AG Bell, Tear Down This Wall; Let All Deaf Children Sign; The Deaf Bilingual Coalitio

Cheri said:
Oh, I understand. I'm sorry to hear that, I wasn't aware that it had happened to you and I've had some deaf people telling me I should have teach my sons sign language, and how I'm not even accepting my deafness when it's really isn't about me, it's about my sons who happen to be hearing. ;)
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Can u understand your son most of the time via spoken language? If u can, that's great!

I wish I had signed more with my daughter cuz I am always asking her to repeat herself leading to the disruption of the flow of communication with us. Makes it frustrating sometimes for both of us and that's my huge regret. That's why I expose my son to both languages. Also, in the future, by being fluent in more languages, it gives people an edge in the competion for better jobs. Just like with European kids growing up bi or even tri-lingual.

However u r not the only deaf person not to use sign language with their kids. I have met many but it makes it hard for me and other deaf people to communicate with their children because we keep misunderstanding them via spoken language.

I know one deaf guy whose 21 year old hearing son just landed a good paying job with VRS. He makes more money than I do cuz he is fluent in both ASL and English. Lucky dude! Must be nice.

My goal is to get my daughter fluent in 3 languages..ASL, English, and Spanish (she is half Mexican). Boy, she wud have a huge advantage in the job market.
 
shel90 said:
Can u understand your son most of the time via spoken language? If u can, that's great!
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Sometimes they intend to forget that I'm deaf, and there are times I would have to remind them. Even my brother whispered in my ear once, and I'm like hello?? did you forget I'm deaf? :giggle:
 
Hearing children who have mild cases of Asper's, Austism, or just simply late bloomers
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In addition kids with learning disabilites, cerebal palsy etc etc.
 
Cheri said:
Sometimes they intend to forget that I'm deaf, and there are times I would have to remind them. Even my brother whispered in my ear once, and I'm like hello?? did you forget I'm deaf? :giggle:
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:lol:
 
Something about that DBC banner bothers me. To prevent misunderstanding, I think the word, "This" should be replaced with "The".

The whole line is "AGBell, Tear Down This Wall". I think that is the exact wording as I'm doing this from memory. Saw it last week somewhere....
 
shel90 said:
Hearing children who have mild cases of Asper's, Austism, or just simply late bloomers.

Back the claim up? Why do u need me to back it up? If u don't believe me, that's fine. However, I can't back it up with Internet resources cuz I am using my pager and kinda hard to open another window but if u google language delays in children I am sure plenty of websites will come up. My son is a perfect example to back my claim up so if nobody wants to believe me, I don't really give a damn. If people want to blame my deafness for his spoken language delays, by all means they can. Again, I don't care.

We don't know why he is delayed in spoken language..sometimes kids r just late bloomers and catch up later. My whole point is that in some cases, it doesn't matter if the parents r deaf with no oral skills or hearing with perfect spoken English, the hearing children end up with spoken language delays regardless due to other factors.. Important that the parents catch it early.

Because my son is building a strong language base with ASL, Iam not worried about his language development being delayed. His spoken language will catch up. If not by the age of 5, then I will have to take him to get evaulated to see if he has other conditions preventing his spoken language development. I know that I am doing something about it hence the speech therapist's home visits.

At the end, I know it is not because of my deafness that affected his spoken language development.
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You are quite correct. Some children are simply delayed in specific areas. It is not really considered a disability, but simply atypical development. Verbal delays are one of the most common. And it is not dependent upon the parent's hearing status.
 
I am very glad that there are organisations like the Deaf Bilingual Colition out there. I was only mildly deaf so it was never really considered neccessary to teach me sign. It makes me wish I was born deafer as I don't think that my parents would have delibrately excluded me from language if I had been profoundly deaf. At least I hope not. Although they might have gone for a CI if they had been around at the time.

Anyway I think that all deaf and hard of hearing babies should be introduced to sign language as soon as possible. I think Hard of hearing kids that grow up with both good speach and signing have a real edge over those only using oral. As they can fit into both worlds. As for oralism for the profoundly deaf. It amazes me that anyone would think a profoundly deaf person could manage without sign. It does a lot more damage then good. One would hope it would have died a slow death by now.
 
dreama said:
I am very glad that there are organisations like the Deaf Bilingual Colition out there. I was only mildly deaf so it was never really considered neccessary to teach me sign. It makes me wish I was born deafer as I don't think that my parents would have delibrately excluded me from language if I had been profoundly deaf. At least I hope not. Although they might have gone for a CI if they had been around at the time.

Anyway I think that all deaf and hard of hearing babies should be introduced to sign language as soon as possible. I think Hard of hearing kids that grow up with both good speach and signing have a real edge over those only using oral. As they can fit into both worlds. As for oralism for the profoundly deaf. It amazes me that anyone would think a profoundly deaf person could manage without sign. It does a lot more damage then good. One would hope it would have died a slow death by now.
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I agree, dreama. Sometimes, falling into that hoh category audiologically can be a mixed blessing. You hear more, but most also consider that to be justification for an oral only environment. For some reason, hearing people seem to equate "hearing a little more" with "hearing everything." :dunno2:

I don't think that oralism will ever die a natural death. The denial and wishful thinking of hearing parents is simply too overpowering. Looks like we're going to have to come up with a murder plot for oralism.
 
jillio said:
I don't think that oralism will ever die a natural death. The denial and wishful thinking of hearing parents is simply too overpowering. Looks like we're going to have to come up with a murder plot for oralism.
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:lol: I was going to say that I wish that oralism would hurry up and died now but you said it much better. Murder plot! :laugh2:
 
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