Moot Thoughts & Musings

Cute! Clever boy. :D

I'm totally a Mom - I noticed him setting his sippy (or straw-whatever) cup down so carefully. ha.

We need to get together again soon. And play trains for real.

Thanks for the update. That's a pretty good tactic, making the session enjoyable and fun! I appreciate very much your signing and also captioning the vlog so we the deaf people can understand what you said. I hope you will keep us updated :)

Boy, you make him look a moron and I am pretty sure that you will waste his precious years by not providing him appropriate education with ASL. You are the problem, not him and you need to accept him as a Deaf son, not CI son. What a sick parent! I know you will not post this, but it at least got your attention. Deaf Power!

i have two deaf sons.. they are 12 yrs old and 4 yrs old!! they dont need CI! i am proud of them!!!!! i feel sorry for your son!! i wish you would wait until he is old enough to make his decison if he wants CI or not!

Deafia - you are the reason why the Deaf Community looks bad and stands out like a sore thumb with people attacking parents of CI children. Deaf power, my butt - where has it gotten us today? Yeah, good job. *rolleyes*

Jeanette - I enjoyed the video! Thanks for having the goats to post the video! ;)

You are a GREAT mom! :D

Very cute boy!!! Thanks for sharing us with video clips of your child and his progress with CI. I tried to locate your entry explaining your decision to opt for CI and there is not a way to be able to do this effectively but me asking you! : ) The reason why I am asking, you might already know me having a 7 month old Noam. (95 db in both ear) He was fitted on digital aids abt three weeks ago and to this date he is responding well to sounds. He seems enjoy listening to music. We are now observing his ability to respond to different sounds and location of sounds. We will be happy to see him to be able to benefit from aids enough to probably be able to develop good speech skills for routine conversation, maybe making simple phone calls something like this so that he will not have to be so dependent on interpreters. If it does not work out, oh well everything will just be fine because of ASL. Aren't we lucky-go-happy folks to know and enjoy ASL!

I will be interested to read entries about your Ellis's performance with digital aids and how you were led to try CI if you can please direct me with links? You can e-mail me if you like! Many thanks.

P.S. I think it is brave of you to approve comments calling you badly, it is something that we all go through processes where negative reactions are equally as good and healthy. They should not be suppressed. In other word, you are validating deaf people's reaction for how they including me as deaf have been handling pretty tumblutuous paradigm shift lately thinking huh are we really that despicable or it is simply an accomodation, not a cure. Some people called us selfish without realizing the long history we have with us. I can go on but you know!! I would remove only if it is too extreme.

Sigh. Well, what I WANT to say is - Fun, fun, fun! Wonderful job, J'net! Great video - just think what treasures those videos will be in 20 years! And the music was fabulous. You are both adorable, and I hope you don't mind an old lady saying that :)

Then I read the comments here, and was rather bummed out. I'm sorry you have to get responses like that. I know the deaf community is nervous about its identity, and its language, being destroyed by CI, but hatefulness like that is ALWAYS inexcusable.

I think you're wonderful. You are doing so much for Ellis, and he is OBVIOUSLY happy and loving! And talk about bilingual - look at you! On top of all that, you are giving an important education on these matters to ignorant people like me. I know you're busy, but do more videos like that when you can! Esp. the music!

I agree with IamMine, it's those kinds of flippant comments that turn many hearing parents away from the Deaf community. Luckily, it'll take more than a few vitriolic words to drive us away. Ellis is here to stay. He is a deaf kid! No, he didn't NEED the CI to have a full life, but I think we had good reasons for getting it. He can't wait until he's older to decide; it wouldn't have the same benefit at this unique juncture in child language development. To read some of our journey so far here's a few links into my archives (maybe I'll go ahead and make a sidebar section, too):
http://covblogs.com/diber/archives/009772.html
http://covblogs.com/diber/archives/019539.html
http://covblogs.com/diber/archives/019539.html#comment-36912

It's important to me to leave up all kinds of comments (unless they're inappropriate), because it shows my majority hearing friends/readers that the CI is not a clear, obvious choice, but one fraught with complexity.

