Kalista

Daisy Bravo has make several good point. We concern about our ASL will be fading or not in the future.

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GarnetTigerMom

I believe ASL will never fade away, ASL is already in history book. :-)

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GarnetTigerMom

"The rain may be falling hard outside,
But your smile makes it all alright.
I'm so glad that you're my friend.
I know our friendship will never end."
-- Robert Alan

Cheri

No, I don't believe ASL will ever fade away, in fact ASL is growing everyday, even hearing students are taking up sign language courses at the universities and community colleges, so I'm not even worried. AGBell and their associates can try to wipe ASL off the center of the earth for all I care, But, It'll never happen.

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God didn't promise days without pain, laughter without sorrow and sun without rain, But God did promise strength for the day, comfort for the tears and light for the way.

Tousi

Well, the USE of ASL might fade away in 100 years because of technology eliminating deafness but ASL will live on only in History books, kinda like Latin.

Angel

I do not believe ASL will fade away in the future as long as we keep educate and encourage hearing parents to inculde ASL with their deaf children. A lot of people keep forgetting that ASL is not only used by the Deaf people but also used by the hearing as well too such as down syndrome, autism, cerebral palsy, trauma, and brain disorders or speech disorders do use sign language frequently as a communication tool. Also stuides have shown an increase of improvements on babies and children who use sign language to communicate.

Not too long ago the Deaf community fear that their culture will fade away slowly because of these cochlear implants and seeing how many deaf people inculde children had choosed to be implanted but yet they keep forgetting one thing, those who received cochlear implants are STILL deaf when their implants are turned off. This makes no difference from what I've experienced wearing my hearing aids because without them I won't be able hear anything. Also not everyone will benefit these implants. That's why many of us here are fighting to keep ASL alive and fighting against misinformation by doctors and audiologists..

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"When we do the best we can, we never know what miracle is brought in our life, OR in the life of another." ~ Helen Keller

jillio

We have reached a contradictory moment in history. Not only has technology advanced to the degree it has in medical treatment of deafness, it has also advanced to the point that deaf people are given a "vioce" through text pagers, email, interpreters video relay, etc. Communication is earsier than it ever has been at this point. Also, a growing number of universities and colleges are offering degrees in Deaf Studies and interpreting. At no other time in history has the study of ASL been as widespread as it is today. So while medical tecnology is advancing, we are also seeing advances that makes it much easier for the deaf to live and communicate without the medical technology available. If one chooses to not take advantage of the CI, or in the future, any other technology designed to "cure" deafness, one has more options for communication available than ever before. There will always be those individuals that are not benefitted from the medical advances. So, no, I don't see ASL disappearing.

carrigantm9636

I don't think ASL will ever die. Even if technology advances and makes deafness "obsolete", some people have deafness in their family for generations and might choose to not use the technology. Also, not everyone will afford the technology, so there will always be those "poor" (financially) deaf people who can't get the CIs, BAHAs, etc. And like Angel said ASL is used with people who have other mental/verbal/processing disorders. So no, at least as long as I am alive, and people like me who love ASL (even hearing people) and think it's more natural for us than English speaking, ASL will never go away.

Tousi

See what you say; say what you see.: Year 2200: Deafness goes Extinct; but ASL Survives!


Ok, folks, just for fun, read this by a well-known deaf blogger from Indiana. This will require about 20 minutes of your time and is fun! It is a 10 part series on this subject. There's no right or wrong about it so.....have fun.

Lavender

I do believe ASL will fade away becuz of the Hitech development is getting better to the day for all the dhh n' hg that will help us to comprehend in communication system for the global.

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authentic

It's funny to see hearing people to learn American Sign Language, why did they want to learn? Because they want to communicate with deaf people. Now, many deaf people are getting Cochlear Implants. Reason? Because they want to become hearing/able to speak, which they will hurt ASL culture.
My point is in the future hearing people learn ASL, but they will have nobody to communicate ASL with since many deaf people are able to hear/speak with CI's on. BUT for those deaf people will keep ASL culture, and my concern is to look at statistics, how many deaf people in deaf schools right now compares to 1980's. In the future, few deaf people ... more hearing people meaning ASL will not be around that much in the general besides the deaf community.

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deafdyke

Maybe, but mankind has never been able to get rid of disabilty. Diseases, yeah....disabilties no.
And Angel is right. There are a host of non aural disablities which use ASL as a communication system. It's most popular with MR kids, but its also slowly growing, that kids with apraxia, tracheostomies etc use asl.

Reba

The use of CI's is not an automatic dis-use of ASL. I know many CI users who still use ASL and associate with the Deaf community. As long as the non-CI Deaf maintain a welcoming, non-judgmental attitude, the CI deaf will continue to feel comfortable using ASL with them.

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Casperman

seems AGB and friends just wanted to see ASL fading away bec they havent accept the loss caused by Edward Miner Galladeut.. who those read the book.. Shall Twain Not Meet.. will understand what i mean.,...

I have 2 deaf sons with Jolie.. we use ASL 24/7 and theres more deaf coming and will use asl even ciers bec at ksd i seen ci kids use asl too exposing them to 2 languages.. i know my spellin is terrible lol

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shel90

I agree...also that goes for parents who decide to implant their children. If we want the parents to accept us and our language, then we have to accept the fact that they will implant their children and not to attack them. If we do that, we just become as responsible for ASL fading away as the oralists are.

