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Hi Deborah..I have to agree with Jillo and faire_jour. I am a 36 year old deaf woman who grew up strictly oral and fully mainstreamed all the way to until I was 25 years old. I took ASL class not because I was curious about the Deaf community nor because I wanted to fit in with the Deaf community. I took it to meet the foreign language requirement. To my shock and amazement, I learned about the Deaf community and the culture behind it. I always knew about sign language but I always thought it was for lower functioning deaf people who couldnt develop oral skills.
Anyways, to make a long story short, once I got into learning ASL, it was like my whole perspective about myself and my deafness changed and I started realizing that all of my self-esteem issues were from striving to be "hearing" but failing to be successful with it despite having great oral and lipreading skills. I grew up with something missing within me but I didnt know what it was...it was my deaf identity. I grew up being ashamed of my deafness, hiding my hearing aids, being constantly stressed about making sure communication was clear with myself and my hearing peers because I DID NOT want any signs indicating that I was deaf being apparent. What I was doing was denying myself. Everyone else knew that I was deaf but I refused to see it.
Anyways, I took 4 levels of ASL and ended up going to Gallaudet University where I experienced big time culture shock. Since then, my life has been complete and I finally found peace and happiness.
No, I never stopped using my voice with my family members cuz they dont know any sign but I spend 95% of my time in a signing environment. I would rather be in a signing environment than a non-signing environment. I work with Deaf people, my hearing husband is fluent in sign lnaguage, and all of my friends know sign la nguage. I dont have any friends who dont know it cuz I dont want to go back to my old life again.
Yes, I will talk with hearing people but not as much as I do with my deaf friends or hearing friends who are involved with the Deaf community.
I am very very against oral-only deaf education because I had such a terrible upbringing in an oral-only environment among other reasons.
I am glad you are listening to your daughter and glad that your daughter knows what she wants at this age. I knew that I wanted to fit in with my hearing friends but I didnt know how no matter how hard I tried. I even did some self-destructive behaviors towards myself all in the name of acceptance.
Good luck with everything!
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~Shel~ 
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