AGBell and Associates Brainwashes Public Again

We should demand equal interview time with “In The Loop with iVillage” about ASL for Deaf Babies too!!!

This is from “In The Loop with iVillage”.  It is an interview with AGBell connections and is a big media play by AGBell.

The interviewer is Bill Rancic who interviews the Coordinator for Child Voice AVT Program, Wendy Adler first and then the Audiologist Carol Flexor next.

Tami Hossier, one of the core leaders of DBC has translated it as best as she can for you since there are no captions.  Tami have added a comment.

We think that you need to bombard them with comments.

See this Video;
http://video.intheloop.ivillage.com/player/?id=170715#videoid=170715

And read below what these people are saying in this interview;

Bill Rancic:  Do you know hearing loss affects over 12,000 babies a year?  That equates to 33 babies per day  That makes deafness one of the most common birth defects out there.
Many parents think that having a deaf child means sign language and a life long up hill battle.  But this generation of deaf children is about to change. when they learn to listen and talk.

Wendy Adler:  (Coordinator of Child’s Voice while they show the school and the children)
Child’s Voice is an Auditory Verbal Therapy Preschool.  We do not use sign language and all the children here have hearing aides or cochlear implants  We teach them to listen and talk using their residual hearing and decipher and format this into language then sounds to words and words to sentences then complex sentences then conversation.  The class size is small with only 4 or 5 children per class.  This allows the children to have more optimal time for listening and talking and turn taking.  The children are constantly moving and getting therapy in a typical preschool setting.
What stands out in my mind is when parents come into the school holding babies in their arms and are still dealing with a child that is deaf and they are completely lost.  Then later seeing them go through the Parent-Infant Program and the child  become 6 or 7 year old children and  graduate and  who will be okay to enter the mainstream.  And to see them after their graduate giving a speech in front of more than 100 people with pride and confidence that we have built for these children

Bill:  Welcome Carol Flexor who is an audiologist. Wow this is incredible.  How is it possible for talking and listening to happen?

Carol Flexor:  (Audiologist that is interviewed by Bill)
Thank you.  Oh yes it is phenomenal   The deal is we hear with the brain. The ears are just a way in.  Historically with hearing losses the ears kept sound from getting in the brain to develop critical auditory centers.   But in this day and age we have incredible technology such as digital hearing aides and Cochilear Implants that allow access to the brain.  Then we work with Listening and Spoken Language Specialists some are schools, private practice, audiologist, educators, AVT and working with these Spoken Language Specialists who coach and guide parents to have  their children learn to use the hearing through the technology to listen and talk   The outcome possibilities for today’s children are phenomenal.

Bill:  For parents at home what should they look for in their children like when they are babies 3, 4, 5 months old it is hard to gauge. .. when do you take your child to be tested?

Carol:  The good news is that thanks to legislation was passed in 2000 the  Universal Hearing Screening or Early Detection Hearing Intervention program was set up.  Now 95% to 98% of all newborns are screened for hearing loss in the hospital.  People at home look for having their babies hearing screened.  However, hearing loss can develop later in infancy and childhood  and signs are if the infant is not responding to sound, not jumping to sound, not looking at the mother’s voice.

Bill:  Some people write that off as a baby, he is playing around, and attention spans of babies just not paying attention.but in fact it could be a hearing loss.

Carol:  One resource might be for families to look at <http://www.AGBell.org>www.AGBell.org .  That website has a lot of information on what to look for in children’s growing auditory behaviors and how to look for a Listening and Spoken Language Specialist.  The point is if families think there is  a hearing loss find an audiologist because getting sound to the brain early and stimulating early is what leads to  those advances in auditory centers in the brain. Don’t wait.

Bill:  So it all about Early Detection. With early detection your child could have a very normal life with all the advancements in audiology.

Carol:  Yes

Bill:   What are the other signs?  I know not responding immediately.  Are there other signs that parents should be aware of?

Carol:  Yes if the child does not wake up.when there is loud noises..  Not all babies do wake up but that is one thing to look for .  Another is there are different alerting signs when a baby hears such as eye widening, eye searching, eye gauge so there is a response.  Infants are active responders and listening experiences in infancy forms the basis for language development and literacy development in all of our children not only those with hearing loss.

Bill:  Thanks for keeping us in the loop.  Now everyone is in the loop.  To find out more about these amazing techniques go to ivillage.com  and click on “In the Loop”  Advancements in Audiology  Check out “Ways to Learn Speech”  and the latest advancements and  technologies from the Alexander Graham Bell organization  plus calm your little one with Graco’s  soothing peaceful sounds…   and find out what it is like for deaf child to learn to speak.   We will be right back.

The End..

Comments:

Tami

(December 12, 2007 07:47 PM)

I am very shocked that Bill Rancic would say that using Sign Language causes life to be an up hill battle. It is obvious he does not know how many people he insulted by saying this and how inaccurate his statement was. I would hope that this show would give equal representation to the people who are affected most by hearing loss and that is the Deaf Community. The Deaf Community is made up of all types of people just like the Hearing Community and a large majority are extremely intelligent, accomplished signing professionals. Not only that but the Deaf Community is accepting of anyone no matter if they are hard of hearing, profoundly deaf, have a cochlear implant, use hearing aides, etc.

