caekles

Deaf person here - It was less controversial a few years ago, but the controversy has spiked recently. Maybe it's confirmation bias in my community, idk. Sometime after 2010, the deaf community mellowed out when there was a general agreement that cochlear implanted children would benefit from learning both sign language and spoken languages simultaneously. Now, in the age of misinformation, that seems to have been forgotten. Also probably doesn't help that there's a huge push for LEAD-K.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a HUGE supporter of LEAD-K, but it seems to have brought the grassroots folks out of hiding, up against the cochlear implants again.

As someone with a cochlear implant, I grew up smack dab in the middle of the controversy, but have never been treated like an outsider to the Deaf community because I also grew up with sign language and am quite fluent in it. I have met other cochlear users that feel rejected because they never picked up sign and I feel their pain.

That's not the crux of the controversy, though. The real controversy is whether parents should be allowed to make that decision or not. Implants can be put in as early as six months. Basically, the moment a baby is found to be deaf, is THE moment to decide what language approach to take.

While this website is specific to Louisiana, it's a nationwide movement in the USA, and still succinctly summarizes what it is all about.

https://www.deaffocus.org/lead-k

Louisiana LEAD-K (Language Equality and Acquisition for Deaf Kids), is a bill that proposes to establish a task force of professionals to recommend framework to assess the language milestones of Deaf and Hard of Hearing children ages 0-5 for both English and American Sign Language (ASL) and to provide resources for parents. This is a first step towards collecting valuable data to end the language deprivation epidemic among Deaf and Hard of Hearing children.

"The LEAD-K Campaign is a direct response to the alarming number of Deaf and hard of hearing children arriving at school without language. Language deprivation has irreparable catastrophic consequences on the educational, social and vocational development of Deaf and hard of hearing children.

"When provided with access and opportunities, the Deaf child has normal ability to develop language. The Deaf child who has the foundation of language will acquire English literacy.

"The Campaign aims to end language deprivation through information to families about language milestones and assessments that measure language milestone achievements, and data collection that holds our current education system accountable.

"At LEAD-K, we believe that Deaf children benefit from American Sign Language (ASL), a natural visual language, however our goal is language acquisition regardless of the language used, whether ASL or English or both. We cannot afford to lose another generation of Deaf children by engaging in a ideological war. Deaf children who have language are Kindergarten-ready."

That's cool, but as someone who works in the field of Deaf education, I can tell you that you'd be surprised at how ignorant parents are when it comes to aural rehabilitation and language deprivation due to misguided desires for their child's well-being.

And that's really at little fault to parents - the medical community pushes cochlear implants on deaf-born babies like they're just parts of a factory line and does not recommend bilingualism. There is also astonishingly little information available to parents on how to rehabilitate a child with cochlear implants. This is a major aspect that the LEAD-K campaign is trying to push for - informed parents. Times are a-changin'.

Any relation to Jim Varney?