Excellenet post! I do want to add that it's very rare that a dhh kid has absolutly perfect "like hearing" speech. Don't go all "My Fair Lady" about speech. Oral skills rock, but most dhh kids will never be able to speak as well as a hearing kid.. I was born profoundly deaf and raised with just the signing method. I wish my parents had actually decided to do both for me instead of just the signs. Don't get me wrong, I do realize that I have been very lucky to have hearing parents who readily accepted me for who I am. I am still grateful for that. However, it really is not easy being a deaf adult who's stuck in the hearing world and can't speak very well.
At the same time, I have a few friends who have the same level of hearing loss as I do - profound - and they are better off because they had early intervention when they were babies. They were pushed to do speech therapy but still got the opportunity to interact with deaf people throughout their childhood. Right now they not only sign very well but they also speak well enough for people to not realize that they are actually deaf. This is the kind of situation that I wish I could be in - having the best of both worlds.
You do not need to be fluent in order to teach your baby some signs. Just some important signs like "eat" "poop" "mom" "dad" etc will be good enough, as your kid grows and acquires a bigger vocabulary, you can just learn along with him. That's what my parents did for me when I got diagnosed as profoundly deaf at 11 months. They didn't know much about the language or deaf culture at the beginning either. You and your family will be fine.
where to start? deaf baby
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Tikra
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It is really good idea for family even your in laws and your family members to learn sign language. I am very happy with that it make me feel good to hear you said that your parents and in laws is getting involved in this. Keep up with it and i am sure you and your family can do it. That child is going be very lucky to have you guys as parents.
Ashli,
According to your OP your son had residual hearing. You will some day deeply regret yourself if you don't do all within your power to save this residual hearing. The only way to do so is to ASAP get professional help for hearing aids. Stay away from implants. Keep in mind the HAs are not for keating to speak, separate professional help is needed for that. The HAs only keep the residual hearing alive. If any amount of residual hearing is lost, he can never get it back.
According to your OP your son had residual hearing. You will some day deeply regret yourself if you don't do all within your power to save this residual hearing. The only way to do so is to ASAP get professional help for hearing aids. Stay away from implants. Keep in mind the HAs are not for keating to speak, separate professional help is needed for that. The HAs only keep the residual hearing alive. If any amount of residual hearing is lost, he can never get it back.
We've already got the ball rolling with hearing aids and are meeting with early intervention services Monday. Things are somewhat coming together since my OP...but I am still overwhelmed. I've been practicing my signing and would love the whole family to learn but we also want to take advantage of his residual hearing and get him speaking. I've received a lot of encouragement and constructive opinions from the board and it's been a great experience already here. But regarding losing residual hearing...is that in a literal sense? If his hearing deteriorates further isn't that out of my power?
I have no idea why rolling even posted that. As long as you get your son aided, (and he isn't even eligable for an implant) he should do well....heck I don't even think I've ever heard of a HOH kid not getting hearing aids.
Cloggy
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ASL is a wonderful way to start communication with your child, and that time is never wasted if you would decide to stop with it at a later stage.
We used sign language with our child and found it very useful in the transition zone from deafness to hearing when she got her CI.
We have decided not to pursue signlanguage when it became clear that Lotte preferred speech. Living in Norway, being a Dutch family, there were already two languages she has to learn. We felt that a third language (that neither of us - her parents "speak" fluently) would delay learning the other two.
In fact, we can see that having two languages slows down development in both. Particularly when we have been in Holland, where she uses just one language, we see how her vocabulary grows faster, as does her cognitive capabilities.
Marshark and Knoors have recently written an interesting article about it:
I hope you have the possibility to obtain this paper from someone that has access to it, or otherwise you can buy it on the net.
It's well worth the read..
Again, I agree that sign language is the best way to start communication. At this early stage it will not be "sign-language", but "sign", but it will quickly develop. You will learn faster than your child at first and can be a role model.
Start using it, and enjoy it....
It's magic...
Perhaps you would humor us and re-read the 42 post before mine and note that HAs were not mention once. Now re-read the OP title: where to start?
