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jillio · 04-30-2008, 03:41 PM

[quote=faire_jour;965627]Ok, I don't want to come off rude, but I want you to know that things could change for your daughter.
EVERY SINGLE Deaf adult I have met (with 2 exceptions and they both had Deaf parents) have grown up oral. They all discovered ASL as teens either through a change in school or by meeting another Deaf person or just seeing it and deciding they want to learn, and once they learn it, they never stop using it. I think you should be prepared that your daughter may choose to turn off her voice at some point. My best Deaf friend grew up completly oral, she went to CID, was a "star" student, she has zero difficulty understanding and using spoken Engglish, she even says she looked down on "ASL" Deaf people. She went to college and "found" ASL. She is now 100% voice-off and married to a Deaf of Deaf of Deaf of Deaf man and has 2 Deaf children of her own. It is not because she can't speak, but because now she chooses not to. She is also an advocate AGAINST oral education of Deaf children now.
I'm not saying this will be the case for your daughter, but you need to realize it is a possibility and you should be willing to accept and support her if that happens. AGAIN, I am not saying this is the life story of every Deaf person, but in my experience it happens often.

Also I wanted to say that the reason oral schools generally end is because the goal IS to mainstream. Our oral class at the School for the Deaf ends after 1st grade and Auditory-Verbal therapists recommend sending deaf-hoh students to a regular pre-school. The idea behin the methodology is that the deaf-hoh student will be able to function exactly like a hearing child because their speech/listening skills will be highly trained. They are supposed to "disappear" into mainstream society.....it doesn't usually work that way.[/QUOTE]

I'd go so far as to say that it rarely works that way.

04-30-2008, 03:41 PM	#15 (permalink)
jillio Registered User Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 14,293	[quote=faire_jour;965627]Ok, I don't want to come off rude, but I want you to know that things could change for your daughter. EVERY SINGLE Deaf adult I have met (with 2 exceptions and they both had Deaf parents) have grown up oral. They all discovered ASL as teens either through a change in school or by meeting another Deaf person or just seeing it and deciding they want to learn, and once they learn it, they never stop using it. I think you should be prepared that your daughter may choose to turn off her voice at some point. My best Deaf friend grew up completly oral, she went to CID, was a "star" student, she has zero difficulty understanding and using spoken Engglish, she even says she looked down on "ASL" Deaf people. She went to college and "found" ASL. She is now 100% voice-off and married to a Deaf of Deaf of Deaf of Deaf man and has 2 Deaf children of her own. It is not because she can't speak, but because now she chooses not to. She is also an advocate AGAINST oral education of Deaf children now. I'm not saying this will be the case for your daughter, but you need to realize it is a possibility and you should be willing to accept and support her if that happens. AGAIN, I am not saying this is the life story of every Deaf person, but in my experience it happens often. Also I wanted to say that the reason oral schools generally end is because the goal IS to mainstream. Our oral class at the School for the Deaf ends after 1st grade and Auditory-Verbal therapists recommend sending deaf-hoh students to a regular pre-school. The idea behin the methodology is that the deaf-hoh student will be able to function exactly like a hearing child because their speech/listening skills will be highly trained. They are supposed to "disappear" into mainstream society.....it doesn't usually work that way.[/QUOTE] I'd go so far as to say that it rarely works that way.