Holly - Do you seriously think that sign language in a hearing family, is fool proof?
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Isn't it better than watching someone's mouth move and never being sure if you caught everything they said?
Holly - In all likelyhood, a families, who has/had choosen the system of Cued Speech to aquire/learn the familial language, would/could be quite profrecient at speech reading.
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Holly -I do not doubt that this has been the experience for some strictly oral children, in hearing families, but certainly not all. Each family deserves respect for the agonizing decisions that they have to make in the name of their family, in meeting the needs of their family.
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I never said families didn't deserve respect did I? Everyone is entitled to their opinion, including you and I.
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Holly - The universal language for each family is whatever language is their familial language.
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yes...and when you have a child whose language skills need to be adapted, the new language skills should become the family language, at least in the home. Of course it will not be easy, and you may have siblings that don't want to learn these new skills, but there are good ways of introducing it that make it fun so it doesn't appear to be a chore.
Let me put it this way, if you adopted a child from another country who only spoke that foreign language when they first came to your home (in other words, they had no real "usable" language skills in the family) wouldn't it be in your best interest to learn some of their language so communication is still possible while they are learning yours?
Holly- Please understand that I am not suggesting that the family never learn sign language. I have mentioned before, but will post it again, that it would be optimum for the deaf child and their family to learn ASL from a native Deaf signer, preferably as soon as possible, if at all possible. Again, as I mentioned in previous posts, the family is the best model for familial language, through the system of Cued Speech, as soon as possible.
I understand that it is a little different with a child who was born deaf, as ideally the training would've started as soon as the parent found out. Since sign language is the natural language of the deaf (most deaf people will tell you that) why isn't it a good idea to reach a happy medium and meet eachother in the middle by incorporating sign with oral training? Why is incorporation of sign such a big no no?
Holly - Incorporating sign with oral training? Not sure what you are really trying to say here. You are using two differnt language and two different modes, so.........??
Have you had a chance to find that "natural language" article yet? It would be great if you would share.
Because it makes it harder for the parent because they have to learn something new? Children have a world of new things to learn from the senses they have, why force them to rely completely on learning from a sense that has been diminished?
Holly - How many deaf/hoh children and their families have you met? You make such broad sweeping statments regarding communication choices, each deaf/hoh/hearing child is different. It is the families decision, not yours or mine. Parents who have choosen oral only paths for their children are your best source for understanding how they cam to the decsions that they did.
When you have a child it isn't about what's easiest for you anymore. I understand that many parents are told that oral is the best way and choose that because it seemed the only option. But if you look at it from a childs perspective...its a big scary world out there, they are going to have a tough life anyway (hearing or not), as parents our goal should be to make sure our child can use
all of their skills to understand their world.
Holly - How many deaf/hoh children and their families have you met? You make such broad sweeping statements regarding communication choices; each deaf/hoh/hearing child is different. It is the families’ decision, not yours or mine. Parents have the right to choose what they believe is right for their child. Parents who have chosen oral only paths for their children are your best source for understanding how they came to the decisions that they did.
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Holly - In an emergency, you may have time for nothing.
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Right, in that case no one would've talked and the lack of communication would be equal. At least then the deaf person wouldn't be any less understanding of the situation than others were.
But if I could also point out the obvious...in many emergencies you
do have time to talk...
Holly - Wouldn't it be fantastic to have all communication options available to everyone then.