Well, today was a sad day, because Ollie will miss Miss Stacey! It was his last, official Auditory Verbal session. We do plan to go for a "check-up" after the boys get their new Opus processors, and then yearly after that, since many consonants don't come until 3, 4 or even later. Ollie is the youngest AVC graduate, likely due to two things, primarily: early implantation and AVT. We normalized listening and hearing.

Oliver is fluent in English. It's his native language, and he uses it with ease. He is ahead, actually, of his hearing peers.

And yet, a brief perusal of the blogs of "Deaf Culture" and "Deafhood" advocates just today finds parents like us being accused of "linguistic murder," called abusive (and therefore, we ought to be prevented from making language choices, much like you would prevent someone from hurting their child phsyically), etc. Another gem of a site equates their message of sign language use with the anti-smoking campaign, as if using AVT (or, really, just using ordinary spoken language) was as bad for kids as smoking. Brilliant. Recently, the most horrific attack on the A.G. Bell Association occurred-- a video of a supporter of the Deaf Bilingual Coalition posted a youtube video which included swastikas, guns and shooting of pictures of Dr. Bell in a cemetery.

Parents, I challenge you to believe that your deaf child CAN do anything! If you choose to teach sign language, that's your right... if you choose AVT... that's your right. If you want to be involved with oral deaf ed., contact A.G. Bell. If you want to be involved in a more TC approach, contact Hands and Voices. Make your choices, do your best, love your kids and stand proud of your choices. Spend time with those who applaud and support your efforts and rights.

Jumping off of my soapbox, now. :-P