What does "oral deaf" actually mean?

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deafdyke

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I 've been thinking about this for a while. A lot of people use the term "oral deaf" for anyone who has oral skills...but is that what it actually means? One of the qualifiers for getting a scholarship from AG Bell (which is THE bastion of oral deafness) is that your language preference needs to be for spoken language rather then for Sign. Yet, most oral deafies never had a choice between using ASL or English. They were forced to talk, talk, talk, talk,talk....with NO option to use ASL. Even most Deafies were (and are) forced to undergo speech and language therapy. Are most orally raised kids truely oral deaf when they didn't have a choice in how to commuicate in the first place?
 
deafdyke said:
I 've been thinking about this for a while. A lot of people use the term "oral deaf" for anyone who has oral skills...but is that what it actually means? One of the qualifiers for getting a scholarship from AG Bell (which is THE bastion of oral deafness) is that your language preference needs to be for spoken language rather then for Sign. Yet, most oral deafies never had a choice between using ASL or English. They were forced to talk, talk, talk, talk,talk....with NO option to use ASL. Even most Deafies were (and are) forced to undergo speech and language therapy. Are most orally raised kids truely oral deaf when they didn't have a choice in how to commuicate in the first place?
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Well, here's another complication. Deafdyke, you know I'm hearing, mom of deaf son, and I have met many d/Deaf adults who have oral skills who may or may not consider themselves culturally Deaf. Many will use their voice when it's helpful to do so but also have become fluent in ASL and consider themselves D Deaf, some consider themselves d deaf. How about that?

My son is actually in this category. He is able to communicate fairly well thru speech but we are also raising him as a "deaf" child and use ASL as a second language with him. This is becoming a very common child, if the parents choose to use sign. Because of the changes in technology, many deaf kids have enuf hearing to understand speech, at least enuf to function using speech when they need to. Your thoughts?
 
Another thought with that. I'm late deafened, so I spent 24 years as a hearie. Because of that, my oral skills are really good, though I still stutter a lot (but that's something that I'd done before, but not as much). That's probably also one of the reasons I've been having a lot of problems learning ASL, since I've never been very good at learning other languages, and the grammar is very different then English. And to add to the complication, I don't consider myself culturally Deaf, so it's a very different situation than normal.
 
Because of the changes in technology, many deaf kids have enuf hearing to understand speech, at least enuf to function using speech when they need to.
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On the other hand peacetrain, there have always been deaf kids who have enough hearing to understand speech. I know right off the top of my head, that there's a signifiecent percentage of deaf(with severe/profound losses) who benifit significently from hearing aids. My best friend has such a loss, and there are a couple of adults on the Deafnotes board who have such a loss. I do know that most deaf kids (and even a significent percentage of hoh kids) do eventually pick up ASL as a second language. Right now the debate is on which language should be the child's first language.....it's not really about if deaf and hard of hearies can hear and talk. Many if not most can hear and talk relatively well. Does that answer your query?
 
deafdyke said:
On the other hand peacetrain, there have always been deaf kids who have enough hearing to understand speech. I know right off the top of my head, that there's a signifiecent percentage of deaf(with severe/profound losses) who benifit significently from hearing aids. My best friend has such a loss, and there are a couple of adults on the Deafnotes board who have such a loss. I do know that most deaf kids (and even a significent percentage of hoh kids) do eventually pick up ASL as a second language. Right now the debate is on which language should be the child's first language.....it's not really about if deaf and hard of hearies can hear and talk. Many if not most can hear and talk relatively well. Does that answer your query?
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OK, I thought when you said oral deaf you were referring to people who use no sign language, I think you referred to agb somewhere in there. My son is not considered culturally Deaf, and yet because he has learned english as a first language and has oral skills, I suppose he would be considered orally deaf. But in truth, he is involved in Deaf Culture as are we thru him, and we feel strongly that he learn ASL. It's just sometimes these terms can get a bit confusing, because there is so much diversity in the deaf/Deaf/hoh/hearing impaired population. And yes, I understand that many culturally Deaf people can talk, but with the advent of high powered digital hearing aids and cochlear implants, there really is an increase in the level of hearing for deaf children than there was in the past. And I do hope there can be a coming together on this, so that even with the technology as it is, that we can still preserve the culture, because I think that is very important. Do I make any sense at all? From what I told u abt my son, not that I'm into labels but since that's what we're talking abt here, what would you consider him? From what you just posted, you said the debate was abt which is learned as a first language, english or ASL. I missed that in the first post, but does that mean you're considering people who learn english first to be orally deaf? Sorry, confused...
 