But I also recommend that people do not comment in an off-the-cuff, visceral way without pausing to fully understand that not all CI families are the same, and maybe if you look carefully, say the first FULL MINUTE of this video you will see ASL being used by a hearing mom and a deaf kid. It makes me confused when I read a comment like this: "I am pretty sure that you will waste his precious years by not providing him appropriate education with ASL. You are the problem, not him and you need to accept him as a Deaf son, not CI son." Umm. Did ya even watch the durn thing!? Be respectful, peeps. At least watch the video before you say mean things.

Dear your video,

I am deeply very sad, what is point to CI? for only hear, not worth. I am proud some children not need CI can enough ASL very important than CI. When your child growing identity CI can sock to panic.

I hate to CI is not worth it.

Even I am not crazy about CI, but please don't last out on Mom. It is insulting and hurtful. Ellis is very cute -- I hope he keeps up with ASL. The bottom line is while he is growing up, best for Ellis to stick with Deaf/HH children in school otherwise his self esteem will be plummeted. Viewers -- Be kind to Ellis' Mom (even you are against the CI) Hope you have a good day.

Hello,

I hope you will watch my vlog. I would love to hear your response how do you feel when I decide to have my hearing baby to be DEAF by taking his hearing away.

People with strong opinion about CI: It is ok for you to feel this. I know it's very hard to watch hearing parents trying to make Deaf babies into something that they are not. They are doing this for their own needs, not for Deaf children's. They think that they know better than us as Deaf people, and deny our happiness as Deaf people. Unbelievable.. But again, it's important for us to examine how we address our arguements and support them.

Hearing Parents need to stand strong and work with us, Deaf people. We don't need to baby down on them. They run away because they are afriad of the truth. It is not hearing parent thing. It is about their personality.

I know many wonderful hearing parents stand strong and guide their Deaf children's future into many opportunities. THey are highly active in Deaf community.

Too Many Deaf people are disgusted by this situation. And yet we are being ignored because they think that we are not even human beings and we are screwed people who don't understand that this world only welcomes hearing babies. If this baby is not hearing enough. she/he needs to be fixed. It is not one or a few person(s) that are upset about this situation.

To those people who get mad when Deaf people speak up: TOO BAD! What it make it is ok for you refuse to listen to how we see and have a right to scold us how to behave in order to shut us up?

And what's more.. This is blog is for anyone to read so it is ok for anyone to express their feelings.. This is not about how we should act professionally. Thank god for this that we don't have to stay professional 24/7 or we will go nuts. My point is If you want us to hear you out then please do the same thing by HEARING US OUT...

We will work with hearing parents and they need to hear other side that may make them feeling very uncomfortable. They don't need any protection. They will make it just fine once they open their eyes to us. They are adults. They should able to handle this situation. Being parents are hard enough and they can't handle this situation... Then I am worried. The protection that needs the most is Deaf Babies/children. These hearing parents need to hear us. They are not bad people. They were trained so badly that we must be in conform in order to be a fully hearing human being. It is sad they really think the doctor have right to cut Deaf babies' skulls in order to meet hearing parents' needs.

Please look at Deaf parents who embrace CODA babies. Most of them accept and embrace CODA babies.

If I give a birth to boy, then I will ask comestic doctor to implant small breasts on my baby, and cut the private area off and make it look like girl's private area. Now I am happy because my baby now is girl. What will you say?

Aidan

Amen to Aiden's comment!

I respect Ellis' mom's wishes. However, I am 100% against children getting their CI's. Believe it or not... Ellis' parents are Deaf, not hearing. Deaf parents having their Deaf children implanted is the worse idea than hearing parents having their children implanted.

How sad?!

