Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Have a deaf child? A must read...

I have gotten permission from the author of this article to share it with you and highly recommend you pass it along to anyone with a deaf child in their home, classroom, congregation, whatever the situaion. It pretty much sums up several serious issues facing deaf children from history til now... have a box of tissue handy.

http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_19684252#.TztoN6zrzRc.email
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4 comments:

  1. Miss Kat's ParentsFebruary 22, 2012 at 6:09 PM

    I have a deaf child and while that story is a travesty, it is not applicable to most kids today.

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    Replies
    1. aservantsheartFebruary 23, 2012 at 1:52 AM

      I appreciate your comment and hope you will reply with more encouraging insight into your personal experiences. From what I have learned over the past few years as a student of ASL, I know that 90% of Deaf children are born to Hearing families, many of which do not take the time or are unable to learn their child's first language of ASL. This makes communication and relationships very difficult within their family. If the child is not taught ASL early, it can also affect their learning curve. Now, while neither the article nor I are not talking about those with Cochlear Implants or hearing aids; these are debates that are as heated today as ever. The controversies over Bilingual education and mainstreaming also still continue and are growing. I do not pretend to know the half of it; but I am very interested in learning more as well as hearing of personal experiences in these areas. Please feel free to share more on this blog where I believe many will appreciate your input as I do. And please share this blog with other families with Deaf children, their teachers, etc. that you undoubtedly know. Thank you.

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    2. MerritApril 13, 2012 at 7:56 AM

      This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
  2. Miss Kat's ParentsFebruary 23, 2012 at 6:06 AM

    Yes, 90% of hearing parents don't learn ASL (though I am actually one of the minority who did) but the majority of kids with a hearing loss are identified early and get early intervention, thus allowing them to gain the same listening and spoken language levels as their hearing peers. Most kids with CIs hear and understand spoken language through listening alone, so they are NOT left out of conversations like the story showed. They understand the language of their family and school environments.

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