CMartos
New Member
- Joined
- Mar 13, 2012
- Messages
- 3
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I'm the child of a Speech Pathologist who uses Signed English, and the mother of a son who is hearing but does not speak. He is, however, able to sign well, and so my daughter, husband and I started to learn how to sign when he was about 9 months old, mostly from books and online sources.
We started attending a Deaf church and taking our kids to Deaf playdates. The parents were warm and supportive, and encouraged me to take some real ASL classes. I gave up my Master's in Teaching program, and went at ASL with a vengeance, and after 3 years in the Deaf community, two years of ASL courses and Deaf studies classes, I applied to and was accepted into our local Interpreter Ed Program.
It's been a struggle, especially since this program is the only place in my state where I can take higher level ASL without needing to pursue a second Bachelor's Degree. I want to become an interpreter, and maybe go into Deaf Ed (as many of the teachers at our residential schools are hearing, and some of them struggle to sign well), but I've become more and more frustrated. The head of our program is a hearing interpreter (very skilled), and she's constantly contradicting things our Deaf teachers, books and my time in the community has taught me.
Regardless, I'm grateful to the community that has been so welcoming of my family, and I'm glad to have a language that allows my son to have a conversation (even if, at 4, it's only about trains and the dog).
We started attending a Deaf church and taking our kids to Deaf playdates. The parents were warm and supportive, and encouraged me to take some real ASL classes. I gave up my Master's in Teaching program, and went at ASL with a vengeance, and after 3 years in the Deaf community, two years of ASL courses and Deaf studies classes, I applied to and was accepted into our local Interpreter Ed Program.
It's been a struggle, especially since this program is the only place in my state where I can take higher level ASL without needing to pursue a second Bachelor's Degree. I want to become an interpreter, and maybe go into Deaf Ed (as many of the teachers at our residential schools are hearing, and some of them struggle to sign well), but I've become more and more frustrated. The head of our program is a hearing interpreter (very skilled), and she's constantly contradicting things our Deaf teachers, books and my time in the community has taught me.
Regardless, I'm grateful to the community that has been so welcoming of my family, and I'm glad to have a language that allows my son to have a conversation (even if, at 4, it's only about trains and the dog).