New Year, New Perspective

Happy 2012!!  I don't know about you, but that number astounds me!  As one born in the 1970s, the 2000's seemed a futuristic, impossible dream, but here we are.  We can connect with people all over the world in a matter of seconds, fly across the globe in half a day, open a "marauder's map" of sorts and see where we are in this vast, yet small world.  Before visiting a new place, I can walk the streets virtually before ever touching down in the city.  I can ask my phone to show me the way home, tell me the temperature, call my mom, text my husband or find the answer to any (and I mean ANY) question and she will try and most often succeed.  (I just called my phone "she!")  If I lose my coveted phone, my computer can find it for me.  We are living in the Jetson's world.  Better yet, we're living in early Star Trek world. Minus warp speed and medical tricorder.  Come to think of it, the MRI is a tricorder of sorts, but not handheld; not yet anyway.


The world has changed greatly for Deaf people as well.  Check out this video from DeafNation.


I have a special prayer in my heart for parents who have deaf children.  Accept who they are.  Accept that they are deaf.  Choices you make regarding cochlear implants, hearing aids, and speech are of little consequence to me.  What I DO pray for you is that you will give your baby or toddler language visually and that you'll be willing to do the hard thing by learning an entirely new way of communicating with him or her.  I pray that they would never feel like you see them as "less" or "imperfect" until they reach a level of oralism that pleases you.  If you're always hoping for them to be more "hearing," they will feel it. They'll know it.  No matter how skilled they become orally or hearing with aides, they will always be deaf.  Accept them where they are and run with their abilities!  Give them ASL, give them hearing aids, send them to speech training, but give them visual language first so that they have that foundation on which to build whatever else it is you dream together.  Be inspired by this film and by all of the Deaf role models out there.  May this be the best year for your entire family.

For more inspiration:
The Pearls at The M Projects
DeafNation.com
Deaf Mom Shares Her World with lots of links for parents with Deaf/HH kids.
Through Deaf Eyes, a PBS Documentary that can be rented or viewed on Netflix streaming.

If you know more inspiring links, please share!

Comments

  1. LauraJanuary 1, 2012 at 6:31 PM

    I really believe that if I had been exposed to sign language first that I would have a much larger vocabulary than I actually do right now because everything I learned was by learning visually. I was taught to speak orally first, and did not learn sign language (SEE1) until I was late 7 years old or 8. When I didn't hear anything, THAT'S when I was not learning anything until I SAW something visually to help me learn. Even though I was good at lipreading when I was younger, many hearing people still did not understand that just because I could lipread and talk well doesn't mean I can follow them. No, it always took so much effort on MY part to know what was going on. Often I was left out, or just simply bored to tears dreaming of a way to escape. Many hearing parents miss the importance of this because they are more concerned about their child's ability to hear sounds only to cause their child's language development severely delayed. When my hearing loss was confirmed just the day before I turned 2 years old (I'm 43 now), the only thing at that time doctors, auditory and speech therapists knew best was to advise the parents to have their Deaf child learn to speak and listen if the child had that ability. Now, we live in an amazing world filled with so much advanced technology today, we have more independence. We have video phones, email, cell phone, text, etc. Hearing parents who choose to sign with their deaf child/children are incredibly blessed because they have total communication and have a much better understanding of their child's deaf world. I honestly believe the hearing parents should let their Deaf child choose what world he or she feels most comfortable with. Hearing, Deaf or both. Since I was good at lipreading and spoke well, my own hearing parents never learned to sign. I never thought about how important hearing parents should learn to sign until I got older when my lipreading skills started to decline. Since I am also legally blind in my right eye, I really depend on signing more than ever to understand clearly. I still could lose my vision in my left eye (hopefully not), and the only way I would be able to communicate is by feeling sign language. Teaching a child to speak and lipread does not guarantee that his or her life will be a success.

    ReplyDelete
  2. SarahJanuary 5, 2012 at 7:33 PM

    Laura, I love when you share your experiences! You provide so much great information for parents to consider for their own kids. I'm also glad you blog! http://handsignsexpressionsofahomeschooler.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  3. ajinterpretersJanuary 9, 2012 at 9:15 PM

    I just watched your video after a friend shared it on FB. It brought back fond memories of our son at the same age!!! My wife and I are both freelance interpreters and have been for 15 years, our son is hearing. I really believe that the exposure to ASL at such a young age really helped in his overall language development. He has always read at a level several grades ahead, which I also contribute to his early ASL use. As a personal side note, I can say that the Deaf adults that had signing parents while they were growing up are a breeze to interpret for!!! It really makes such a huge difference with that early language exposure.

