I’m so sorry for not having checked my blog for comments sooner.

Thank you for commenting on my blog. I’m glad you enjoyed it.

I agree that your son would benefit from learning about Deaf culture and ASL. Becoming bilingual and bicultural has its benefits… in spades!

I have quite a few Hard of Hearing friends, and in many ways, they sort of straddle two worlds. Some people I know call themselves Deaf regardless of whether their audiogram indicate that they’re hard of hearing.

I’m quite delighted that you decided to provide him with the opportunity to enter the Deaf community and become bilingual. It will be quite a journey.

Debcny, as for your family and friends not understanding… that is difficult, but do continue to point out that your son is an unique individual… this won’t make him feel bad. In fact, he would be building his own identity with your support… an exciting journey! I guess your family/friends probably feel bad about his being hard of hearing or deaf.

As for your wishing you had thought of this much earlier… you, too, are on a journey with your son. It shows you have accepted him for the unique individual that he is, and are doing your best to offer him the best of the two worlds.

If you have any questions, please feel free to click on my email address in my profile and ask away.

Hugs,

Shelley

My son has mild-moderate hearing loss. He’s 11 now… wears HA’s, uses an Fm in a public school. I’ve tried for a long time to find other HOH kids that he could relate to in our area, to no avail.

Only somewhat recently, did I start thinking that he could also benefit from learning more about deaf culture and ASL in general. Not that he really “fits in” there either – but, there is a huge deaf community in our area.. so – why not try to show him both “sides” – when he is someplace in the middle?

I’m trying to learn ASL a bit myself now… and my son wants to learn also. He will take it in school next year as his language.

Many of my family and friends don’t really understand why I am so interested in this… they see my son as “hearing” (like them) more than “deaf”. I guess he is, since that’s all he really knows and how he was brought up.

I guess, some of my family/friends don’t want me poinitng out that he ISN’T quite like them/us – as if that might make him feel bad. But, he already knows he is different – not worse – just different. Why not give him the benefit of gaining understanding and acceptance anywhere/anyway he can? I wish I had thought about that much earlier on.

debcny

I agree that the doubters who believe in restricted AVT training only are not open to our perspective, and that we would be trying until we are blue in the face. Maybe, just maybe a few minds will be open to looking at a different perspective. Maybe not.

However, my concern is this: The Internet is a very powerful tool to reach people who are not aware of Deaf, Deaf culture or related topics, especially those new parents of Deaf babies who are searching for information. We have those who are strong, even militant proponents of the AVT-only way. We need to provide a counterbalance with OUR experiences. We have DBC which is a great start, but we each need to do our part in educating others that the bilingual (as you say, comprehensive) approach is the way to go for Deaf babies and children.

I’ll drink to living life to the fullest!!!

Thanks for your comment.

Shelley

Doubters are talking up the CI with restricted AVT training as THE ONLY way to become “normal” and “acceptable”. They will not listen even with their CI’s turned up all the way.

No use trying to convince the doubters. Carry on with the comprehensive approach and live life to the fullest!!

Your comments are bang on.
I agree that it’s a no-brainer that we should provide Deaf babies with access to ASL. I just showed this post to my mother in law, who said Deaf babies have every right to languages…as many as there is…as hearing babies. (I’m paraphrasing her) What is interesting is that she is a Dutch immigrant, and raised my husband the oral way due to to the fact he has lots of residual hearing. She feels Deaf babies SHOULD NOT BE DENIED the right to ASL. Being of European background, she feels children should be able to learn English, Dutch, French, etc, AND ASL. She comes from a multilingual background, so it’s much easier for her to reason that it is essential for Deaf babies to have ASL. It’s unfortunate that too many Americans subscribe to the monolinguistic mindset, which impacts their perspective of languages other than English, let alone ASL.

I’m not surprised that your children have stronger literacy skills than the CI kids you know. In fact, they, AND YOU, are living examples that living in a bilingual world only increases the quality of life in general. That is quite a gift… and one that keeps giving, and giving, and giving…. throughout future generations of children.

As for the research sources, can you give them to me please? I may have the same research sources, but it’s always good to gather more. I find when one is armed with research evidence to buttress one’s knowledge, it just makes one’s case stronger. This is even more essential when we have doubting Thomases and Thomasinas screaming for evidence even though the living evidence is breathing right in front of them (i.e. you, me and countless others).

Thank you for commenting!;-)

Shel

Awesome post! You have reflected that not all feel the same way as this OMDP when growing up in a hearing family. Although I came from a Deaf family, we all experienced immersion of spoken language environment when being surrounded by all of our hearing relatives. They have always made the effort to include my Deaf mother in the loop and that she had experienced interaction between her hearing cousins. You know not all families are alike…some may be cold, warm, or lukewarm when it comes to accepting one’s differences.

You are correct that I have read several researchers making a conclusion that “some did not benefit from AVT approach.” It is much more guaranteed for a Deaf child to acquire ASL as an accessible language and making it more possible and effective to acquire English. It is just a no-brainer!

You have hit right in the nail about values. Giving children CIs give them better choices is not the case for my children. They both have strong literacy skills more than other CI children that I happened to know and that is the TRUE GIFT to me! Amen!

Shel

You beat me to it! LOL

Deafchip

Cheryl, thanks for your kind comment!

Shel