The only start possible is to get HAs to save the residual hearing. Everyone knows all babies, hearing and deaf, don't have language recognition until much later, so that can wait. Any child can catch up with a language but once any residual hearing is lost,it is gone forever. So (lol) that is the starting (and all important) point.
It's true, I didn't mention the hearing aids until later in the thread. But not in my OP.
HAs were always the intention and we were on that road from the start. So with that I wondered what next. He'd have the HAs but then what...and in the weeks until he actually gets them I was not sure how to maximize our time together. It was feeling (and still is) like Im losing precious language time with him but I am exposing.to hIm to as much sign as i am able to. And also wondering what the next few years will look like.
Will he suffer if he's in a typical day care most of the day? i simply can't immerse in ASL during the work week. Can he absorb language there, does it depend on how well he can hear when aided? Those are things i thinl about. Maybe I am worrying too much and feeling too much pressure. He's now two months old. One thing at a time I suppose. I wish there was a daycare for kids just like him, I'd have much greater peace of mind.
HAs were always the intention and we were on that road from the start. So with that I wondered what next. He'd have the HAs but then what...and in the weeks until he actually gets them I was not sure how to maximize our time together. It was feeling (and still is) like Im losing precious language time with him but I am exposing.to hIm to as much sign as i am able to. And also wondering what the next few years will look like.
Will he suffer if he's in a typical day care most of the day? i simply can't immerse in ASL during the work week. Can he absorb language there, does it depend on how well he can hear when aided? Those are things i thinl about. Maybe I am worrying too much and feeling too much pressure. He's now two months old. One thing at a time I suppose. I wish there was a daycare for kids just like him, I'd have much greater peace of mind.
rolling, it's a GIVEN that hoh kids will get HAs. And why are you so worried about preserving the residual hearing? His residual hearing won't disappear if he's not aided ASAP. He's audilogically HOH.....these are kids who have historically used their residual hearing very well, to the point where a lot of them weren't identified until we were toddlers. I think too that that the "use it or lose it" theory is about late deafened people or people who go unaided for years at a time. Yes, early aiding is important, but then again if HOH kids of past decades used their residual hearing very well while being aided relatively late, there's no worry about them losing their residual hearing.
I have a question then for those of you who were hoh as babies/toddlers and it went unnoticed for.a while as opposed to today when babies like mine are identified right out of the hospital. You say residual hearing was used and kids did learn speech even as hoh...any input or opinion then, if my son is moderate (but on the end closer to severe), what things may have been sounding like to him to this point, as we wait for his HAs? He's two months old. Does he know the sound of my voice? Could he be absorbing any language? I just really don't have a clear idea of what exactly the environment sounds like to a moderate (borderline severe on one side) hoh child.
Sarfarigirl2011
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gotta tell you but I did have alot of residual hearing left (was mild/moderate from infanthood up to 3 or 5th grade, and now moderate-severe *borderline severe when wearing my 2nd aids* 5 grade to present)
I did not get my hearing aids until I was three years old. Again, every hearing loss affects kids differently. But he can most likely hear the sound of your voice, and is most likely picking up spoken language... it's just that he is missing out on words or sound...he's only getting partial access to spoken language/sound right now. Even with hearing aids, he will still miss out on a lot of stuff, (especially in not perfect listening conditions) as hearing with hearing aids isn't exactly like hearing person hearing. He'll have a lot of access to sound and speech.....but not hearing person access.....which is where ASL as a second language comes in handy!
Ashli,
I don't know if you are still around here or not. I just found the site. My son is almost 7 mo old, and is now profound in his right ear and moderate sloping to severe in his left ear.
We are also in AZ. I live in Mesa.
Marci
I don't know if you are still around here or not. I just found the site. My son is almost 7 mo old, and is now profound in his right ear and moderate sloping to severe in his left ear.
We are also in AZ. I live in Mesa.
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Many of my Deaf friends became fluent in ASL even while their hearing parents were learning it along with them.
