Favorite sound

Was informed about a website - raiseyourhand.info - with info on hearing impairment, where there's a section with quotes of "favorite sounds" made by parents and children..
Had to add mine of course...

"My favorite sound is when I whisper a question to Lotte and she whispers the answer back to to me.
(Lotte, born aug 2002, bi-lateral CI since nov 2004)"

Have a look and read more about the survey done by Cochlear (a powerpoint/pdf with / without caption), and watch the (captioned or non-captioned) video of J.Q. DePaiva. (Son of Emmy award-winning actress-singer, Kassie DePaiva of "One Life to Live")

Have fun

Quotes regarding language

I enjoy quotes. They give quick insight in certain subjects. Lotte's mother is currently studying Special Education (Not sure if that is the corect translation for "Spesial Pedagogik" - will correct it later..) and with the papers she has to write, quotes actually give good starting points.

Here are a couple we found... Of great interest are the ones from long LONG time ago. The filosphers of the old days - gnostics - regarded language and debate very important.....


Neither can embellishments of language be found without arrangement and expression of thoughts, nor can thoughts be made to shine without the light of language.

Cicero (106 BC - 43 BC)

As was his language so was his life.

Seneca (5 BC - 65 AD)

The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889 - 1951)

Quotes regarding deafness

Sometimes quotes, being used in signatures of posts on messageboards, can give a beautiful insight in the world of the deaf. Positive and negative.

"Tell the mothers I said, "Don't try to change your child; you are the adult, you bear the burden of change" "
- Harlan Lane"

This one is about parents that find out that the child is deaf. It was first used in a time where CI's were not common yet and/or results were lower compared to today. The argument is in my opinion true in case the child remains deaf. In that case I do feel it is important that the parent makes sure that communication with the child is established. In the case of a deaf child, this is sign language. Sign would be th natural choice, and parents will need to adapt and learn this means of communication.
The quote is sometimes used to support the feelings of many Deaf people that feel that the child is the one that has to make the choice.
I feel that it is the parent who has that responsibility. Making the choice that the child has to make the choice lay's down another starting position for the deaf child.
To me, the quote is more correct when it is transformed to this:

"Tell the parents I said, "Help your child; you are the adult, you bear the burden of responsibility to give the child all the possibilities life can give" "

I found another one related to the Harlan Lane quote by CiPop on DeafNotes, who said:

"Parents, continue acting in the best interests of your children for Harlan Lane has been proven wrong!" - CiPop

And CiPop has good right to say that. His daughter has had CI for the last 17 years. He has been a pioneer far more than we ever will be..
And I can say that Lotte has also proven Harlan Lane wrong.
(Proven wrong based on the book "Mask of Benevolence" by Harlan Lane - 1993 (The CI-part of the book is really out of date and really not valid any more.) )


Other quotes regarding deafnes, picked from the internet:

"What matters deafness of the ear, when the mind hears. The one true deafness- the incurable deafness- is that of the mind."
- Victor Hugo

"One and the same thing can at the same time be good, bad, and indifferent, e.g., music is good to the melancholy, bad to those who mourn, and neither good nor bad to the deaf."
- Baruch Spinoza

"But people who think they can project themselves into deafness are mistaken because you can't.
And I'm not talking about imagining what a deaf person's whole life is like. I even mean just realizing what it is like for an instant."
- Richard Masur