Yesterday we had a Hearing Clinic appointment at The Children's Hospital and officially found out that Eric is indeed a canidate for Cochlear Implants (CIs). We have been wanting Eric to get CIs since he was diagnosed with his hearing loss, but we still had the possibility of the doctor saying "I'm sorry, Eric cannot recieve a cochlear implant." But I was nervous for nothing and our goal is for Eric to recieve bilateral cochlear implants sometime close to his first birthday.
We want Eric to have implants primarily because with his level of hearing loss, he will not learn to speak. We know that sign language is a wonderful language (that we are already learning as well) but life will have situations where Eric will be disadvantaged by his inability to speak. What parent wants their child to be disadvantaged in any way? In this case, there is something we can do about it. There is a lot of controversy regarding CIs in Deaf culture. Many people who are against CIs think that parents want to "fix" their child and something is "wrong" with them. I don't think that's true at all. I don't think any parent feels that way. We are proud of our of Deaf child! He will always be Deaf and he will know all about Deaf culture. If the day comes where Eric decides that he never wants to put his implant on again, we are ok with that. But we have given him the opportunity to make that decision.
Our entire family will be involved in Eric's implants. We are not changing Eric. We are all changing. We will all learn sign language. We are all on a journey.
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