Oral/Aural or British Sign Language

Oral/Aural or British Sign Language

The biggest issue parents will have to face is that of the communication option they want to adopt. Our experience is that, certainly in the Lancashire area, the option preferred by health and education professionals is oral/aural.

However, our approach is the child-centred one, which acknowledges any option that meets the needs of the individual child. We aim to present the positive and negatives of both options so that parents can make a fully informed decision.

This can include just sign language, just speech and lip-reading or a combination of the two through Signed Supported English, Bi-lingualism etc. The communication option which should be encouraged is the one which makes it easier for the child to communicate and relate to the world and people around them. It may be that deaf children use a variety of communication modes and this is fine as long as children can function successfully through them, sharing as well as receiving information.

Whatever the choice made on behalf of the deaf child, children will make their own decisions once they leave school and start mixing in both the deaf and hearing worlds. Some who have had a purely oral/aural education and communication system get involved in the deaf community in adulthood and soon adopt a signing communication/language option.

Cochlear Implants

Another sensitive issue is that of cochlear implants. The deaf community are opposed to cochlear implants because it is seen as another way of denying a child’s deafness and therefore their cultural identity. It has been promoted by the Media as a `miracle cure` but there is no real evidence for this yet.

The hearing achieved by the cochlear implant, although significantly better than a hearing aid, is not of the same quality as that experienced by 'normal hearing'. Therefore it is not the 'miracle cure' it is sometimes proclaimed to be.

A cochlear implant has to be surgically implanted in the skull, under the skin, and for Deaf people this makes it a very invasive operation. Should the implant not work, or the child choose not to use it, it cannot be easily undone without another operation to remove the internal device. Deaf people are also opposed to the fact that children are not really involved in the decision-making process, which denies the right of the deaf child to choose for themselves.

A common question that parents ask is "Will a cochlear implant make my child hear?" My response is to clarify just what parents know about cochlear implants and whether they are aware of both the positive and negative aspects of their child having one.

It has been shown that success is more likely if a child was born hearing and then becomes deaf. Children who are born profoundly deaf children do not appear to achieve as much. The current policy now is that as many deaf children as possible should be given an implant regardless of the onset of their deafness. It is a fact that some do appear to be successful whilst others do not, but this fact needs to be explained to parents before they can make an informed decision.

There are a number of families who have considered giving their children a cochlear implant. Some have chosen to proceed with the implant and adopt a purely oral communication method. Others have had the implant but carried on using sign language. Others have decided against the cochlear implant. Families still going through this decision making process are put in touch with families from all these groups so they can share their experiences, concerns, reasons why they did what they did. Then parents are able to make the decision themselves.