Jag,
Not having any personal experience with deafness we were open to all options, however, once we learned of, and investigated, the auditory/oral approach that was our preference. This did not mean that we chose the oral approach to the forever exclusion of signing or other approaches. Our daughter was just a little over a year old at that time. We had no guaranties and no certainties as to whether she would ever acquire language orally, however we determined that at that point in time it made sense to at least attempt the oral approach cognizant of the fact that we were not ruling out any future options, including sign. Upon receiving her cochlear implant at the age of 2 ½, our daughter began to rapidly acquire and develop speech and language. Within months she was able to speak in short sentences and to use multi-syllabic words. We are not opposed to sign.
Rick
