Choices In Deafness

Tells the stories of deaf and hearing-impaired children, discusses modern treatments, and compares speech, oral, and total communication approaches to the education of the deaf.

Explains medical and audiological factors and presents educational options for hearing impaired and deaf children.

A concise guide explains the current research on the development of deaf children, urges the importance of communication with deaf children by sign language as early as possible, and provides information on resources for the deaf and their parents. UP.

A young boy describes the frustrations caused by his deafness and the encouragement he receives from a deaf teenager that he can lead an active life.

Weaving together lyrical history and personal memoir, Virdi powerfully examines society’s—and her own—perception of life as a deaf person in America. At the age of four, Jaipreet Virdi’s world went silent. A severe case of meningitis left her alive but deaf, suddenly treated differently by everyone. Her deafness downplayed by society and doctors, she struggled to “pass” as hearing for most of her life. Countless cures, treatments, and technologies led to dead ends. Never quite deaf enough for the Deaf community or quite hearing enough for the “normal” majority, Virdi was stuck in aural limbo for years. It wasn’t until her thirties, exasperated by problems with new digital hearing aids, that she began to actively assert her deafness and reexamine society’s—and her own—perception of life as a deaf person in America. Through lyrical history and personal memoir, Hearing Happiness raises pivotal questions about deafness in American society and the endless quest for a cure. Taking us from the 1860s up to the present, Virdi combs archives and museums to understand the long history of curious cures: ear trumpets, violet ray apparatuses, vibrating massagers, electrotherapy machines, airplane diving, bloodletting, skull hammering, and many more. Hundreds of procedures and products have promised grand miracles but always failed to deliver a universal cure—a harmful legacy that is still present in contemporary biomedicine. Blending Virdi’s own experiences together with her exploration into the fascinating history of deafness cures, Hearing Happiness is a powerful story that America needs to hear. Praise for Hearing Happiness “In part a critical memoir of her own life, this archival tour de force centers on d/Deafness, and, specifically, the obsessive search for a “cure”. . . . This survey of cure and its politics, framed by disability studies, allows readers—either for the first time or as a stunning example in the field—to think about how notions of remediation are leveraged against the most vulnerable.” —Public Books “Engaging. . . . A sweeping chronology of human deafness fortified with the author’s personal struggles and triumphs.” —Kirkus Reviews “Part memoir, part historical monograph, Virdi’s Hearing Happiness breaks the mold for academic press publications.” —Publishers Weekly “In her insightful book, Virdi probes how society perceives deafness and challenges the idea that a disability is a deficit. . . . [She] powerfully demonstrates how cures for deafness pressure individuals to change, to “be better.” —Washington Post

A mother whose child has had a cochlear implant tells Laura Mauldin why enrollment in the sign language program at her daughter’s school is plummeting: “The majority of parents want their kids to talk.” Some parents, however, feel very differently, because “curing” deafness with cochlear implants is uncertain, difficult, and freighted with judgment about what is normal, acceptable, and right. Made to Hear sensitively and thoroughly considers the structure and culture of the systems we have built to make deaf children hear. Based on accounts of and interviews with families who adopt the cochlear implant for their deaf children, this book describes the experiences of mothers as they navigate the health care system, their interactions with the professionals who work with them, and the influence of neuroscience on the process. Though Mauldin explains the politics surrounding the issue, her focus is not on the controversy of whether to have a cochlear implant but on the long-term, multiyear undertaking of implantation. Her study provides a nuanced view of a social context in which science, technology, and medicine are trusted to vanquish disability—and in which mothers are expected to use these tools. Made to Hear reveals that implantation has the central goal of controlling the development of the deaf child’s brain by boosting synapses for spoken language and inhibiting those for sign language, placing the politics of neuroscience front and center. Examining the consequences of cochlear implant technology for professionals and parents of deaf children, Made to Hear shows how certain neuroscientific claims about neuroplasticity, deafness, and language are deployed to encourage compliance with medical technology.

In My Friend Is Deaf, beginning readers are introduced to different characters who are deaf, how deafness may affect their actions, and how we can be good friends to people who are deaf. Vibrant, full-color photos and carefully leveled text engage young readers as they discover how to empathetic and inlude all kinds of friends.

This book presents the revolutionary approach to the treatment of hearing loss proposed by Professor Henryk Skarżyński and developed in collaboration with the group of internationally recognized experts on clinical and experimental otolaryngology, otosurgery, and audiology. The authors present an in-depth look at different aspects of this comprehensive concept of treatment of partial and total deafness with hearing implants, and discuss the approaches to diagnostics and patient selection, results in different groups of patients, the surgical technique, and procedures. This book also covers audiological aspects, auditory training, patient's performance, and psychology. This book is a comprehensive review of the method of partial and total deafness treatment developed and introduced into clinical practice by Professor Henryk Skarżyński. The publication is noteworthy for presenting a multifaceted approach to the subject from related science experts’ and clinicians’ point of view.