Can children distinguish early on...

rebeccalj said:
Good post.

I cannot understand how someone can suggest that a five year old child can identify as Deaf.

When I think back to five year old me I don't know that I even understood what 'deaf' meant. How do you know what that means when you don't know any different? In my small little world everyone around me was the same. I had some sound recognition of tones but how do you know the difference between hearing and deaf when you don't know what it truly means to hear? To me, *I* heard. Not very well, but I still heard.

As I mentioned, it was only when going to school, and no more sign was allowed, that I had a, how do you say, rude awakening when I was thrown to the wolves. That was the moment I realized I was different. That I was deaf. An outsider to the hearing world.

Only in the last decade do I know what it means to be Deaf. A whole world opened up with that discovery. My *true* identity. A realization that, for all those years that I felt invisible in the hearing crowd, I was suddenly no longer invisible.

I'd think you'd have to be the most amazing child on the planet to know what 'Deaf' means at the age of five.:hmm:
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Perhaps Grendal's daughter is that most amazing child. Good for her.
 
AlleyCat said:
Yes, and Grendel asked me the same/similar question yesterday as to why, if I've had exposure to this all my life, if I still didn't realize until much later why I feel "Deaf". It's all along the same lines here.
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I'm not a religious person but your post made me think of the story of Moses. Born to a culture that he never felt like he belonged to. He just felt 'different' from the Egyptians. It was only when he discovered that he was a Jew did he *finally* understand his heritage and culture and embraced it. Like a light went on for him.

For me, I was the same. Once I found *my people* I knew I was home but I didn't know I was looking for them until I found them.
 
rebeccalj said:
I'm not a religious person but your post made me think of the story of Moses. Born to a culture that he never felt like he belonged to. He just felt 'different' from the Egyptians. It was only when he discovered that he was a Jew did he *finally* understand his heritage and culture and embraced it. Like a light went on for him.

For me, I was the same. Once I found *my people* I knew I was home but I didn't know I was looking for them until I found them.
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I have to :bow: to you.
 
rebeccalj said:
I'm not a religious person but your post made me think of the story of Moses. Born to a culture that he never felt like he belonged to. He just felt 'different' from the Egyptians. It was only when he discovered that he was a Jew did he *finally* understand his heritage and culture and embraced it. Like a light went on for him.

For me, I was the same. Once I found *my people* I knew I was home but I didn't know I was looking for them until I found them.
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That's a great post!
 
Wirelessly posted

but why would a Deaf of Deaf child be considered Deaf but a child being raised the same way, with the same cultural NOT be?
 
faire_jour said:
Wirelessly posted

but why would a Deaf of Deaf child be considered Deaf but a child being raised the same way, with the same cultural NOT be?
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Because they are being raised in their culture from the beginning. Still, I don't know that a five year old in a CODA household would identify as Deaf.

Hearing culture does not = Deaf culture

Hearing parents raising deaf child cannot understand Deaf culture. We think differently from hearies. We *feel* differently from hearies.
 
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My 5-year old son is fluent in ASL and is around it and Deaf adults but he has no clue about Deaf culture. He just knows with non-signer, he uses his voice only and with signers he uses voice off.
 
Beowulf said:
Not till they leave it, anyway.
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Okay, pod in a pea, that is it exactly!:ty:

Until you leave your little cocoon that is family you don't realize just how different you are. When you are finally an adult you get to discover yourself the way that *you* want to and not the way that hearing family wants you to.
 
shel90 said:
My 5-year old son is fluent in ASL and is around it and Deaf adults but he has no clue about Deaf culture. He just knows with non-signer, he uses his voice only and with signers he uses voice off.
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That's awesome! Two of my kids are okay with Deaf culture and two don't seem to want to acknowledge it.

I would *love* it if my kids went voice off for me or other deafies.

Do you think that because he is hearing that he just doesn't, how do you say, identify with the Deaf culture *because* he is hearing? It's not a part of him but, instead, a part of you? I don't know the right words to explain what I mean.

It's a fascinating topic. Does a child identify with their culture as a child or is it something they *become* with age and time? I think the latter.
 
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