jillio
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- Jun 14, 2006
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I do think this may be a lot more common...having bilingal dhh kids. I do think that with my generation of kids becoming parents, that they may be more open to a bilingal route. It does seem that a lot of parents who chose the oral only route in the past, were doing so in part b/c a) They thought of ASL as something that had a HUGE stigma of "disablity" They saw oral only as something more "normal" That attitude is still around, but has lessened and b) Most parents of past years really didn't have a lot of exposure to kids with disabilites while growing up. That in turn freaked them out b/c they didn't know what a real live dhh person's life was like growing up.
I'm hoping that some of what we see is generational. It could go one of two ways. The generation becoming parents more open to bilingual education and environments, or a greater reliance on "advanced technology". The 20 somethings appear to be very tech oriented, which would make them more prone to less technological interventions. I think we are seeing a lot of this in the attitude toward CI. I am hearing the same thing said about CI that I heard about digital aids 20 years ago. This is the newest technology that will change the world of deafness. It has been said about technology for my lifetime. And the thing is, with each improvement, we don't see much changing in the world of deafness, because for real change to occur, we have to approach it from the deaf perspective.