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Phx, AZ and Tucson, AZ has a large Deaf community. I should know as I am from AZ.
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One of the questions that you have to ask yourself is; What do I want for my son?
Since you want him to have the ability to communicate with others, get him early speech intervention. The earlier you get speech therapy for your son the less trouble he will face when he gets older.
Another aspect to consider is; is he going to learn ASL, speech, or both. If you wish for him to learn both and wish for him to be successful in both aspects I would recommend that you teach him some speech first and ASL later because I had a friend when I was younger and she learned ASL first then got implanted and struggled learning how to talk.
If you are considering getting him assistive technology like an implant, get him used to hearing new sounds now! Just get him a hearing aid or something to get him accustomed to sounds. Play games like, did you hear that? So he can learn how to pick up and process sounds around him more efficiently with his implant.
Don’t be scared to research all of the options out there for your son.
Best of luck.
NEVER ASL later...because of the risks with language delays if the child doesnt learn oral skills.
ASL is the only language 100% fully accessible to deaf children. There is no guarantee if oralism will work for the child or not.
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I agree with him and everyone else who is saying to do both ASL/Speech therapy. However, my reasoning is the opposite. I was born profoundly deaf and raised with just the signing method. I wish my parents had actually decided to do both for me instead of just the signs. Don't get me wrong, I do realize that I have been very lucky to have hearing parents who readily accepted me for who I am. I am still grateful for that. However, it really is not easy being a deaf adult who's stuck in the hearing world and can't speak very well.
At the same time, I have a few friends who have the same level of hearing loss as I do - profound - and they are better off because they had early intervention when they were babies. They were pushed to do speech therapy but still got the opportunity to interact with deaf people throughout their childhood. Right now they not only sign very well but they also speak well enough for people to not realize that they are actually deaf. This is the kind of situation that I wish I could be in - having the best of both worlds.
Anyways, that's just my personal perspective. It's good that you decided to do your homework on this and try to learn some signs. You do not need to be fluent in order to teach your baby some signs. Just some important signs like "eat" "poop" "mom" "dad" etc will be good enough, as your kid grows and acquires a bigger vocabulary, you can just learn along with him. That's what my parents did for me when I got diagnosed as profoundly deaf at 11 months. They didn't know much about the language or deaf culture at the beginning either. You and your family will be fine.
My deaf brother was not exposed to ASL until he was 5 years old because the oral only method was pushed on him. It didnt work. He has no speech skills despite 5 years of intense speech therapy. There are NO guarantees when it comes to oralism and deaf children but with ASL there is a guarantee that the deaf child will develop a strong first language. Language is the best thing to give to children and if the child has the innate ability to develop speech skills, the child will develop it whether he/she was exposed to it from an early age or at a later age. I have seen it happen so many times.
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I grew up oral only and mainstreamed in Phx, AZ. My life was really miserable even though I had good speech skills. I wish I had ASL and the Deaf community like my brother did growing up. I cant do anything about my past but right now, I use ASL 99% in my daily life and I cant imagine going back to be oral-only ever. ASL made my life much much easier despite what the so called professionals told my mom when she found out about my deafness at 7 months old. They were wrong when they told her that for me to be normal, I was never to learn ASL. I felt abnormal in an oral-only environment but feel normal in a BiBi environment.
AZ is very strong on the oral-only philosophy and AZ Dept of Ed has (if still do this day) a thing against bilingual education.
Pls contact AZ Schools for the Deaf and Blind or Phoenix Day School for the Deaf. They will help you.
diehardbiker
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Tell ya, I am extremely grateful that my parents are one of less than 10% of all hearing parents that signs with their Deaf children. I would be extremely disappointed if my parents don't make an effort breaking down barrier with communication on me!
I know your very overwhelmed but take one day at a time, you have years to build relationship while learning how to communicate with your hands on your Deaf kids... The earlier, the better.
I know your very overwhelmed but take one day at a time, you have years to build relationship while learning how to communicate with your hands on your Deaf kids... The earlier, the better.