So my wife and I (hearing) have a six month old baby boy (also hearing) and we are doing all we can do to help him develop as fast and correctly as possible. We read about baby signing and how "good" it is for child development and thought we'd give it a try. I would look up a sign, learn it, and use it with my son. I soon found some discrepancies in what some sites were telling me compared to others. So I did some research and found that baby signs are (about half the time) simplified or just blatantly different from ASL. After learning this, I started over fresh, with only signs that I learned on Lifeprint.com from Dr. Bill Vicars. Not only did this expand my vocabulary, but it made apparent my great interest in sign language and the deaf (and HoH) community in general. My wife and I are thoroughly enjoying learning ASL now that we can string sentences together, albeit with a bit of a struggle. I'm fully aware that we have MUCH to learn, but I feel that we are closing in on a dead end. Everything I've read about learning ASL says you need practice with deaf or HoH people.
And that is where our problem lies.
See, we aren't related to any deaf people. We know of no deaf people. Heck, I don't even think we know anyone that knows someone deaf. In our area, I do know there is a deaf community, and a large one at that, but being a hearing couple with a hearing baby, I can't help but feel like we'll be shunned for having the audacity to even think we'll be accepted into their community. My wife and I are very secluded people, mainly because we feel that people are too intense and I'm thinking that is (almost) exclusive to the hearing. But being this introverted has made us very cautious of meeting new people, and the thought of going to an event for the deaf scares us both sh!@less. At this point, I'm no longer learning ASL for my son's development, I'm doing it because it's fun and I have a legitimate interest in deaf (and HoH) culture.
I guess my actual question is: Are my fears legitimate? Are we going to show up and be mocked, either to our faces or behind our back? Or am I just being ridiculously paranoid and we'll be accepted as young apprentices of ASL?
And that is where our problem lies.
See, we aren't related to any deaf people. We know of no deaf people. Heck, I don't even think we know anyone that knows someone deaf. In our area, I do know there is a deaf community, and a large one at that, but being a hearing couple with a hearing baby, I can't help but feel like we'll be shunned for having the audacity to even think we'll be accepted into their community. My wife and I are very secluded people, mainly because we feel that people are too intense and I'm thinking that is (almost) exclusive to the hearing. But being this introverted has made us very cautious of meeting new people, and the thought of going to an event for the deaf scares us both sh!@less. At this point, I'm no longer learning ASL for my son's development, I'm doing it because it's fun and I have a legitimate interest in deaf (and HoH) culture.
I guess my actual question is: Are my fears legitimate? Are we going to show up and be mocked, either to our faces or behind our back? Or am I just being ridiculously paranoid and we'll be accepted as young apprentices of ASL?
