Amen! The thing is, that it's got this HUGE HUGE "disabilty" stigma.These are people that have been judged as oral successes, have been able to function in a hearing world, yet when they are finally exposed tothe Deaf community and sign language experience a great sense of having missed out on something alll of their lives.
Rick, the singlar of data isn't ancedote. Yes, there are kids who do really well orally, but I mean even many "sucesses" still have significent issues with functioning in the hearing world. (eg they still need speech therapy or special ed services, and many of them still have significent social issues)
There was that kid who spoken seven languages, back when the only option was relatively primative hearing aids. That doesn't mean that ALL kids will do as well.
And I mean......even a lot of kids who do semi decently orally, still are going to have signficent expressive speech issues. Whereas if they'd learned Sign, they could have expressed themselves on a Harvard level!