4 ms·

Long-time lurker here - this is one of the first articles that I've felt compelled to respond to. I have a unique perspective on deafness and language. I was b

Long-time lurker here - this is one of the first articles that I've felt compelled to respond to. I have a unique perspective on deafness and language. I was born profoundly deaf (so deaf that audiologists proclaimed me as the deafest child ever - what an honor). I learned ASL when I was six months old. To preface - I was incredibly lucky to have parents who learned an entire new language for me (they were immigrants, so it was no easy task for them) and noticed my deafness early. I also got a cochlear implant, which enables me to hear speech fairly well. Over the years, I've learned how to speak and listen well enough to converse with most people. I've also managed to maintain my fluency in ASL - it's a very important part of who I am. According to my mother, I was able to express my desires (I want orange juice, my diapers need changing, etc.) as early as 8 months. So, I was able to talk to my parents at a different level than hearing infants of the same age. I have plenty of deaf friends who were not as lucky. Some of them had hearing losses that were not discovered until they were more than two years old. Some of them just had parents who didn't want to or could not learn ASL. Their performance, academic and otherwise, has lagged behind their hearing peers. I find that their thoughts are not as organized as someone who learned language early on (regardless of form), so some of their actions don't have "common sense." Frankly, the benign neglect I see with deaf children is shocking and quite depressing. It makes me grateful for what I had growing up. This article also made me think about how different my thought process is from hearing people's processes. Even after years of using speech as my main mode of communication, ASL still influences my thoughts quite heavily. For example, I tend to think about spatial matters in ASL - i.e. how a street is laid out. Also, I tend to think about emotions in ASL, complete with facial expressions. On the other hand, with more technical issues such as the law (I'm a lawyer), I'll think in words, even spoken words sometimes. In all and all, I'm grateful that I was able to learn ASL so early and transition to spoken language. ASL really enriched my life - culturally and mentally - and I'm very glad that ASL was my first language.

cloudwalking 16y ago
Can you tell us more about the cochlear implant? I've never met someone who has one (that I know of).
- esoteriq 16y ago
  Sure - no problem. Just to give you some context, I got my implant in 1991, and technology has advanced by leaps and bounds since then. Cochlear implants are quite different than hearing aids. Hearing aids just amplify sounds. Cochlear implants actually directly stimulates your auditory nerve via a surgical implant, mimicking sound. Normally, sound waves pass through your cochlea and stimulate the multiple hair cells, triggering different "sounds" (as interpreted by your brain). Since the cochlear implant stimulates the auditory nerve more directly, once a person is implanted, the person loses all of his or her residuary hearing. Obviously, only people with profound or severe hearing losses are allowed to get a cochlear implant. My cochlear implant has two components - the inner and external portions. The external portion is the speech processor and it looks somewhat like a hearing aid without the ear mold and it has a magnetic part that attaches to your head. The speech processor converts sounds into electrical signals that goes through a magnet that is attached to my head. The electrical signal will pass through the internal parts of my cochlear implant (the implants itself) and stimulate the nerve, causing me to hear sound. I should add that the conversion process filters out most background noises and focuses on frequencies used for speech. As a result, I can't really appreciate music because with the limited frequency range of the cochlear implant, music sounds all muddled to me. Of course, that's the technical part. I can hear, but I can't hear anywhere as well as a hearing person. I still have a lot of difficulties hearing in a noisy situation, such as restaurants, bars, etc. I can't really differentiate between certain sounds such as b/ps, g/hs and the like. I can, however, converse with most people. I have an "accent" because I learned how to speak relatively late - 8 years old. I have met people who got their implants when they were two or three and they barely have an accent. One thing I should also add - most people who receive a cochlear implant need special training to use it. Since I was one of the first 500 children to receive a cochlear implant after the FDA approved it for children, I underwent intensive speech-and-listening training. I had to learn how to listen since I had no frame of reference for sound. I'm sure you can imagine how hard it is to get a six-year old to sit still and practice listening for hours at a time. It took me two years before I could start learning how to speak. I didn't feel comfortable speaking in public until I was thirteen or so. Of course, the process is quite different for someone who heard before they got an implant because he or she has a frame of reference. After talking to younger implant recipients, I get the impression that the technology and training methods have improved, so the whole process isn't as onerous anymore. Hopefully this wasn't too much information and if I misstated something (probably biology-related) I apologize in advance! If you have more questions, feel free to ask!

cloudwalking 16y ago

Can you tell us more about the cochlear implant? I've never met someone who has one (that I know of).

esoteriq 16y ago
Sure - no problem. Just to give you some context, I got my implant in 1991, and technology has advanced by leaps and bounds since then. Cochlear implants are quite different than hearing aids. Hearing aids just amplify sounds. Cochlear implants actually directly stimulates your auditory nerve via a surgical implant, mimicking sound. Normally, sound waves pass through your cochlea and stimulate the multiple hair cells, triggering different "sounds" (as interpreted by your brain). Since the cochlear implant stimulates the auditory nerve more directly, once a person is implanted, the person loses all of his or her residuary hearing. Obviously, only people with profound or severe hearing losses are allowed to get a cochlear implant. My cochlear implant has two components - the inner and external portions. The external portion is the speech processor and it looks somewhat like a hearing aid without the ear mold and it has a magnetic part that attaches to your head. The speech processor converts sounds into electrical signals that goes through a magnet that is attached to my head. The electrical signal will pass through the internal parts of my cochlear implant (the implants itself) and stimulate the nerve, causing me to hear sound. I should add that the conversion process filters out most background noises and focuses on frequencies used for speech. As a result, I can't really appreciate music because with the limited frequency range of the cochlear implant, music sounds all muddled to me. Of course, that's the technical part. I can hear, but I can't hear anywhere as well as a hearing person. I still have a lot of difficulties hearing in a noisy situation, such as restaurants, bars, etc. I can't really differentiate between certain sounds such as b/ps, g/hs and the like. I can, however, converse with most people. I have an "accent" because I learned how to speak relatively late - 8 years old. I have met people who got their implants when they were two or three and they barely have an accent. One thing I should also add - most people who receive a cochlear implant need special training to use it. Since I was one of the first 500 children to receive a cochlear implant after the FDA approved it for children, I underwent intensive speech-and-listening training. I had to learn how to listen since I had no frame of reference for sound. I'm sure you can imagine how hard it is to get a six-year old to sit still and practice listening for hours at a time. It took me two years before I could start learning how to speak. I didn't feel comfortable speaking in public until I was thirteen or so. Of course, the process is quite different for someone who heard before they got an implant because he or she has a frame of reference. After talking to younger implant recipients, I get the impression that the technology and training methods have improved, so the whole process isn't as onerous anymore. Hopefully this wasn't too much information and if I misstated something (probably biology-related) I apologize in advance! If you have more questions, feel free to ask!