BitaTruble
Posts: 9779
Joined: 1/12/2006
From: Texas
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quote:
Something I have been pondering.. hopefully going to graduate school to be an audiologist myself... do you think parents are educated enough on Deaf Culture and the benefits of learning sign language when they see an audilogist. I don't think parents are educated enough on all the options.. and since 95% of deaf kids have hearing parents I believe it to be a problem.
Audiologists are diagnosticians and rehabilitation providers for people who have some residual hearing. They don't, generally, work with parents at that level. Parents would be referred to specially trained deaf educators, otolaryngologists, schools etc. Now, there are some audiologists who do work and have specialized in this area, but that takes additional training and schooling. Most clinical audiologists are not certified in ASL and to work at a deaf school, one would require certification in that area. Audiologists who do work at deaf schools tend to have very strong backgrounds in pediatric audiology. Himself was a clinical audiologist and while he holds a certificate ::as opposed to being certified:: in ASL, his area of expertise is geriatrics and retro-cochlear diagnostics. If you are interested in working with the deaf community, you might want to consider going into deaf education instead of audiology. They are two very different things.
As for parents being educated: It's a process. When a parent first takes their child to the doctor and then to a pediatric audiologist, no, of course they are not educated. They don't know anything yet! Now, what can be good for debate for this thread would be the debate between early intervention and later intervention. Those on the early side believe such is important because it allows the child to play 'catch-up' much more quickly and there have been 'some' studies which indicate such early intervention can increase test scores in some subject areas later on. Those on the late side believe that bonding between parents is more important and that such intervention can and should be delayed so that bonding can take place.
In addition, there is also the grieving process that needs to be taken into consideration before any education can begin. Starting with denial and ending with acceptance. The quicker those steps take place, the better it is for the child's best interest and that is very personal and individual to the families involved. In my own work with the hearing impaired, I know what it's like to see someone who has been fit with their very first hearing aid and to see the look of wonder on their faces when they hear clearly for the very first time. It's an amazing thing and reminds me of when I got my first pair of glasses. Without them, I'm legally blind, so to put them on for the first time opened up a whole new world for me. Colors, clarity.. the works. I imagine what I felt then is akin to what someone who is hearing impaired would go through with that auditory wonder. No amount of education is going to help a family who is not willing to put in the time and effort necessary to make it successful though.. and no audiologist can help a family who can't or won't help themselves.
Himself holds pediatric audiologists in the highest regard and deaf educators as angels. He's a softie that way. :)
Celeste
_____________________________
"Oh, so it's just like Rock, paper, scissors." He laughed. "You are the wisest woman I know."
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