So far, the differences between American Sign Language (ASL) and cochlear implants (CI) can be summed up as follows:
ASL is a signalling system which uses all parts of signs--hand shapes, palm oreintations, start-end locations, non-manual expressions, and modifier movements--which can be transmitted from one person to another. No CI has this system that filters and then transmits arbitrary sounds from one person to another. In CI, there is frequently a connection between the signal and the noise, be it the message or the sound of my dog whinning, and the system is mainly battery-operated and is not natural. Creativity, the ability to produce novel expressions, seems evident in ASL but is definitely absent in CI.
ASL is a patterned system of arbitrary signs, characterized by structure dependence, creativity, displacement, duality and cultural transmission. CI does not depend on displacement, duality and cultural transmission.
CI is more primitive than ASL, a primitive device that is reflected in the acquisition of human language, which might lack sounds common in spoken languages. Children with CIs are not prearranged for talking with sounds; no human infant is born speaking. Any language has to be acquired, and the noises coming out of our mouths have to be natural.
Whatever is expressed in ASL seems natural. Whatever heard through CI is never natural.
Friday, June 13, 2008
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10 comments:
What about Bi Lingual? How can you justify that CI is never natural? Have you been doing your homework with 3 to 5 year old Ci users?
We're deaf parents and our son has ci and using ASL, too. We use ASL in our daily communication and Ci has benefit his ability to hear and talk with hearing peers. His hearing level is 10db on both ears.
Every child is different and we believe in ASL and we also believe in Ci, too.
Believe me, you're encouraging hearing parents into ci because that's all you do is ASL is the only answer. It is not. The big problem is education system is so messed up and it needs to be fixed. Bi-lingual is the answer to every children.
You need to do more research about Ci because current Ci is natural sound and powerful. 10 Top military hearing guys are using Ci for the military purposes. Only 3 humans have internal Ci without any exterior hardware. There are so many success stories about Ci that you refuse to agree with.
I am always amused when someone who has no idea of how a cochlear implant works or what it does makes pronouncements about it. To a person who has always heard through a cochlear implant, the sound IS natural.
Your analogy here is faulty, just as it would be faulty to compare English to an ear.
Lena
Good Job!
Hearing through cochlear implant
Deaf children wear cochlear implants by communicating in prohibit ASL in the classes.
I will support not all Deaf children have cochlear implants if they have the right to access ASL in communication as for reason they struggle to understand through the auditory method.
Floridagirl
First Anon: Haha you got to be kidding because you sez "Only 3 humans have internal Ci without any exterior hardware."
Can you pinpoint the source of the information? Otherwise you are full of it!
Thank you.
Lena makes a great point: "Your analogy here is faulty, just as it would be faulty to compare English to an ear."
Why do you pit a language against a hearing aid? These are not at odds and they are not comparable nor opposing things. A Deaf person can have both a cochlear implant as a hearing aid and full expressive command of ASL.
While my critics are tackling the delicate issue of CI, I mulled over the question of whether ASL is compared to CI. I shall now speak from my personal experience. When my daughter was first diagnosed with deafness, I was advised to consult with certain social worker, counselor and audiologist to explore amplification for her residual hearing. Why? For language. When I asked about American Sign Language, the answer was no.
There must be a great many of parents who are so ill-advised. No six years old can speak perfect in the same manner he or she can use perfect ASL. If one says a 4 years old with CI speaks perfectly, he or she must be lying through teeth. We have yet to listen to a 12 years old or a 17 years old about CI. Deaf children are vulnerable because they lack adult ways of knowiong, comprehending, applying, analyzing and then synthesizing. Let Deaf babies be.
Carl,
They speak very well! You cannot tell the difference between hearing or Ci users. Of course many parents were ill-advised in the past. That's from the past! I'm talking about this day forward from 2004. Ci technology has improved and less invasive type of surgery.
I'm not talking about 12 year old or 17 year old with Ci.You cannot teach old dogs with new tricks, here. Babies til 3 do very well than a person who gets Ci at the age of 10. That's the clarification and 95% of babies to 3 year old speaks perfectly when they age to 5 years old. That's the fact.
DEAF, yes there are only 3 people are using a trail studies with internal Ci from all over the world. Dr. Syms of Phoenix gave me the info. He's one of the best Doctors to perform Ci implants. It took him less than 15 minutes to implant. Patient goes home and the next day it's turned on and go back to work or whatever. My wife had one last month and she worked 3 days later. It's awesome.
My wife said to me on the other day...first time she's not used to the sound and they do mapping sounds twice a month depending on individual..now she loves it. She loves how the music sounds,etc.
Carl...whatever you do, please go and witness these little kids and how successful they are...NOT 8 year olds with implants or later. These groups are 50/50 succcess rate compared to babies to 3 year old with 95% success rate. Huge difference!
We as Deaf people understand that Hearing people know what it is like to hear. Therefore they will be forever different than those people who doesnt know what it is like to hear. It is natural for hearing people want to fix their hearing loss because they know. But we as a Deaf people doesnt know what it is like to lose our hearing because we dont have hearing in the first place. So it is natural for us to not consider it a problem and whats more we have ASL where we enjoy using everyday. Why cant those two worlds leave it at that way.
Remember that Deaf people's four remaining senses are 5 percent greater than Hearing people because we have 25 percentage for each senses. Hearing people have 20 percentage. For example, Blind and Deaf person's senses are at 33.3 percentage each because they can feel other person's signing and understand with their hand or hands. That is already an evidence.
NoHear
Anonymous 2:13 AM:
Why anonymous? Coward?
You are welcome to ask ALL of my colleagues and ASL students whether
or not I speak VERY WELL. I was born DEAF...to DEAF parents.... I can speak? So what!
Ampliciation and CI are just a high-profile hoax!
beer slut; get me an ice cold beer.
I LOVE ASL!
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