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Shel~

"A child educated only at school is an uneducated child." -George Santayana

jillio

**nodding agreement**

deafskeptic

I'm also nodding in agreement as well.

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Left ear implanted with Med-El on April 24 2007.
Activated on May 9th.

flip

I agree that's a good approach under todays circumstances for teachers in deaf schools, when facing this kind of parents.

But I find it cruel to see children forced to wear CI all the time, even when they ask to put if off, either because they want a rest or because they do not like it. A doctor told the parents and teachers to not let a new impanted child with sign language competence put of the CI, else the child could develop a bad habit of not wearing CI.

I wonder if this is child abuse? Are there other similar situations where children are forced to use technology against their will legally?

Cloggy

Yes. I force my children to go to the dentist, where technology is used to make pictures and check their teeth.
I force my children to eat with knife and fork (OK, that's old technology, and not very American) and
I force my children to turn off the lights before they go to sleep,
I force them to flush the toilet, etc...

What I am saying is that like with other things, children have to get used to some things.
And when the choice has been made for CI, that includes the effort to learn to hear and interpret sound.

With us, Lotte rejected the HA and we "forced" it on her. She never rejected the CI. (Actually, she was fine with the HA in the kindergarten because many children wore them. As soon as she was in the car, she would rip them off )

When children with CI are older, the parents will let it be up to the child to wear the CI. Often they will take it off after a long day with intense listning, just like people with HA's that take them off when they come home.

But at the start of the hearing proces, it is imporant to get used to the sounds and equipment.

After all, when a child wants to take off the CI or HA, it is very likely it is because it is something weird on their head. Not because they have a sudden urge to start sign-language.
With Lotte, she had no benefit with the HA, so she didn't want it.
With the CI, she benefitted and she's fine with it. In fact, she requests to have them on.

Of course a child can be tired of all the sounds coming in, and parents should allways keep that in mind, especially after a long day. And the child should be allowed to take it off.


But child abuse..... NO. Not even remotely!


Let's go back to the topic

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Cloggy

Allready now there are fewer children that will grow up with ASL. Older people that become deaf and previously might have needed ASL, now can choose for CI.
With that, there will be less need for ASL. Fewer deaf (and hearing) people will depend on it.

The increase in people studying it is wonderful.
Signlanguage will allways be the natural language for deaf people, so with that it will never disapear. But, I think that in the long run ASL will be used by only a few people.

flip

Ok, we agree that a child should be allowed to take it off. This doctor told the parents to NOT let the child take it off, even if the child ask to... Is this acceptable?

Cloggy

Flip,
But OK, I'll join you for a little longer..... it's good info..

The way you are reading it, the child has to sleep with the CI on. Do you really think this is the intention of the doctor?

It's all relative... isn't it. It's not as ridget as you make it out to be..

If the childs wants to take it off within the hour, I would not allow it. At the end of a day filled with sound, I would.

Now, with a child that signs as well; in order to benefit from CI, it is important that the child learns to listen to speech as much as possible. In the beginning this might be a problem since the child knows to communicate with sign.
When CI is taken off a lot, and sign is used, learning to hear and understand speech is delayed. My guess is that the comment has to be seen in that light.

Does that make sense?

flip

Sure, that makes some sense, and can be a cause of this episode.

The kid is not sleeping with is as far as I know

I am not going to ask you where you got the idea that signing is going to hurt speech, but I find it strange that this kid is nine years old, and never complained about HA before CI. We see that deaf adults sometimes complains about CI, and stop using them, and everyone understands very well. If the child is old enough to complain, is it really legal to ignore the complains?

Also, I am curious what age a child can deny an CI implant? Someone said the age of 12?

I would not say this is totally offtopic as arguments like "no signing" are brought up with this kind of CI use.

Cloggy

Great - we're on-topic.... I'll take your word for it.

Now you throw in 9 years old... ask him/her why he/she wants to take it off...

That's a first...... what's holding you back? - I'll reply anyway...
Remember that exposure to signlanguage is the best way to learn signlanguage?
The same for speech. When the someone takes off the CI, exposure to speech stops....

Makes sense?

flip

I don't know this kid very well, but noticed he said he did not want to wear it because the batteries was empty, but they was measured to be ok. My mistake I did not mention he was nine years old before!

The no-CI no-speech stuff does not make sense to me. The best speechers are often those raised bilingual from what I have seen, and I know deaf people that are too deaf for HA and CI that can speak and lipread ok.

But agree that CI can help with speech and listening in the early years if the child is comfortable with the device and enjoy the skills.

Cloggy

It's easy to check if the CI works. Parents have a separate wire with earplug to see if it works. And when not, the audi would quicly find out.
Sounds to me the kid is just not motivated to hear.
But, at 9 years old, I would press to keep trying it..... money normally works


I was talking about young children, implanted before they learned speech..

You notice how lack of information causes confusion?

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shel90

That kind of practice and misinformation by the doctor is what I get upset with.

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Shel~

"A child educated only at school is an uneducated child." -George Santayana

Tousi

Just out of curiosity, did anyone click on the URL I provided way back in post # 8?

shel90

Yea I did but for some reason, I was unable to open the other parts of it.

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Shel~

"A child educated only at school is an uneducated child." -George Santayana

Cloggy

I did but I don't know ASL.....

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jillio

A little cultural shock?