Made to Hear

Cochlear Implants and Raising Deaf Children

2016
Author:

Laura Mauldin

The social consequences of the medicalization of deafness, as seen in the experiences of parents and professionals working with cochlear implants

Made to Hear sensitively and thoroughly considers the structure and culture of the systems we have built to make deaf children hear. Examining the consequences of cochlear implant technology for professionals and parents of deaf children, Laura Mauldin shows how certain neuroscientific claims about neuroplasticity, deafness, and language are deployed to encourage compliance with medical technology.

A superb account of how a controversial technology becomes normalized patient by patient. While following families from newborn screening to post-Cochlear implant, Laura Mauldin shows that little of the political turmoil related to this medical technology is salient for the parents faced with a child with hearing loss.

Stefan Timmermans, University of California, Los Angeles

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.

Awards

Honorable Mention: Outstanding Publication Award in the Sociology of Disability from the American Sociological Association’s Section on Disability and Society

Laura Mauldin is assistant professor of human development / family studies and women’s gender and sexuality studies at the University of Connecticut.

A superb account of how a controversial technology becomes normalized patient by patient. While following families from newborn screening to post-Cochlear implant, Laura Mauldin shows that little of the political turmoil related to this medical technology is salient for the parents faced with a child with hearing loss.

Stefan Timmermans, University of California, Los Angeles

Dr Mauldin is a talented writer who offers keen insight in several areas where practitioners can improve.

Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education

Contents
Abbreviations
Introduction: Medicalization, Deaf Children, and Cochlear Implants
1. A Diagnosis of Deafness: How Mothers Experience Newborn Hearing Screening
2. Early Intervention: Turning Parents into Trainers
3. Candidates for Implantation: Class, Cultural Background, and Compliance
4. The Neural Project: The Role of the Brain
5. Sound in School: Linking the School and the Clinic
Conclusion: The Power and Limits of Technology
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index