Aidan, your comparison is RIDICULOUS!

Deaf people may express their anger or feelings, but not towards this mother who already learned ASL and decided to go for CI for his son.

Too BAD. It's HER child, NOT yours. You are NOT raising his son.

You think more parents of CI children would even bother to post their stories on DeafRead with attacks like this and preachers like you, Aidan? Pfft.

WEll, I am very deep concerned about well being Deaf child with CI. I see in that video. That child seems not aware just you seem to spend on emphasize the sound more important than acquiring the langauge at that early age. It is apparently it has been unfair to that child while you want that child rather than what Deaf child needs which is more important. A shame!!!!

Jeannette, I have already fallen in love with your cute child. It is delightful to watch him on video. His performance shows that he has (wow!)intellectual curiosity about trains. Attributed to your intelligence, you are exposing not only ASL but also English to him simultaneously. In other words, you are amongst few American mothers who expose to him BILINGUALLY because most implanted children are forbidden to sign. Perhaps you would enjoy reading François Grosjean's book on multilinguality quite commonly found amongst European children. Please keep videotaping your son so the world would witness his educational progress.

Aidan,

If your baby is blind and there is a device that will help your baby seeing. Would you do it?? Of course, you would!!!!

baby boy into girl... lame example.. very lame!!

Hi Jeannette!

Hang on! Please continue using ASL, and keep interacting with Ellis as you've always been doing. I am grateful that we have connected and became friends. I am dismayed by some of the comments left from other people. I only can wish that they can get to know you bit more that you are not like any other parents who are narrow-minded or one-sided.

I know you are embracing to the Deaf community, learning ASL, and making sure that Ellis is loved by you and your family unconditionally.

He sounded so happy because he has ASL to start with! He is using his tools to help him to hear something, and you are giving 'training' not 'rehabilitation'. I really like how you frame things to make it realistic nd humanistic for Ellis.

I agree with Jean Boutcher and IamMine's comments, because I believe that they have been following your stories closely.

Warmest,
Amy Cohen Efron

What the heck are you guys doing? And this is not directed at Ellis' parents. They are fully entitled to implant their child, and they are also teaching Ellis ASL, no?

This is exactly the bull I ranted about in my blog. Ella Lentz - want to know who I was talking about? Look at what Aidan and the others are saying. This is exactly the crap that makes the deaf community look bad.

Jeanette, please don't think everyone in the deaf community is like this. As long parents make fully informed decisions, many of us are okay with that. And please remain involved with the community. We can teach each other a lot.

Iamine, I saw your vlogs and I could see that you sent mixed messages. I realize that you are a fence-sitter and love to put down on Deaf people instead of hearing people. I never see you speaking out for Deaf people and it seems that you really don't support ASL and Deaf people's rights. I hope people will see you that you betray us. FYI, I respect and get along with many people who are CIs and not excellent at using ASL. I don't respect parents who make their children get CIs because that is stupid and unnecessary. They want to do things that please them and that really sicken me! Please stop lying to people and yourself. Quit acting like "Uncle Tom" and stay on one side. Every time I saw your vlog, I had to go to the bathroom and threw up. Now I have to go to the bathroom (vomiting).

Deafia, so it is perfectly okay for the deaf community to put down hearing people? Why? Are they the enemy?

I have to second IAmMine, Amy Efron Cohen and A Deaf Pundit. I had to rub my eyes and re-read the nasty comments hurled at Jeannette.

A Deaf Pundit, according to your specific comment to Ella Mae, just be careful not to stereotype the Deaf community as a whole. It's like stereotyping the whole Black community for a few African Americans' or few from any other minority community adverse action.

I, for one, do not advocate the implantation of CI on my baby if I am to have a deaf one, but it is not our place to dictate what other parents should do or not do, let alone insult them. I have a lot of respect for Jeannette who has chosen to raise Ellis bilingually. What more do we want?

