"MR. HOLLAND'S OPUS" (**SPOILER**)
bri
impaired son of Richard Dreyfuss and Glenne Headley) got his hearing
problems from a fire engine foghorn at a parade. If that's true,
then why didn't the family sue the city? Also, if as the doctors
say, he's 90% deaf, wouldn't he STILL be able to hear some musical
notes? I know this is a minor detail of the movie, but if Cole
wasn't born with hearing difficulty, the family should've sued
the city. I know I'm not the only one pondering this...!
R. Hunter Metz
Um, I thought the whole thing with the fire engine horn was to show that Cole
already had hearing loss. If that incident made him lose his hearing, he
would've heard the initial blare of the horn and been awake and crying instead
of sleeping right through it.
Hunter
dog...@nando.net
Fred Douglas Davis
> As the narrative of "Mr. Holland's Opus" suggests, Cole (the hearing
> impaired son of Richard Dreyfuss and Glenne Headley) got his hearing
> problems from a fire engine foghorn at a parade. If that's true,
> then why didn't the family sue the city? Also, if as the doctors
> say, he's 90% deaf, wouldn't he STILL be able to hear some musical
> notes? I know this is a minor detail of the movie, but if Cole
> wasn't born with hearing difficulty, the family should've sued
> the city. I know I'm not the only one pondering this...!
He didn't become deaf because of the fire engine horn. It supposed to
show how they first discovered he was deaf. He didn't cry, or even wake
up when the horn was blared, and that is when she first realized
something was wrong.
--
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M Fred D. Davis... A.K.A - mR. pHRED. D
M E-mail fdd...@jove.acs.unt.edu D
M Homepage = http://www.unt.edu/~fdd0001 D
M "If you stick a cattle prod up it's ass, you can get a D
M horse to deal cards....it's just a matter of voltage." D
M Gene Hackman--------Crimson Tide D
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Jeff Cooley
> As the narrative of "Mr. Holland's Opus" suggests, Cole (the hearing
> impaired son of Richard Dreyfuss and Glenne Headley) got his hearing
> problems from a fire engine foghorn at a parade. If that's true,
> then why didn't the family sue the city? Also, if as the doctors
> say, he's 90% deaf, wouldn't he STILL be able to hear some musical
> notes? I know this is a minor detail of the movie, but if Cole
> wasn't born with hearing difficulty, the family should've sued
> the city. I know I'm not the only one pondering this...!
Cole didn't contract his hearing problems from this event, His mother
turned to him as all of the surrounding people were covering their
ears, and all the surrounding children were crying and he was
passively sitting there. It was then obvious to her that he could hear
the massive sound burst and hence she checked his hearing and found
that he was deaf.
This by the way was a surprise to me, because even though it was the sixties,
one of the tests they tell you as a new parent is to stand outside of your
childs range of view and then make a loud noise and watch that they react
to
it. The same with get their attention on a red object and watch there eyes
track. We did this in the first month of our new sons birth.
KITTIES5
only discovered it whenshe looked down at him during the parade and didn't
see him react to the loud noise.
MarcColten
fennl.psyc...@ohsu.edu (Lorzling) writes:
>I think the fact that the son didn't react at all to the foghorn was the
>tipoff to the mother that there was a problem with his hearing, thus
implying
>
>that he was born partially deaf. What I was wondering was why this was
the
>first time they had noticed it.
>
>
I don't think you can tell that kids that young can hear well or not.
What do they listen to? They don't come when you call them, they don't
appear know their names and parents who play music for their kids assume
they are listening.
marc colten
Snuggles
VICTOR VOLKMAN <victor....@hal9k.com> wrote:
>-> From: fennl.psyc...@ohsu.edu (Lorzling)
>-> In article <4grdnd$s...@news.ccit.arizona.edu> bri writes:
>->
>-> >As the narrative of "Mr. Holland's Opus" suggests, Cole (the hearing
>-> >impaired son of Richard Dreyfuss and Glenne Headley) got his hearing
>-> >problems from a fire engine foghorn at a parade. If that's true, >then why
>-> didn't the family sue the city?
