Hello,
I am a t-ball coach (4-6 year-olds) in a small town in Washington State. During registration last week I was approached by a parent asking if her deaf son could play with his older brother. I told her to please register, because I was pretty sure ADA says yes he can play. I am going to make sure I have the young boy on my team, unless one of the other coaches has experience in this arena. Since there are only 4 teams it's unlikely.
To the point...can anyone tell me a good book to read or a resource on coaching children who are hearing impaired. I am going to try and learn some sign language, but I am sure this has been done before and there has got to be some pointers.
Everything I found was about entire teams, not just one player.
Since the kids are so young, we have so many coaches on the field, he won't feel singled out if I need to post a coach with him.
I really think that him playing so young is going to make it where not hearing will not be an issue at all once he has played for a while. After all baseball has a sign language of its own. Baseball is a game of instincts and reaction, and with the right coach, I am certain this youngster will have fun.
Thanks for any advice.
And please forgive my ignorance.
-TOM
I am a t-ball coach (4-6 year-olds) in a small town in Washington State. During registration last week I was approached by a parent asking if her deaf son could play with his older brother. I told her to please register, because I was pretty sure ADA says yes he can play. I am going to make sure I have the young boy on my team, unless one of the other coaches has experience in this arena. Since there are only 4 teams it's unlikely.
To the point...can anyone tell me a good book to read or a resource on coaching children who are hearing impaired. I am going to try and learn some sign language, but I am sure this has been done before and there has got to be some pointers.
Everything I found was about entire teams, not just one player.
Since the kids are so young, we have so many coaches on the field, he won't feel singled out if I need to post a coach with him.
I really think that him playing so young is going to make it where not hearing will not be an issue at all once he has played for a while. After all baseball has a sign language of its own. Baseball is a game of instincts and reaction, and with the right coach, I am certain this youngster will have fun.
Thanks for any advice.
And please forgive my ignorance.
-TOM
to AD! Kudos to you for taking the time to search for information about deafness. I was born profoundly deaf in both ears and since the age of 5 years old, I have played fast-pitch softball. I started out with Tball for a boy's league and then switched over to a girls' league. I grew up not knowing sign language but even with good lip-reading skills, I really didnt learn from communicating with others or the team meetings. I learned from watching my teammates and following what they did. I dont know how I learned all the rules but I think my mom explained them to me or my friends did. I am sure several of my old coaches were nervous about having me but as I got older, they got to know me and it wasnt a big deal. It helped that I stayed with the same league (Arizona Girls Softball) all the way from 6 years old to my 20s each summer. I really am not sure how the coaches taught me but I know I had my moments when I was left out espeically during practices but because I was a natural athlete, I picked up on the visual cues. When I was in 3rd grade, we switched from Tball to pitching and I was very lucky to have a coach who gave all of us girls on the team a chance to pitch to see who was a natural pitcher or who liked it. I was natural at it so I eventually retained the position as a pitcher all the way to college softball where I got a scholarship. Many people thought that was the toughest position to be in because the role is largly responsible for carrying the team (leadership) with my deafness and all that. Well, it worked to my advantage because the opponet would try to make a lot of noise to distract me and I would just turn my hearing aids off so I could focus on delivering the pitches. 
