“Unfortunately, people who have hearing aides only, really can only get to a fourth grade reading level," said speech language pathologist Sarah Wilson. "You can't get very far in school with that reading level. Research has shown people with implants can go in regular classes, graduate from high school, go to college. So, the impact on education is humongous."Those who have hearing aids only? Just WHERE do they get that kind of info? Either that's what the audiologist said at the interview or the reporter screwed up majorly in taking interview notes. There's plenty of those who have hearing aids and have gone through college and their reading level and English skills are pretty high.
Karen Putz wrote in her recent Barefoot in the Burbs blog It's Not What You Can Hear, It's About Attitude. Dang... Definitely attitude and then some!
Here's one more on the myth: A Permanent Breakdown in Communication. Some good points are made in there, but this line:
"Prelingually deafened children raised using ASL or another of the signed English systems (which keep trying to force ASL to be more like English) have roughly a 10% success rate at reading English (or any other traditionally spoken language) on grade level above the 4th grade."I'm pretty sure the number is MUCH higher than 10%. I was reading at or above my grade level and was reading and devouring books pretty quickly. So much so that my two brothers complained at times that I was reading too much!
So let's quit stereotyping the so-called "fourth grade reading level" bull droppings myth. We're smarter than that.
