Sighs! Read this !

[jillio]

jillio

If a children have access to complete language there would be ongoing communication and a deaf child would/could be raised similiar to their siblings or friends. If the deaf child has complete access to language within the family unit then the child themselves will tell you what they think.

Granted there are shared experiences amongest deaf people, but to entrust decions for your child to other people because they are deaf, is very strange to me.

I did not entrust the decisions for my child to anyone else. I made my own decisions. But I was only able to make informed because the Deaf community provided me with information that was being withheld by the auditory verbal nazis I came in contact with. It was my experience that the so called experts wanted me to abdicate my decisions to them. They presented an attitude of "We know what's best for your child. Just do what we tell you and don't ask questions."

And yes, I relied on the shared experiences of the Deaf community. Those were the experiences I needed to know about in order to make good decisions. I had never been a deaf child, but the adults in the Deaf community had that experience. They could explain it to me and open my mind to new ways of thinking. As a consequence, my decisions took all points into consideration.

My son is deaf, I am hearing. I could not provide him complete access to language, until I learned sign. Even then, I was learning along with him. Only native signers could give him the same kind of exposure to language that hearing children get from hearing parents on a daily constant basis. I needed the deaf community for that. They are the true experts. What they have to offer does not come out of a book or a classroom. It is life experience, and more valuable than other tools available to hearies who have deaf kids.

And by the way, I have read the research.

 

[jillio]

jillio

I agree all people need language skills.

jillio

I cannot say all studies, as I have not read all of them, but I would agree that access to a complete accurate model of language, enables a child to acquire language.

jillio

Who does worse in school and socially? Deaf kis, hearing parents. Why? NO LANGUAGE! Try to force to use spoken language. Parents refuse to learn ASL. Kids are language delayed, and it affects their abilities to think, to judge their world, to make friends, to develop an identity and be happy with who they are, to be proud of themselve, to feel a part of something./QUOTE]

Any child with limited or no language pays an enormous price. Parents need to be informed with regards to all their choices for communication, language and inclusion. Currently, I do not believe that is the case, although the internet is having some impact.

jillio

If that is how you interpret what I write, then you are indeed mistaken. We all are all different, free will being the component here for me.

jillio

I would agree that ASL is a beautiful expressive language. I also believe that many hearing people get romanced by ASL. I would state that the ability to use a complete language enpowers an individual, it is not however, the only quality involved in the making of independance.

If you take the ability to use language, then you also remove the free will or the capabilty of utilizing free will. Language is the most important component in the development of independance. Language affects not just the ability to communicate, but to cognitively process the world around us. With no language come no thought. With limited language comes limited thought. And I have not been "romanced" by ASL. I somply appreciate it for what it is.