Originally Posted by Willow:
I cannot repeat enough, he does want to wear his hearing aid though. He loves it and has thrived with having access to it again. He gets very upset when it's taken out and he begs to have it put back in. Even at his age he obviously sees it as an asset in his life and one he wants to continue utilizing.
If HE had a problem with it then I'd think differently, but he doesn't, and never has. Again, he loves and uses his aid willingly and wantingly every single time.
I disagree with you completely that a HOH/deaf child shouldn't have access to a hearing aid if his parents are simply embarrassed by the device. It's not fair to limit a child's world simply because the parents cannot get over their own discriminations and/or embarrassments.
Willow, I understand you very clear, so you don't need repeat enough.
You may disagree with me, that is your opinion. My opinion is that you should have sit down to discuss with the boy's parents to tell them there is nothing wrong for him to wear hearing aid and their son is interested to wear hearing aid again . There is nothing embarrassments about. If they are still not comfortable then that is fine. You do have another way to use communicate with him because you know sign language, which is awesome! You said this boy loves sign language now because you taught him. That is communication that you are using. There is nothing wrong with that. If his parents don't learn sign language, shame on them. Trust me, there are so many parents wouldn't learn sign language to communicate with their profoundly deaf child/ren. The boy either will be happy to use communicate with you with sign language or speak. As far as this boy is only two years old, it is hardly for him to have emotion about communicate just yet. I remember when I was two years old, it doesn't bother me at all. I read their lips a lot of time. After that, my mom found out that I was deaf and she sent me to a deaf education preschool and I picked up sign language quickly. My mother tried so hard to learn sign language but that is the best she could. I still read their lips until I was 4 years old. My mom got me both hearing aids and I dont ever care about that so I chewed my hearing aids. After that, I still read their lips until I was 9 years old and I got hearing aids again after I asked my mom for it. I went to speech therapy and I picked up quickly too. My mother was shocked that I learned really fast. That is what I wanted when I was very interested to learn. Now all I am saying just give the parents some time for them get it. However, they already got it, anyways.
I understand you are trying to help him but he does have communicate with you. That is sign!
You are right it is not fair to limit a child's world but there are so many not fair to deaf children due to their parents don't know sign language or forced them to speak without using sign language.
That boy will always be deaf. He will around deaf children in later in his life that he would involved in deaf community. His parents will learn by it or not, who knows.
Like I said, hearing people don't understand about deaf culture.
Well, this is my last post so I hope you understand what I mean. You probably still disagree with me, but that is ok.