Revised Project Prospectus:
What do you do if you think your child might have a hearing impairment?
1. How do you find out if your child has a hearing impairment?
2. What do you do once you find out?
3. What are the options available to you once your child is diagnosed with a disorder?
4. What type of emotions do you go through?
5. Where do you find any type of information?

I think the point I tried to make was that even thinking there might be something wrong with your child is very hard. It is almost devastating. Where do you go to find out what is wrong and where do you go after you find out something is wrong?

I wrote one genre in the voice of the four month old child - a poem entitled Golden.
I wrote journal entries in the voice of the parent who is in denial at first.
I wrote a referral letter in the voice of the child's pediatrician.
I wrote another poem in the voice of an audiologist.
I created a powerpoint presentation in the voice of a professional who is explaining issues regarding hearing loss and treatment to people unfamiliar with the subject.
I created a webliography with info about me.
I wrote a letter to the parent in the voice of the audiologist.
I used many different sources than I originally thought I would. That would be because I had to go back and redo all my research. Talk about making things harder on myself.

How does someone go about deciding whether or not cochlear implants are the right choice for their child?

1. What are cochlear implants?

2. What is the procedure for implantation, activation, and what type of healing time is involved?

3. What are other options?

4. Are there other options once the hearing deficit is great enough?

5. Do the benefits outweigh the risks?

6. How would the child (based on age of onset) develop language with and without any type of amplification - internal or external?

7. How would a parent find a credible source of information about the subject in order to make a decision?

Point: Researching possible options once a postlingual child has been diagnosed with a profound sensory neural hearing loss, focusing mainly on the pros and cons of cochlear implants.

Genres: Obviously the mandatory genres - poem,webliography, Powerpoint presentation.
I am considering the referral letter from an audiologist or a neuro-otolgist to the parents of the child, a letter to the parents from someone who has undergone the surgery, a letter to the editor or to a local politician regarding a possible lack of full insurance coverage for the surgery, a journal entry from one of the parents, or an interview transcript. The audience for the genres will be different based on who is writing or talking to whom. The rationale for the referral letter is to explain a lot about the implants, letter to the editor or politician - to point out possible financial difficulties, journal entry - to describe what the parents are feeling during the entire process, interview transcript - may help to bring the whole thing together in a unified theme. I think putting the genres inside one big story will be the basic theme, I just haven't quite figured out how to do that yet-I'm working on it.

Possible Resources:

Hear USA
Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
Go hear
Allyn and Bacon student companion website

Introduction to Audiologic Rehabilitation Fourth Edition by Ronald L. Schow and Michael Nerbonne