What communication tools was you raised in?

I was raised in total communication. So I do embrance that alot. And still uses them to this day.

What about you guys?

Oral and total communication in public schools system.

Oral all the way and mainstreamed to the max.

I've been there Oral until 10 yrs old and transfered to Deaf School... That how I fall in love ASL
I'm pure asl

I've done everything except cued speech...

Didn't do so well in oral DHH program at local public school because I was SO young and did not have any language foundation for either sign language or English...they actually thought I was retarded. That was in Kindergarten.

Then I was sent to the state school for the deaf for a year to build my foundation in both language. My previous school told the school for the deaf that I was retarded or something like that, so I was put in a PRESCHOOL class with 2 and 3 years olds (I was 6 at the time) but within 2 weeks I was able to prove myself to the school that I was not retarded and that I was just simply lacking langauge skills. I learned a hell of a lot in those 2 weeks and pwn'd everybody. I was also moved up to the first grade class.

After a year of that, I left the school for the deaf and went to a local public school with a DHH program where total communication is encouraged and emphamised. I did very well there.

When I hit middle school I was completely mainstreamed in all-hearing classes and did well. I switched between mainstreaming and the school for the deaf all the way up to the 12th grade. I kept going back to the school for the deaf for all the stupid reasons and should have simply stayed at the public school.

My mother learned sign language and was very fluent in it, she even had many deaf friends. My father did not learn very much except what he thinks is required to. My stepmother learned very little and used it against me. Then I grew up in foster care and have lived with a few deaf foster parents. The first foster family I went to, the father was deaf and 3 of the kids (including me) are deaf and the other 3 are hearing, the mother is hearing. Both parents taught at the school for the deaf. Then I went to a different foster family where one of the mothers is deaf and the other mother is hearing (yes, two mothers, I don't need to elaborate) and their kids are hearing. I thrived very well in that last foster family. They used total communication.

I hope this gives you a good idea of how I was raised communication-wise.

I grew up in the state deaf school... but we had speech classes.. many of us can speak...
I graduated from there... then I attended to the hearing college.. It was no big deal...
Thanks!!
SxyPorkie

Oral , mainstreamed and total communication-- never attend any deaf schools

ORAL FOR ME TILL I WAS TRANSFERED TO THE DEAF SCHOOL WHEN I WAS 10 YEARS OLD. ASL WASN'T MY STRONGEST SUIT BUT DID FAIRLY WELL. NOW, IT IS PRETTY WELL ORAL EXCEPT WHEN I GET TOGETHER WITH SOME OF MY DEAF FRIENDS. IT BOTH ORAL AND ASL.

Pardon my ignorance, but can someone please explain the concept of total communication? I've never heard of that.

Everything, dude. Everything.

Except maybe Cued. I wish I learned that.

total communication

I was in mainstreamed school with deaf programs for long time until 8th grade then I transferred to deaf school.

Mainstream. My loss is progressive, and most of it was post- or peri- lingual, so understanding speech wasn't that difficult; I did have to do about 18 months of work with a speech path to clean up my lisp, though.

Now, as a college student, I'm learning to sign and I've dabbled with cueing. I doubt either of those will become a primary language, but the little sign I know has already come in handy when I use oral interpreting services.

ASL outside of classrooms and PSE/SEE and lipreading in a mainstreamed school. Never learned CUED or Total Comm.

(when I saw the title of this thread, I thought we were about to post what kind of communcation technology we grew up with!)

ASL all my life since i was 2 years old. My mom enrolled me at pre school with other deaf kids that signs.

I was oral for the first 8 years and I was an oral failure - yeah, an "EX-ORAL" with no language at all - only 20 words at most. I was introduced to cued English and it's been amazing. I learned to sign a few years later.

I spent a few years in oral school. After moving to Texas at the age of 5, I went to mainstream school. I still had deaf-only classes until I was in the 3rd grade. I then had a few mainstream classes until the 8th grade. From that point on, I was in all mainstream classes.

guido said:

Pardon my ignorance, but can someone please explain the concept of total communication? I've never heard of that.

Click to expand...

Short answer: Total Communication is signing and speaking at the same time.

signer16 said:

Short answer: Total Communication is signing and speaking at the same time.

Click to expand...

Signing and speaking at the same time is SimComm--Simultaneous Communication. SimComm is also called "sign-supported speech".

Many people erroneously interchange the terms SimComm and Total Communication. They are not the same.

Total Communication was originally developed by David Denton at the Maryland School for the Deaf in 1967, although the term “total communication” was first used by Roy Holcomb in California and was adopted by the Maryland school as the official name for their educational philosophy. TC was supposed find a middle ground in age-old disputes between oralism and manualism, and as an alternative to Simultaneous Communication. In practice, however, most Total Communication programs use some form of Simultaneous Communication.

Click to expand...

Total Communication is an educational philosophy. Simultaneous Communication is one method within that philosophy.

most of it was post- or peri- lingual, so understanding speech wasn't that difficult;
Now, as a college student, I'm learning to sign and I've dabbled with cueing. I doubt either of those will become a primary language, but the little sign I know has already come in handy

Click to expand...

That makes sense. I now understand your posts a lot better. Posties and peris tend to be more "hearing impaired" and ID as "almost hearing"....I can totally undy why folks like you tend not to be pro Deaf culture. You guys have the option in that you've experianced the world as a hearing little kid who lost their hearing.
It's always good to be openminded about other options. That way, you can choose which tools to use. For example if there are 'terps around and you know Sign, you can use them.

Mainstream and total communication all my life never been to deaf school... the only deaf program I had was english and reading that's all.