Hi,

I've been pondering at why some of us deafies feel uncomfortable about seeing deaf babies with CI. I believe we need this kind of dialogue and to analyze the feelings so that we can move on. I don't know if we can compare our time when we were forced to wear bulky hearing aids and headphones all day and enduring speech therapy versus today when deaf kids are implanted with CI, digital hearing aids and auditory/speech therapy. I wonder if the methods they use today is similar to what we have undergone or if it has changed over the years. Also when deaf kids with CI get older (especially in teens/young adulthood), they almost resent the fact that they were implanted, why is that? Is it because CI did not work for them or what?

We need to explore all of this information, understand each other's side, and to listen to one another. We may have something that many hearing parents do not realize or vice versa. Many of us have been out of schools since adulthood so we don't know what is happening in deaf schools so it is hard. Also the pains of growing up deaf is affecting us when we look back on our childhood years and that we were suppressed and not being able to rejoice in our deafness.

Jeannette, I can see that you are a good mother, I know you try to sign ASL to your cute boy, I can see that in your vlog and I know you want the best for your son.

It is just that when Ella brought up the elephant thing, I knew that we need to have some kind of dialogue, to build trust, faith and to encourage/support one another and most of all to forgive and let go of the past.

I am glad that we are having this kind of dialogue, although it may not be pleasing or happy, it is definitely something we need to explore, sit down and to come to an agreement for our deaf children and for deaf adults to let go of their past.

First of all: to "Amen" - Ellis's parents are hearing, not deaf. You assume she is deaf, because you cannot conceive of a hearing parent who would do what she's doing. That's a shame.

So: I'm a hearing parent, with 4 hearing children. If being Deaf is so wonderful, should I make them all deaf so they can be in the Deaf Community? That's a bizarre concept. But if "hearing" and "deaf" were equally good, then some people would be choosing deafness. I don't see that happening. You may think it is bizarre to choose to be Hearing. But how can you make that assessment, since you don't know what it's like to hear? Ellis's parents know what it's like to hear, and they want their child to have that as well. They know he's deaf too, and want him to have a place in the deaf community. It seems that some of you are so exclusive that you won't allow people into that community, unless they're deaf like you, and reject all Hearing.

It's all about communication. You want people to learn ASL - fine. But many of the posts written here, written in English, are so poorly stated that they are almost impossible to understand. And written English is not just for HEARING people! I don't understand why so many Deaf folks here have not learned how to write well. Is there a "written" form of ASL that only deaf people use?

Several of you are not doing any service to the image of the Deaf Community. It is one culture, within the world community. Reach out to others.

(J - sorry for the rant. This is just all so bizarre to me.)

Deaf Pundit, you got it wrong! We don't put the hearing people down. We, Deaf people with ASL are fighting against hearing people with oppressive attitudes and we do our best to protect Deaf children's rights and their educational rights until they become Deaf adults. I thought you knew Deaf people with ASL are the minority and the minorities have rights to fight back against the majority that favors the oppression and genocide. Some Deaf people want to destroy Deaf community in exchange for getting supports from the majority and Iammine is an excellent example.

Oh boy.

I can't believe at deaf people who posted on this.

I am not talking about Iammine, Amy Efron, Deaf Pundit, etc. I have high regard for hearing parents who make sure that their deaf children have access to the world... CI, ASL, etc... to help them develop self esteem.

The bickering and hostility is what drives us deaf people apart.

Jeanette, you have a beautiful son and I know he is in excellent hands. Please. be assured that not all deaf people are that way. I am embarrassed when I read the hostile comments...I don't know what to say about them, but I pity them.

God bless you,
Karen M.

As I watched your vlog, my stomach started to churn. It reminded me of what I had gone through way back when I was a kid. Jeannette, I'm not upset with you for what you're doing to your son. It's just that what Ellis is going through is kind of making me concerned.

