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American Sign Language Advantages

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American Sign Language Advantages
According to Mellon et al. (2015), 10,000 deaf children are born in the United States each year. Of these infants, more than 95 percent are born to hearing parents (p. 781). Often times hearing parents view their deaf children as disabled and try to “fix” them by giving them a cochlear implant (a device that is surgically implanted into a person’s cochlea to help them perceive sounds), or by mainstreaming their child in the public school systems, forcing them to learn to lip-read and speak. I don’t think this is fair to the children. They should have the option to learn American Sign Language (ASL) because it introduces so many opportunities that they wouldn’t otherwise receive.
While it’s understandable that hearing parents want to be able …show more content…
“A cochlear implant is a device that provides stimulation directly to the auditory nerve, bypassing damaged hair cells in the cochlea that prevent sound from reaching the nerve. An implant does not result in ‘restored’ hearing for the recipient but does allow him or her to perceive sounds” (Cochlear Implant, n.d.). There are many helpful aspects of cochlear implants such as gaining the capability to interpret sounds and being able to speak. However, the implants require a lot of maintenance. “Wearing a cochlear implant is a lifetime commitment, and requires the recipient to maintain and care for the implant” (Cochlear Implant, n.d.). In addition, “children often require years of extensive aural rehabilitation” (Cochlear Implant, n.d.). Not only is this procedure time consuming with the care and rehab required of the surgery, it is also very expensive, with costs exceeding $40,000 (Cochlear Implant, …show more content…
As Clason (2014) said, “learning language and cognitive development through ASL is a basic human right that should be protected and that choosing cochlear implants steers families away from learning ASL and embracing Deaf culture” (The Importance of Deaf Culture, n.d.). There is a lot of controversy regarding CIs in the Deaf community. Many Deaf people see people who got the surgery as someone who isn’t proud of being Deaf and were trying to “fix” themselves. Deaf people often make fun of them, saying that they were attempting to become like a hearing person and rejecting the Deaf
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