My daughter is 22 years old and is Deaf. Our family is hearing. We are very thankful for American Sign Language, Deaf Culture, and the Deaf Community. Deaf children, regardless of the speech and listening skills they develop in life, grow up to be Deaf adults. No matter how many assistive devices they have, they will not have “normal” hearing. When their hearing aides or cochlear implants are out or turned off for the night or they are swimming or playing contact sports, they will be Deaf.

We have never felt our daughter was impaired or disabled. We accept her fully as a very intelligent and successful young woman. She graduated from the Indiana School for the Deaf and Gallaudet University. Both are wonderful Bi-lingual/Bi-cultural schools that respects English and ASL as separate languages but equal and respects the Hearing culture as well as the Deaf culture. She had more opportunities than my hearing daughter had in the public school system.

AGBell, on the other hand, has teamed up with the Cochlear Implant community, audiologists, doctors, and the Auditory Verbal Therapy Programs and is spreading the myth that signing is inferior to listening and speech and that literacy cannot be achieved through ASL. This is absolutely UNTRUE! AGBell has caused so many children to grow up to become angry as Deaf adults who later find ASL and the Deaf people and can’t believe that they were not allowed as children to learn to sign. Most of the oral children in the mainstream lead very solitary lives. They do not fully participate in classroom discussions due to group conversations happening too fast or interpreters that are not qualified or certified. They basically end up having very few lasting friendships if any at all. So these children appear to be normal in that they can speak and have gained enough survival skills to appear as if they are following conversation. AGBell is made up of mostly hearing parents, hearing audiologists, hearing cochlear implant doctors, and hearing AVT experts. Do you see a trend here or should I say “hear”.. AGBell has done a lot of damage over the course of 100 years in the lives of the Deaf and their families and the course of Deaf Education.

Deaf infants and children deserve access to language from the start. All Deaf infants and Children are visual and all their information when they are born comes through their eyes. They have a right to American Sign Language from the start. They also have a right to use other assistive devices or learn to speak and listen if they have the skills and the desire to do so.
It is way past time for the media and other professionals to start asking Deaf people what they want for themselves instead of trying to “fix” what is not broken. Banning ASL for Deaf infants and children has never been the answer.

Other commentors…

1.    Rachel Harold
2.    (December 12, 2007 06:43 PM)
3.
I have a son that was diagnosed with a moderate to severe loss at two and a half years of age. I felt like was walking around in a bad dream for about 7 months because I was just so devistated.. We did oral early intervention and mainstreamed him into the public school in Kindergarten. He went all the way through high school, always with the support of a Deaf and Hard of Hearing Educator as an advocate for both of us. Today he is in the Busness school at Arizona State University. I can’t tell you how all of his achievements make me feel but if you have every felt like shouting good things from the roof top…..you will understand.

1.    Gwen
2.    (November 6, 2007 11:06 AM)
3.
I can’t imagine a child without speech in this day, and age with all of our technology, but yes it is a families choose. I am the parent of a 13 year old who received a implant when he was 3. He could have received it at 18 months, but it took me almost 2 years to learn as much about it as i could,
And thanks to Dr. Nancy Young and the way her implant team works with counseling, and support groups we were very well prepared. To Martbeth the mom of the 5 month old, get in touch with your health department for a parent infant program,

1.    Laura
2.    (October 30, 2007 01:38 AM)
3.
As a mother of a Deaf child I appreciate the technology that is out their today. I do believe that this is not the only path for a family with a Deaf or Hard of Hearing child. Many children with hearing loss lead very produtive lives and have every opportunity if they do not aquire speech. This is one of the many metodologies out their but, not the only one and it is not always a fit for every family. Not every implant is sucessful and many times families are pushed to make a decision before they have all options presented.

1.    Patricia Schaeffer-Dresler
2.    (October 29, 2007 11:46 AM)
3.
Thank you Dr. Flexer for the most awesome five minutes! I am forwarding this on to the professionals taking our class on CI’s, our WV Chapter of AG Bell members, our WV Cochlear Implant Task Force, and so on. I am so proud to be a member of AG Bell, and to be part of this revolution in assisting children with hearing loss to listen and develop spoken language! Congratulations to everyone who worked to get this program done! Patricia Schaeffer-Dresler, MA, Early Intervention CI Specialist

1.    Jennifer
2.    (December 13, 2007 01:48
3.    As a Deaf adult who grew up in mainstreamed setting using hearing aids, I am very disappointed to see this video promoting cochlear implant and other technology devices. While ignoring the facts of the Deaf community who has been denied access to sign language, the deaf adults’ voices are continued ignored by the medical professionals who have a hidden agenda to earn thousands of dollars to insert medical devices in their deaf patients! Nothing is about us without us! Parents, my advice to you is to meet with the deaf adults who use sign language. You will meet deaf adults’ regrets they were not given the opportunity to have sign language while growing up. I ensure you will see deaf adults using sign language do not actually face “uphill battle” The uphill battle we face is the society’s lack of acceptance of our hearing loss and sign language. Again, nothing is about us without us!

From John Egbert;

What do you think of this?

Should we demand to have equal air time to explain how important is for a deaf baby to start learning sign language(ASL) at the age of 6 months like thousands of hearing babies across the country with positive results?