I was implanted when I was about the same age as Ellis and when my parents wanted so much for me to be able to hear just like them. They did learn ASL at first, just like you. After they had me implanted, they started to sign less and use their voice more often. I had to go through series of speech and audio therapy for many years. Those experiences that I had were very frustrating for me. It took me forever to start to recognize various of sounds and to understand every spoken words. I could never reach to the level where I would be able to hear and speak fluently like a normal hearing person.

Both of my parents signing skills were getting worse, because they were speaking to me like I was hearing. I became more resistive toward them and my patience was running out. I managed to use more ASL than to speak to my parents. They were consistantly telling me to put my hands down and just talk. I started to lose respect for both of my parents while I was a teenager. Things didn't go too well with the relationship in between us. I started to feel isolated. It was a miserable experience. I came to a decision where I couldn't continue wearing CI when I was 16 years old and ever since, my life had changed for the better.

As a Deaf person, just the way I always have been since birth is the real me. Things got a lot easier when I was able to be myself. My true self as a Deaf person.

I wish Ellis the best of luck while he grows older. I just hope that he won't ever have to go through like I did from the day I got implanted until the day I stopped wearing it.
You seem to be a wonderful person and I admire you, Jeannette. Because you show how much you love and care about your wonderful child. You're using ASL as a primary language for Ellis. Bilingualism is what I strongly believe in. And you are doing what is best for your son.

Please don't take anything too personal about those nasty comments above. Those kind of Deaf people are militants and they're closed minded. How ignorant are they? Very!

Hugs to you and Ellis.

deafie, you are wrong about attacking to the parents of IC deaf child. You don't know IamMine supports ASL as native language, so I know her well. Shame on you, you are very narrow-minded.

Katherine needs to open your heart. Take a look at the title “AGBell: Elephant in the Deaf Room (English version)”.

I am so embarassed to see some people can't respect other people who disagree and speak out how they feel. Deaf people are on opposing view on CI have a right to speak out. Jeannette knows how much Deaf community value to us and we have right to contrubute our times to make sure OUR Deaf children leading to a full DEAF human being.
Jeannette: I assure u that many Deaf people embrace Deaf children and are in active to make sure Deaf children leading to best future as possible. Smile.. There are a few deaf people who are willing to be puppets to the dyfunctional system and try to divide deaf community by blaming us for speaking out and share our views. They expect us to be butt kissers and accept the long-term goal by in an act of genocide. Look at their reactions when I shared mine. Lol...
Mary K. - Many of us who are struggles with English because we were product of oralism. They didn't care abt our education but only to our speech/listening skills. Around 1960 to now, Oral programs kept dumping major failure oralists to Deaf school at their late age and they had to learn all over again. They finally process with their development in ASL but at very late age.
Not many hearies can write or read.. But many Deaf people can do bilingual in ASL and English writing. Wow.. We, Deaf people are so smart. :o)

Peace,
Aidan

Aidan, are you alright? You seem to have some kind of personality deflicts. Your first comment was harsh and unnecessary. And now, your previous comment is not like what was on your mind while you were expressing yourself in your first comment.

I would strongly encourage you to see a psychologist and to see if you can be diagnosed with a personality disorder.

Think twice before you post your comments. Tsk. Tsk.

Aidan - thanks for the explanation; it helped a lot. I wish deaf children were given a thorough education in all areas: ASL as their primary language, but giving them all the other language they need to function easily in the broader American culture too. It is a shame that oral skills were emphasized to the exclusion of other important skills. I hope these things change.

An ex-CI implantee, I have to agree with what you said. I can’t stand watching Aidan who become hypocrite as well as spread curse Deaf community who make a real mess up.

Mary Kathryn,

The reason many of us have poor English skills is because we did not get enough language access when we were young. This is NOT our fault. DON'T blame us for that!

Oftentimes, the parents and educators realized too late that by not signing with their deaf child, the child was not learning any language. And that is why so many of us are angry, and lashing out at anybody who bears a tiny bit of resemblance to someone who failed us. Now, the Deaf community is working to address that.

