My name is Amanda Ranger. I am an ASL/Literacy Consultant in Ontario, Canada. I work with Deaf children and their families. I teach those families ASL while educating them on their Deaf child's language development related to ASL. Some of the children I work with have cochlear implants so I have had some experience in working with children with cochlear implants. I also am a Deaf adult who wore hearing aids throughout most of my childhood so I am able to explain my experience as well.
Children with cochlear implants must not be required to wear them at all times because they may suffer from a few things such as auditory overload, tinnitus, and self identity issues. This happens when the child becomes extremely sensitive to the sounds around them. The sounds become too loud for them to handle and they cannot tell the difference between the speaker and the noise around them. This is torture for them if they are not allowed to take it off. Tinnitus is very common in people who are Deaf. When a person uses hearing aids or cochlear implants, it is very possible that they contribute to tinnitus. It had been suggested that wearing hearing aids help with it but there have been arguments that the opposite is actually true.
My personal experience with tinnitus is hearing aids made it worse. At the age of twelve, I decided to stop wearing hearing aids and never looked back. It was a personal choice and the best choice for me. Now, it is not a life or death situation that requires the child to wear cochlear implants at all times. It is supposed to give a child a tool to learn how to hear and speak IF they choose to. The child I work with who has cochlear implants is allowed to take it off when he chooses to. His parents have told me that when he seems to have an auditory overload, he takes them off and is not forced to put them back on.
As for the self identity issue, the child is Deaf and always will be. She has her father to look up to as a Deaf person and it is obvious she looks up to her father. Being a Deaf person is not a negative thing because they belong to a community that is rich in language, culture and traditions. American Sign Language is the language of the Deaf community and the language her father uses. American Sign Language has been recognized by linguistics as far as fifty years ago as a true language with its own grammar rules separate from English. ASL has been proven to be a wonderful foundation for language development not only in Deaf children but in Hearing children also. The only difference is Hearing children are allowed to use Sign Language while Deaf children are forced to learn how to hear and speak and have minimum exposure to Sign Language. When this happens, a child’s self esteem will be compromised and it will affect them in the long run because they will always be Deaf no matter how well they speak and have a right to be a part of a wonderful community with other people who share the same beautiful language. Her father is able to share the beautiful language with her and should be allowed to do so without struggling to make her wear her cochlear implants every time he sees her.
Edited down to comply with gag order.
Thank you,
Amanda Ranger
