shel90

BRAVO for you!!!! I wish my parents were like u..they never learned sign language for my Deaf brother and I. Because I have good oral skills, I can communicate with them to a degree but my brother who has no oral skills struggles to communicate with them and I end up as the interpreter.

I know of a hearing couple who has a deaf 2 year old who just learned ASL two years ago. They can converse with deaf people just fine and because they use it at home with their daughter, their daughter's language level recently has been scored 6 months above her age.

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~Shel~

Deafness

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faire_jour

My daughter goes to a bi-bi school for the Deaf and she is "on grade level". She has the same language skills as any hearing child, they are just in ASL instead of English. She is doing as well as any Deaf of Deaf child I have seen, and unfortunatly better than any other Deaf of hearing I have met.

shel90

Your daughter is so lucky to have parents who are willing to meet her deaf needs instead of vice versa. I grew up orally without any exposure to sign language nor the Deaf community. I grew up with a lot of serious self-esteem issues cuz I was trying to be "hearing" because I was constantly told that if I worked hard enough, I would be able to hear and talk like my hearing friends. When I was in middle school, I showed a brief interest in the Deaf community and ASL but as soon as I expressed that, I was told that I didnt need it cuz I was too smart for it. After high school, I was seriously depressed and doing all kinds of self-destructive behaviors to get myself to fill the void I grew up with. At the time, I didnt know what was missing...when I finally learned ASL at the age of 25, I realized that it was the void I felt all of my life. Since then, I have found true happiness and self-acceptance.

Yes, I still interact with hearing people...the balance is what I love having instead of being in an oral environment 24/7 like I was growing up. Too hard for me.

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~Shel~

faire_jour

We felt that we were the adults, it was our job to come to her. Plus, I CAN see ASL, but she CAN'T hear English, wouldn't it make more sense to use the language we BOTH have access to?

shel90

Wow! I couldnt have said it better! I have tried explaining that over and over again to so many parents here who are against ASL but they say ASL is not needed, ASL is too hard to learn, or ASL will intervere with spoken language skills. One excuse after another.

I had such a hard time growing up without full acess to language since ASL was denied to me. I was always left out, misunderstanding people, and so many more.

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~Shel~

jillio

jillio

Bingo! It is such a simple and logical concept. You have made my day brighter.

loml

faire_jour - There is a communication tool that provides visual access to English for both of you and that is cueing.

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- Dr. Edward C. Merrill, Jr. past president of Gallaudet

shel90

She said she is already fluent in ASL in another thread.

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~Shel~

jillio

And she has already expressed her opinion on CS, which means she is already aware of the system.

loml

shel90 - I am not talking about ASL, I am talking about English.

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- Dr. Edward C. Merrill, Jr. past president of Gallaudet

jillio

Yes, and this parent has already enrolled her child in a bi-bi school, and is using ASL as her L1 language, with English as her L2 language. She obviously is on top of the situation.

shel90

That's fine. In my belief, it is important for children to develop a strong L1 language first so of course, I dont think about which language it is. That's now how I think.

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~Shel~