But all of us need to meet half-way and have a honest, open dialogue. Not blame each other. None of us are to blame here. Not the parents and the Deaf community anyway.

Deafia, fighting with hearing people over what and how? All I am seeing is personal attacks being made. That is putting down hearing people! Most of them don't know anything about us! Jeannette (which happens to be my name also :P) is teaching her child ASL as well.

We have every right to stand up for ourselves and to share our experiences with others, but freedom of speech comes with responsibility. There are consequences to what is said. In other words, if you or anyone personally attack someone else, and I will make sure me and others confront you on that. Personal attacks will NOT be tolerated! You want to be angry, fine. Go outside and throw bricks in your backyard, or go in your closet and scream your head off.

But use your anger to build, not destroy and cause more damage! There is enough damage for us to deal with in the Deaf community!

I want to point this out as I've seen here and on some other blogs when one says, "'Teaching' him/her ASL." We don't say that with English or any other languages. People in any language don't say/sign, "boy" to the child and expect a child to repeat, "boy" right away before moving on to something new.
Children acquire a language through the models that surround them. It is a key before children start to express a language they acquired.

To me and in my opinion, "teaching" one a language would be more appropriate in a setting where one takes a class to learn a new/2nd language where it is unnatural as opposed to an immersion setting around fluent/native users. I would rather say, "Use ASL with the child," "Expose the child to ASL environment," to name a few.

I agree with Chris H in some ways - Even I am not CI user but a Deaf Oralist, It reminded me of what I had gone through way back when I was a kid. It's just that what Ellis is going through is kind of making me concerned. Amy Cohen mentioned earlier that it is important to keep up in using ASL everyday -- no matter what. For for Ellis' best of interest. Not parents. If she wants her son to learn to speak therefore Parents should learn ASL too. Fair is fair.

Mary Kathryn - "But many of the posts written here, written in English, are so poorly stated that they are almost impossible to understand. And written English is not just for HEARING people! I don't understand why so many Deaf folks here have not learned how to write well. Is there a "written" form of ASL that only deaf people use?" ......

It is hurt to hear your comment. Honestly, I often feel humiliated front of my hearing co-employeers, hearing friends and family. Well, It is because I was a Deaf Oralist, I definitely missed out alot in the hearing school. Teach in ASL is a good way to understand English in a better concept. It's the same thing if you learn French or Spanish in English. Thanks to Gallaudet, My English has been improved alot til my family mentioned that they are pretty stunned to see how much I had learned alot in English class. They feel bad -- especially my mom. Again Blame on many hearing teacher with lousy signings often hired and they didn't know how to teach Deaf/HH! The hearing The teachers had a low expection of us -- thinking we are not smart in compare to hearing kids bec of our English skills! If you are interested in learning French, which you prefer to chose American French teacher or French teacher who speaks fluently? Pardon my many errors in my English written. :-)

Friendly reminder --Please cut down rant and rave .. lol

ASL Pride, Diane

Aidan, your post shows you are perfect example as a deaf militant. You make deaf community look bad. You make us feel embarassed. Why can't you accept Ellis' two languages ASL and English??? Enuff of that.

Your boy are cute, question for you. Do you think he understands words? He respond your sound with "mmmm", "ssshhhhh". I beleive he pick up environmental sound, not words. I am Deaf and I wear hearing aid, why to pick up environmental sound. not talking or clear words what been said, I don't care about that. I only listen environmental sound such as loud motorcycle pass by or race car zoom by me with loud engine or listen to rap or rock music without words. Get my drift? Good luck with your son.

jeannette,

I have a deaf daughter. She is 3 months old.

I dont support CI for ANY KIND of reasons.

yes, I am deaf and supporting bilingual language.

your son is cute and hope he will have a lot of love from you and his dad. Please give him a lot of love and be there and communicating with him ALL THE TIME. ASL and Spoken English. Share with him everyday!

