Quote:
Originally Posted by RichardDeaf
I have nothing against oralism as long it is not "mandatory" by school - I prefer both oralism and ASL together to maximum the communication skills. I had speech teacher when I was very young until high school. I believe that having oral skill has it own benefits in hearing environment. Again, it should be up to child's parent to make that decision, not school's. Oralism skills served me very well in my social and professional life. I still signs with my other deaf friends but I would admit that my signing is somewhat rusty since I dont use it that often in my adult life.
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Oral skills is not the same as oralism. Oralism, by it's very definition, forbids the use of manual languages, and permits the use of oral languages only. Being taught oral skills is one thing, and I don't think that there is anyone that would disagree that they can be valuable for a deaf person to have. But that is not oralism. Oralism is based on the belief that all deaf people should learn to speak and not be allowed to sign in the effort to make them appear to be more like hearing individuals.