>->
>-> I think the fact that the son didn't react at all to the foghorn was the
>-> tipoff to the mother that there was a problem with his hearing, thus
>-> implying that he was born partially deaf. What I was wondering was why this
>-> was the first time they had noticed it.
>->
>-> Laura.
>
>
>Of course you are correct on both points. The horn itself did not cause 20
>people or even 1 person to go deaf, but the child's lack of response was
>supposed to be the telling mark. Actually, I believe most children born deaf
>have their condition discovered before they are six months old, they were
>defintely late on the track.
As a hearing-impaired person myself (deaf in the right ear and a
severe loss in the left ear in which I wear a hearing aid), I can tell
you that a baby can appear to be developing normally up until nearly the
age of two. I was born in 1974 before they could test baby's hearings
very well. As a matter of fact, the hospital rated me a ten. It wasn't
until I was two that my parents began to notice a lack of obedience and
response, along with a lack of speech development. I was taking to
several doctors and specialists, even audiologists. Even then, I was
believed to only have a attention disorder. One specialist even wrote
down that I was just spoiled and tantrumous. It wasn't until I was three
that I was finally diagnosed with hearing impairment and fitted with a
hearing aid. Whether or not I was born with or not is not known, but
still, it did take everyone a year to figure out at least what was
wrong. Years later, I did read somewhere at a speech and hearing
center that a child born deaf can seem normal until around two, when
language development and response is expected.
Of course, these days, with technology, a baby's hearing can be
tested early on. But Cole was born long before even I was, so they
had even less sophisticated methods for testing hearing.
The whole point of this is, I think the movie was pretty on
target with the timeline of discovering his problem. I was surprised,
though, when Cole's parents were told to not let him learn any sign
language or treat him differently. Usually, in those days, kids were
immediately sent to special schools or institutions, and somehow left
with a less fulfilling life. When I was first diagnosed, my parents were
told that I would have to learn sign language, go to a special school,
and that I would never be good at reading, writing, talking, or even
mathematics. Against everyone's advice, my parents just sent me to a
regular preschool and I went to speech therapy in the afternoons. I was
completely caught up with kids my age by the second grade, where I was
placed in the honors program. I never learned sign language, and I've
had teachers say that I blow apart everything they were ever taught about
hearing impaired children.
Obviously, I have better hearing than Cole. His hearing loss was far
more severe than mine and it would not have been possible for him to
function as a hearing-able person. Therefore, it puzzles me that
they would tell his parents not to properly educate him. It is to each
his own, I guess.
Sorry I rambled on about this, but when I saw the movie, I
completely connected with this storyline. Of course, I'm looking forward
to it coming out on video or on HBO, so I can watch it in close captioned
and catch more of the dialogue (which my boyfriend had to keep repeating
to me!) BTW, anyone know of or think that it will ever be possible to
have some sort of close captioning in theatres? I would love to be able
to watch the more dialogue-ridden movies when they first come out, not
later on video or HBO.
Cristen
VICTOR VOLKMAN
-> As a hearing-impaired person myself (deaf in the right ear and a severe loss
-> in the left ear in which I wear a hearing aid), I can tell you that a baby
-> can appear to be developing normally up until nearly the age of two. I was
-> born in 1974 before they could test baby's hearings very well. As a matter
-> of fact, the hospital rated me a ten. It wasn't until I was two that my
-> parents began to notice a lack of obedience and response, along with a lack
-> of speech development. I was taking to several doctors and specialists,
-> even audiologists. Even then, I was believed to only have a attention
-> disorder. One specialist even wrote down that I was just spoiled and
-> tantrumous. It wasn't until I was three that I was finally diagnosed with
-> hearing impairment and fitted with a
Thanks for the correction! I bow to your experience.