Thursday 1 July 2010

8 Month Old Deaf Baby's Reaction...


...To Cochlear Implant Being Activated




I can't resist this. Ian Duhig sent it as a link by email. It gets the day going with a wonderful start. Of course I think of baby Marlie, whose hearing is just fine.

More reading, more note taking.



7 comments:

Kathleen Jones said...

Beautiful George! thanks to you and to Ian. Did you know that there was once a feeling among deaf parents that their children shouldn't be offered this kind of treatment because it put them outside deaf culture? I came across it once or twice when doing research into something else and it made me very angry. But I suppose if you're a deaf parent you don't want your child to disappear into a world you feel excluded from. Made me think long and hard about how we, the 'able-bodied', unthinkingly exclude people. We are a long way from an even vaguely inclusive society.

Thanks for cheering me up this morning!

George S said...

I still find it strange that deaf parents should deprive their child of one of five senses in order to keep them inside deaf culture, Kathleen. I would want my child to have everything I didn't have and never mind the culture.

We ourselves live in a culture that has never been so sensitive to disability or other cultures. I say disability because there is a standard kit that most people come equipped with and to miss one disables someone from something - listening to music for instance. In that respect we are living in the most considerate time in European history. We are close to fetishising difference, especially such differences that the human race has generally regarded as misfortune.

If someone broke my leg should I leave it as it is because it enabled me to partake of immobility culture?

If I suffered from a hereditary disease I would be delighted if my child were free of it.

genevieve said...

I won't watch this now because it will make me cry - but I will save it for tomorrow. Thank you.
What an extraordinary time we live in. I believe the bionic eye is on the way as well.

dana said...

The whole body squirming delight, the ecstatic grin! I've recently decided babies are cute again, and I've got out the pictures of my own so I can remember. Although when the twins were little I could hardly enjoy it.

Gwil W said...

No wonder he's happy, and laughing.

The mother's voice that he hears will be a kind of electronic computer sound - a bit like Prof. Stephen Hawking's artificial voice machine I imagine it - which I, for one, quite like the sound of.

George S said...

Hooray for the bionic eye, Genevieve. I'm not sure I understand those who would prefer not to have such things. Logically thy should forgo medicine altogether.

I think new babies are in a space beyond or before cute, but not by much, Dana. They are properly cute a good few months in. Then come teething and the terrible two's but then the joy of the 5 - 10 years, etc.

Stephen Hawking may be better at Physics but Marlie is better at smiling.

dana said...

Yes, my friend who's had three says about 7-14 months is the sweet spot. My other girlfriend says after 1, they just cause trouble!