I consider myself Oral deaf as opposed to the "HOH" cuz I am not medically labled at HOH. I am profoud deaf. Oral deaf also means the person was raised using oral methods, also means what is the current status.... There are some oral deaf that change over to Deaf (culture using ASL only). they are no longer Oral deaf since they choose ASL methods as primary method of communication. I qualified for AG Bell scholarships since I am Oral deaf.
 
I was taught both ESL (English Sign Language) and oral skills at the age of three. When I was five, I made a choice, that was to communicate orally.

In my opinion Oral deaf are those who
-Can speak clearly
-Good communcation skills (orally)
-Good listening skills ( For the extremely deaf... Lip reading skills)
-Feel more comfortable with the hearing
Etc.
 
Ginette said:
I was taught both ESL (English Sign Language) and oral skills at the age of three. When I was five, I made a choice, that was to communicate orally.

In my opinion Oral deaf are those who
-Can speak clearly
-Good communcation skills (orally)
-Good listening skills ( For the extremely deaf... Lip reading skills)
-Feel more comfortable with the hearing
Etc.
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Yes, the child's choice is important. I think what deafdyke was eluding to in her original post, and I may be wrong here, was that children can't be considered orally deaf when they haven't even been exposed to sign language. That's why I responded, because children really haven't had a chance to form an identity for themselves. That's why I don't say my child is this or that because while we try to meet his needs and stress community with Deaf mentors, are involved in Deaf Culture, it's really his choice, isn't it? When he gets old enuf to make a decision, he will. But it's our responsibility to make sure he knows what he's choosing from, what his options as a deaf person are. Well, you've heard enuf from me.
 
I was brought up to learn to talk and went to Oral school for the deaf, sign language is ban because my family believed oral will make me look like "hearing" I was forced undergo speech and language therapy which I hate so much! It is waste of time. period.
 
I think what deafdyke was eluding to in her original post, and I may be wrong here, was that children can't be considered orally deaf when they haven't even been exposed to sign language. That's why I responded, because children really haven't had a chance to form an identity for themselves.
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Exactly!!!!! There are some oral deaf who did conscienously choose to be oral, even thou they were exposed to Sign (there's a mother on hearingexchange whose daughter was raised with both ASL and spoken English but chose spoken English) but those folks sadly are a minority. Most of my deaf/hoh peers grew up without Sign, and wish they'd grown up with a choice of how to commuicate.
 
peacetrain said:
Yes, the child's choice is important. I think what deafdyke was eluding to in her original post, and I may be wrong here, was that children can't be considered orally deaf when they haven't even been exposed to sign language. That's why I responded, because children really haven't had a chance to form an identity for themselves. That's why I don't say my child is this or that because while we try to meet his needs and stress community with Deaf mentors, are involved in Deaf Culture, it's really his choice, isn't it? When he gets old enuf to make a decision, he will. But it's our responsibility to make sure he knows what he's choosing from, what his options as a deaf person are. Well, you've heard enuf from me.
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I personally think you are doing your child a great service, by teaching him sign language as well as spoken english. Sadly there are not a lot of parents like that out there. My mother gave me a choice, and for that I'm grateful. I have my own identity, not one forced upon me. Although because of the path I chose, I received a lot of negativity from the Deaf Culture. I felt caught between two worlds. In my teen years I realized that to feel a sense of belonging, I would need to fully commit to one or the other. I now only socialize with the hearing, and I'm much happier now.
 