    We really enjoyed your video :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. oldeschoolknitsJanuary 10, 2012 at 5:37 PM

    I am so thankful for your blog, you have helped our family in so many ways and we have never met! (talk about the futuristic;) Our youngest child has apraxia(we are waiting for her hearing test in a few weeks), age is only 14 months old but has only one word and uses it inconsistently. We have been signing with her off and on since she was born but only in the past week have I begun signing everything I say to her.....she has picked up signs daily and is having much led in the way of sensory problems.
    I used your videos to illustrate the way that children who sign as their first language babble. That when our girl is signing all of her signs and experimenting with new handshapes and movements she is really babbling. It us amazing and so incredibly awe inspiring to see our little girl grasping language and understanding her. She is absorbing language and so are our other children, we homeschool and this is now our daily curriculum:)

    Thank you so much for sharing your journey with us, it is so inspiring to read and watch!
    The Taylor family

    ReplyDelete
  5. mideastmomMarch 12, 2012 at 11:56 AM

    Love that the representative still picture is in our country. :-)

    (Sonlight mom who drops in occasionally to catch up on your blog, as she has grossly neglected her blogreader)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Travis Update Ending 2013

Image
Just the other day, the boys had a friend come over to play.  Before the friend arrived, his mom sent me a text saying that her son was bringing his Batman costume.  I told Travis, "Your friend will be wearing his Batman costume when he comes over."  Travis' face lit up, eyes lifted, and mouth opened wide.  Before I could finish signing, "Why not you go upstairs to get your Iron Man costume?" he was signing, "Yes, yes!" and making his way up the stairs.  Moments later, he came back to tell me he couldn't find his suit.  I directed him to look in my bathroom in the hamper.  He did and it wasn't there either.  Finally, I told him to hold on while I sent a message asking his dad if he knew the costume's whereabouts.  He did and Travis put on his alter ego. I couldn't help but make a mental note of how that conversation was such a big deal.  We were discussing something happening in the future: friend will arrive soon.  Telling Travis...
Read more

A Review: Maya Chan Beach Resort In Costa Maya, Mexico

Image
Maya Chan Beach Resort A Great Way to Spend a Port Day!  In a Nutshell Do yourself a favor and go.  Just go.  My bet is that you will not regret it.  It’s the relaxing day you may not have realized you needed.  The location is dreamy.  The staff are kind and attentive.  The owners have set it up to make it very comfortable and stress-free for the guests. Just go. Video Review in ASL Getting There and Back The walk is a bit of a trek, but the people at Maya Chan send you a very clear map and instructions.  If you look at Google Maps satellite or the picture below, you’ll see that the port dock is long.  Great for taking photos, though! We walked quickly through the maze of shops without stopping, following the instructions and photos from Maya Chan and found the spot with no problem.  They were waiting with a covered area and some seats while we signed a form, then got on the taxis to head over. You may read about the bumpy ride.  ...
Read more

2022 Year In Review

Image
  Ken and Sarah kicked off 2022 with a 25th anniversary cruise, then we bought a house after 10 years of renting in Austin!  We did some very “Austin-y” things by going to our first UT football game (Tian joined us and TJ, who has been to many games, was there, too!), and seeing Willie Nelson at a Beto rally. Tian (13) and Travis (14) started Mu Sool karate this year. In summer, they were pages with Jr.NAD ’s page program at the National Association of the Deaf biennial conference in Orlando, Florida, then traveled to Rochester, NY for a week of Tech Tigers Camp at NTID-RIT. Ken and Sarah stayed nearby at an AirBnB and visited Niagara Falls.  Both boys are halfway through 8th grade and will start high school next fall!! How is that possible?! TJ (19) started a new job at a water storage systems company. He worked 2 jobs all summer to buy a 1997 Corvette and has just enrolled for spring in the welding program at ACC.  Early this year, Kenzie (21) moved out to an a...
Read more