Hedy

I think these parents already showed lots of love and dedication to their son's welfare when they decided to implant a CI along with using sign language. But I wonder if the responses would be even more acrimonious had it been CI and cued speech, for example? Or CI and SEE, where you have both the visual and auditory environment involved? Of course, this is a rhetorical question.

Aidan said: "I would love to hear your response how do you feel when I decide to have my hearing baby to be DEAF by taking his hearing away."

Aidan, they aren't trying to take AWAY anything from Ellis. They're trying to give him additional tools to help him in life, and that is laudable.

My brother and his wife teach their young son ASL, though all three of them are hearing. Is that wrong, giving him an additional language tool? Will learning ASL hurt him, or impair his sense of identity, or cause him to be rejected by his peers? No. Will it slow his progress in spoken language development? No. But it might give him an extra way to communicate, both with his parents and with his ASL friend.

I think ASL is wonderful, and I wish I'D learned it as a child! (I'm hearing, and most of what little ASL I know comes from Jeannette, Chris and Ellis.) That doesn't mean that I wish I could get rid of my hearing - it just means I wish I had the benefits of both worlds.

Being Deaf is beautiful therefore ASL is beautiful too. Quoted my me.

Being Deaf is beautiful therefore ASL is beautiful too. Quoted my me.

Hi,

Deaf people have rights not to compromise. I chose not to compromise anything when it comes to harming deaf babies. Don't bother and try to demand us to meet half way. We are allowed to say, "WE WILL NOT COMPROMISE."

U can call me Deaf militant as u want and yet I will still here and fight for Deaf babies's birthright as Deaf. White people call Black people, "Black militant". These wonderful Black people still fight for their rights as Black-being. Men call women as "Woman militant". These wonderful women still fight for their rights as Woman-being.

I am not shame to say I am against the idea for the parents' deficient thinking that it is ok to insert CI on Deaf babies in order to meet the parents' needs and allow to mold their children into something else that they are not. I will NOT COMPROMISE this AT ALL..

I am so grateful to my mom for saying NO to me when I asked my mom that I as 12 years old girl wanted to have CI. She told me that she got a beautiful gift that she was birth to a Deaf baby. I looked back and I thanked my mom everyday for it. She accepted me completely for who I am and worked very hard to raise me to be a Proud Deaf Pro Active.

Millions of children are starved to death. They do not have health care. They do not have education. Yet we allow the insurance spending 50,000 to 70,000 dollars just to insert CI on per Deaf child over for nothing. That s screwed up that some people would want that and ignore millions children who need money for health care, food, and education.

Inserting CI should be a part of comestic where they have to pay from their own pocket. It is all based on beauty. It has nothing to do with medical. Agbell and medical establishment exploit government's money by telling them that Deaf-being is a medical disease and is urgent to get $$$$$$$ for Deaf babies to be fixed.

Vlogs will be ready to be out soon. :o) I am out of the town for two weeks and will return home late evening.

Aidan

Aidan is always hypocrite in many happens in their blogs.You try to forbid CI as Deaf militant We don’t need to listen to your comment because you make deaf community look bad. CI doesn’t bother me. We have to respect his mother option. It isn’t your son.

Respects to Jeannette, who kindly asked this discussion to terminate. Seems like no one wants anyone else to have the last word, including me ;-) I'm not a regular poster, and after this I plan to fade back into oblivion. But Aidan, I too respect those who continue to fight for what is right, and I mourn the fact that true radicals like you are more and more in the minority. It's too easy to capitulate to the hegemony of Liberal capitalism.

BUT. I'm worried. The truly great radicals in history inspire (wo)men to -want- to change themselves. The only way to accomplish this is to talk TO them, where they are, and try to build a bridge to where you want them to be. So far, though, I'm afraid your comments are more like talking AT them.