Ginette said:
I personally think you are doing your child a great service, by teaching him sign language as well as spoken english. Sadly there are not a lot of parents like that out there. My mother gave me a choice, and for that I'm grateful. I have my own identity, not one forced upon me.

Thanks for your support Ginette
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It's just sometimes these terms can get a bit confusing,
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Oh yes, I do agree with you. I hate the term oral deaf b/c it sounds like Deaf people cannot speak or do not recieve any spoken language training.(which is NOT true!)
I consider myself Oral deaf as opposed to the "HOH" cuz I am not medically labled at HOH. I am profoud deaf.
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yes, but are you HOH with hearing aids on? I spoke at a conference for SHHH and there were kids there with severe and profound losses who were medically deaf but ID'd as HOH. Also if you had a choice would you grow up without Sign or WITH sign? I do know of deaf and hard of hearing adults(rasied orally) who didn't feel that big of a desire to learn ASL, but from what I understand most raised oral deaf pick up ASL as a second language. (and peacetrain....to answer your question, no I don't consider deaf people who have English as their first language to be oral deaf....if they sign they're bilingal!)
I have my own identity, not one forced upon me. Although because of the path I chose, I received a lot of negativity from the Deaf Culture. I felt caught between two worlds.
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I think a lot of older oral sucesses felt caught between two worlds. I know in the past most Deaf people were oral failures, and oral sucesses and HOH people weren't really welcomed in the whole Deaf culture, b/c it was a matter of "how deaf you were"....however I do think that has changed slowly but surely...There are still people who are "Deafer then thou" (eg HOH can't be Deaf etc), but many if not most Deafies understand that not EVERYONE was lucky enough to be rasied with Sign....
 
"no I don't consider deaf people who have English as their first language to be oral deaf....if they sign they're bilingal!)"

Yes, that's always been our goal, for him to be bilingual
 
I wonder about this... if someone speaks without their voice and didn't go school for oral. Someone is lipreading very well. What does it mean?
 
Well I've got insomnia tonight, so decided to browse through old topics....This quote REALLY struck me:
That's why I don't say my child is this or that because while we try to meet his needs and stress community with Deaf mentors, are involved in Deaf Culture, it's really his choice, isn't it? When he gets old enuf to make a decision, he will. But it's our responsibility to make sure he knows what he's choosing from, what his options as a deaf person are.
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Excellent.....exactly. I read articles and opinons by people who think that an increase in oral sucesses automaticly translates into deaf culture dying, and they don't quite realize that it's too soon to accurately tell whether or not the kids will continue being pure oral. If past trends hold true, then quite a large percentage of oral-as-kids, will pick up Sign as a second language. Hey even a small albeilt significent percentage of Auditory-Verbaled kids will pick up Sign as a second language. Oral education is not new....Even without CIs, about 10% of deaf kids were orally educated. Right Vampy? ;)
 
Red~Rum said:
I was brought up to learn to talk and went to Oral school for the deaf, sign language is ban because my family believed oral will make me look like "hearing" I was forced undergo speech and language therapy which I hate so much! It is waste of time. period.
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Yeah, you said the same as my hubby!
 
Weeelllll....for me, I think it describes me to a 'T.' I was never permitted to learn sign language when I was a child...therefore, oralism became my sole means of communication. Long story short, Mommy Malfoyish made sure that speech training was of top priority and she was fearful that learning of sign language would throw me off track...

...so being a kid, I obeyed her. Eh, what else could I do? After all, I was going to turn 18 eventually...and when I did, I saw that my school was offering ASL as an elective. So I smiled, whispered to myself, "Yeah, well...fuck you, Ma...." and took the class. ;)

The downside though is...I don't have many deaf friends off line. Most all of my buddies are hearing. :dunno:
 
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