingly opting to be handicapped," since there's nothing wrong with him to begin with.
You don't just take a Deaf person and thrust them into the hearing world, especially when they don't want to enter the hearing world.
You also don't force him to get it repaired, when he rips it out of his scull. (Cochlear Implant = IMPLANT INTO THE BRAIN)
Anyway, I thought the ending was kind of....fucking stupid. "I'm your mother, and I decide what's best for you."
The Cochlear Implant is really the most effective when you get it while the patient is a baby. Before they begin learning how to speak, so they can learn more naturally. When you get it later, even at nine or ten years, you've already missed that learning curve. Your speech will always be stunted.
So when you're sixteen or seventeen, sure, the Implant will let you hear, but you'll still need ASL and a holy fuck load of speech therapy, and your speech will most likely not be what you want it to be, even with years of therapy.
So for the mother to just say, in the end, "I'm your mother, and I say you're getting the Implant," (Or did I just hear her wrong?) is fucking ridiculous.
Also, I don't think they did a very good job actually showing the ASL. They had the hands half out of the frame most of the time. And I know the purpose wasn't to film the ASL, but I think they should have made a greater effort to catch that culture.
And they sort of over-dramatized what they were saying. He signed, "say" with his eyebrows furrowed (to signify a question). They translated, "What was that you said?"
And then he signed "again", and they translated, "Please, say my name again."
But I guess they sort of needed to dramatize it, though. It is a dramatic show.
And I'm sort of sad that I managed to miss the first twenty minutes. I'll need to catch it later.
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Nice blog. I do want to clarify something, though. There have been Deaf adults who received their implants as adults and learned to speak quite clearly. Studies have also shown that it does not matter WHEN you learn to speak as long as you have full access to a language when you are born. A Deaf child that uses ASL from birth and later receives an implant or (better yet) hearing aids learns to speak much better and faster than a Deaf child that receives an implant as a baby and is taught to speak without the benefit of a language (ASL, in this case). Check out www.dbcusa.org for more info on this.
ReplyDelete*double take* Alan, what are you talking about? I think you may be confused. It is extremely rare for anyone with no hearing for many years to be able to speak well enough to be understood.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, Deaf people are able to learn English--to read and write it--fairly well when given access to a full language (ASL or other signed languages) from birth.
I looked around at dbcusa.org but did not find anything pertaining to what you are talking about. If I am wrong, please send me specific information or specific studies on the topic, and I'd be happy to read them for my knowledge.
Hi Anonymous--You are right, DBC discusses the importance of acquiring ASL as early as possible and adding English later. I do not think there is anything specific that addresses the acquiring of spoken English. However, there are a few studies out there that show Deaf students born with Deaf parents have better spoken English skills. As is the case with most Deaf students born of Deaf parents, speech "therapy" or speech classes do not start until school--at which time the students are 5 years old, or older.
ReplyDeleteI also offer up my personal skills. I did not learn how to speak until I was 9 years old, but because I had language and happened to have a speech teacher who knew ASL, I was able to ask questions and acquire spoken English quite rapidly and to the point where I can pass as a hearing person. I say this because I have conducted several personal experiments.
I have met, in 14 years of teaching, many Deaf people with similar experiences.
Interesting discussion (that can - and does - go round and round). I was lucky enough to have a very well-known researcher in speech and language acquisition while studying speech pathology at the University of Washington. It is a pretty commonly-held belief at this point that there is a "critical window" of time that ends around five years of age during which a child can acquire normal speech (speech, not language...which can be acquired over a lifetime, of course). The unfortunate reality about CIs is that if parents wait until their child is old enough to decide if he or she wants the implant, it is too late for that person to acquire normal speech. He or she may be able to learn speech that is understandable with a lot of practice and maybe some sim-com, but the ability to acquire speech as a hearing toddler would as a teenager with a new CI is really, really unlikely as the neural connections of forming speech are created very early in life. Of course, everyone has their own personal experiences and everyone is perfectly entitled to his or her own opinion. :)
ReplyDeleteThat issue of House was ridiculous on so many levels...
Just for the sake of clarification: cochlear implant surgery is not brain surgery - a cavity is formed in the skull and the device never goes deeper than the cochlea, which is part of the auditory system, not the brain.
ReplyDeleteNevertheless, it's quite implausible that the patient would have been able to rip the implant out of his head because surgeons are very careful to make sure those things don't move while making as tiny skin incisions as possible try to minimize scarring.
Anonymous-- Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I, too, have studied under world-renowned researchers and specialists. What you mentioned before is the medical perspective. Sadly, this often overlooks the linguistic perspective and the social perspective. If one were to take the time to study test scores, college graduation rates, speech ability, social skills, and employment rates, one would easily find that Deaf people that grew up with American Sign Language excel more in every category.
ReplyDeleteI also learned that there is a critical period for learning, but I also learned that there isn't one for speech. There may be a critical period for learning LANGUAGE, but not for speech. Speech can come later as long as there is LANGUAGE.
When C.I. are put into small children, the focus most often becomes SPEECH and LISTENING (with ears) and LANGUAGE is neglected. Thus these kids grow up MAYBE being able to speak and listen (with ears), but have little or NO LANGUAGE. These kids are often behind academically, socially; and sometimes emotionally and physically (complications of surgery...although these are rarer these days).
My heart breaks for these kids.
Oh, one last thing, if it is true that neural connctions are unlikely for older people, how is it that I know several Deaf people who got implants as adults and are successful with them? Successful in that they can listen (with ears) with their C.I.s and in some cases, speech has improved?
When C.I. are put into small children, the focus most often becomes SPEECH and LISTENING (with ears) and LANGUAGE is neglected. Thus these kids grow up MAYBE being able to speak and listen (with ears), but have little or NO LANGUAGE. These kids are often behind academically, socially; and sometimes emotionally and physically (complications of surgery...although these are rarer these days).
ReplyDeleteI'd love to see the data that backs up these assertions. Where are you getting this long-term "academic/social/emotional/physical complications of surgery" stuff??? Would love to know -- cite sources, please.