For example, you say, "I am not shame to say I am against the idea for the parents' deficient thinking that it is ok to insert CI on Deaf babies in order to meet the parents' needs and allow to mold their children into something else that they are not."

Both Jeannette and Dad have stated repeatedly, and others have reiterated them, that (a) they consciously attempted to reason through this decision as a decision for Ellis, and NOT for themselves, and that (b) they want to preserve Ellis's connection to his DEAFness.

So, in principle, they AGREE with you!! You disagree that the CI is compatible with these commitments. -That- is the argument you should be making to them, which others have already made a good start at.

I have an idea. If you feel like this discussion has some life in it, then post something on your blog about "Dad Speaks" or about the Ellis flick. We'll all meet up over there and let fly at the CI.

Hi dDClient,

This will be my last comment. I want to respect Ellis' parents' requests to discontinue this debate.

Do you mean the animal advocators and PETA wrote many letters to the judge to make sure Vick will get maximum sentencing as possible and are in active making the laws more tough for these people who violate them are radicals?

Radical is getting old. Every group who speaks out for human/animal rights, they tend to label as radical people.

Again, I will not compromise anything.

Ellis' parent chose to post blogs in public where they would attract to Culturally Deaf people who against the idea of inserting CI on Deaf Babies. They do not deserve to be denied just because of their beliefs.

Deafness has nothing to do with Culture but a medical term where it is viewed as disease.

People with CI, I will always respect and welcome them in my life even though I am opposing the idea of inserting CI on Deaf babies.

It is healthy for people to be honest and to open our dialogue about these issues. It is very serious issue that we need to continue to discuss this situation and to expose the truth to this world what it had done to Deaf children, what it do to Deaf children and what it will do to Deaf children in the future.

Aidan

Jeannette,

I'm so sorry to hear all the negative comments you have gotten...

and it brings tears to my eyes to think that your family has already gone through so much and you are all so very strong. You have not only accepted Ellis' deafness but have also embraced it and made it your one priority, to learn ASL and help your child grow as best you know how.

Hugs to your family and just remember that you guys are the parents, no one else and you're a wonderful Mother.

The video ROCKED by the way! Love the music and how you sped up the part of Ellis playing with his train!

After viewing your video clip of your adorable son, Ellis and reading the comments, it gave me mixed feelings. CI to some deaf people is not an easy issue. As for your part, I must at least commend you for using ASL with your child.

We all make choices here. I have two deaf children 8 and 10 who tell me from time to time that they are grateful for not having CI although they have many friends who wear them. It didn't occur to me to have them implanted when they were babies because it was not part of our nature. When my children were at that age, they enjoyed ASL storytelling where they were able to pick up this language naturally. They are currently avid readers and love to write stories using mostly correct age appropriate English grammar. I come from a deaf family and our primary language is ASL so I suppose it is different for a hearing family whose primary language is English and is accustomed to the idea of listening. This is where I understand for hearing parents making such choices for their deaf child(ren) but I have some concerns. It happens so often for them not to be fully informed about the CI but I hope you did.

However, the deaf community should support hearing parents who have deaf child(ren), with or without hearing aids or CI, who make the effort to learn and use ASL and who share their vlogs/blogs where we are able to better understand the issues. Like Ella said about parents in the room that was interfered by the big elephant, Jeanette still maintained by using ASL with her deaf child. Now here is a suggestion for you.

By viewing in this tape, I can see how much he enjoys listening to these speech parts (ahh, shhh, etc.) as he is raising his awareness on these sounds. I would like to see perhaps at least one video clip showing Ellis using ASL inclusively (no sounds involved) maybe with you or with a deaf person to balance it out that he is able to discuss a simple age appropriate concept or a story. Pardon me if I had missed that if you posted such video clips before. Thanks for sharing.

Grammar correction: Like Ella said about parents in the room that WERE interfered by the big elephant, Jeanette still maintained by using ASL with her deaf child.