[Hoosier Kitty]

New Kids on The Block's Joey's wife gave birth to a son last Dec and they found out they have a deaf son! I really really hope they treat him as a normal person and not get him a cochlear implant. Overall it was a great article to read!

Joey McIntyre Opens Up About Rhys’ HearingLoss – Moms & Babies – Moms & Babies - People.com


As you can see I am VERY passionate about my deaf culture, American Sign language, & deaf world... all the blinkies including siggy are clickable so you can see more info. Education is power!

[Christine-MA]

I didn't know that! Going to read it now (I love New Kids lol)

[MommaLee]

Interesting...I can see from the link in your siggy why you are opposed to the cochlear implant. I really knew nothing about them.

[Hoosier Kitty]

Originally Posted by MommaLee

Interesting...I can see from the link in your siggy why you are opposed to the cochlear implant. I really knew nothing about them.

I had cochlear implants at age 11 and I am very against them for implanting babies/children. Did you know they implant as young as 6 months old baby? That's inhumane and it doesn't really work. It doesn't make the deaf baby a hearing person equal to hearing people's. It just helps you hear the environment.. hearing aids helps that too. So many doctors get rich when they perform a CI surgery. Do you know how much it cost? Many insurances cover Cochlear implant up to 80% and the couples pay the rest. Some insurances cover 100%. CI surgery cost $50K to 100K. And the greatest irony is insurances do not cover hearing aids.
did you know i almost couldnt play softball in high school... cuz of the high risks of ball hitting my head when i'm on the field. I couldn't scuba dive cuz of equilbrium busting my ears.. i couldn't wrestle my brothers cuz i was scared of them hitting the wrong spot. i passed out when a student hit me at right spot while on the job at the deaf school and i had go to the ER and was told I had mild concussion due to cochlear implant being affected. i couldn't do things like physcial things cuz of my ci in the way.
i cannot go in mri cuz of ci.
Years of speech therapy and going to hospital for CI testing every 3 or 6 months (6 months in my case) just took my time away from education and socialization.
ASL Rose is owned by my teacher who has PHD in Deaf Education and is President of ASLTA and types her own research articles as you can see some links in my blinkies.
Every mothers educate herself before they do something worse as Cochlear implanting their deaf baby. It's like not accepting the deaf baby as it is.
I am going to work for Early Intervention as educating hearing parents about deafness and give workshop about Cochlear Implants. As well as teach ASL. I'm very passionate and It pisses me off that I see some JM members think baby signs is so cool and use it on their hearing babies yet when I see the mothers with deaf babies go ahead and get CI and place them in speech therapy. What is wrong with treating your baby the same and just accept there's a deaf culture, language and world they can get into. It's not going to kill them.

[MommaLee]

Good for you! Sounds like you had an aweful experience. It's sad to hear that it limits the ability for participation in activities. I wonder if parents are told about that.

[Hoosier Kitty]

I was very stubborn when it came to sports. My mom always told me to be extra careful in softball, football and volleyball. My mom offered me head protection gear, and I refused to wear them cuz it made me look like a nerd pansy. I wanted to look tough by looking normal with other players.