Did your (hearing) parents learn to sign?

Did your parents learn to sign?

  • Yes.

    Votes: 12 28.6%

  • No.

    Votes: 19 45.2%

  • One did, one didn't.

    Votes: 1 2.4%

  • Tried, but never got past the basics.

    Votes: 7 16.7%

  • None of your options fit me.

    Votes: 3 7.1%
  • Total voters
    42
tuatara

tuatara

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I've been lately blown away by stories about kids whose hearing parents never learned to sign, both online and from people I know in real life. I'm wondering how common that is, and if anyone here is willing to say if their parents learned, or tried, etc. I'm going to try to make a survey question, but I've never done that before, so not sure if it'll work.
 
In my case, yes. Same with plenty of my school classmates. Then again, I've ran into those at Deaf Clubs whose parents don't sign.
 
I voted none of your options because My ma learned sign as well as my two older brothers. My father on the other hand didn't learn very well. More of an ABC guy. He really tried though. He even still tries today but boy does he suck at signing overall. Lol. He just wasn't built for it... so he gets a half vote for effort... and continued effort.
 
Thanks everyone for answering or commenting:ty:

NitroHonda, that's great that your dad still tries even though it's not easy for him. That takes alot of strength to keep working on something a person doesn't have a natural skill for. (At least when I've tried to learn things that were hard for me, that's been my experience.)

Thanks again!
 
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No, but then neither did I. During college I tried taking a few courses in Sign but lost interest and it just wasn't into it as much as Asian and Romance languages. I've no doubt they would have learned if they felt it was necessary.

Laura
 
NitroHonda said:
I voted none of your options because My ma learned sign as well as my two older brothers. My father on the other hand didn't learn very well. More of an ABC guy. He really tried though. He even still tries today but boy does he suck at signing overall. Lol. He just wasn't built for it... so he gets a half vote for effort... and continued effort.
Click to expand...

I could have written your post. Almost identical to my family. My mom and sister learned sign really well. My mom still interprets for me sometimes.

My dad learned at the same time as my mom, but he wasn't able to keep up with it and forgot nearly all. He's an ABC guy too. I give him credit for trying.
 
No parents...and only 1 of my siblings knew the "basics" of finger spelling...To be HONEST....they were ashamed of ASL....and their way of thinking was that deaf people were labeled as retarded.....

I'm sure times have changed a lot...back in the old(er) days...it was pretty bad...still that way somewhat today....

I do have 1 sister that I ignore completely...1 brother also...whom I will quote..."I'm not talking to a machine!"...whenever I tried to call him via TTY (before VP's came about)....
 
Oh wow Robin!

What a horrible quote:(
And awful attitudes you had to grow up in the midst of!

How'd you turn out so great?
 
Robin, I hate to hear that your family has treated you that way. I am glad that you have been able to turn out to be the person you are today, though, despite all of that. Many people let bad experiences in their lives turn them bitter and cold and it is great to see people who don't let situations make them this way, but rather turn out (almost) better because of the pain they have endured... :)

As for the actual OP question:
I didn't answer your poll because I myself am not deaf or hard of hearing. I am here because my 3 year old daughter is and I am trying to learn everything I can to help her grow up strong and knowing that she can do anything she wants, regardless of her hearing (or lack of). I hope if she were to come across this question once she is an adult she will say yes on all accounts. We are currently learning sign language as fast as we can (which isn't really fast- learning a language takes some serious time). My husband and I are both learning it in different ways but we are learning. Even our parents are doing their best to learn as much as they can (he is my daughter's step father, so it is definitely nice that his parents feel the urge to learn some sign). I doubt her biological father will ever really learn sign, he barely keeps in touch with her and her sister as it is so I don't see it as a priority for him... But at least she will know that the people who are a constant in her life growing up have done all they can to meet her where she is at. I honestly love learning sign language- it is so expressive and I have always been a "hand talker" (you know, one of those crazy hearing people who flap their hands around and gesture at things and look like they are trying to fly or something when they talk) so learning sign is now giving me actual words to use during my "hand talking" :). It makes me sad to think that a family wouldn't care about communicating with one of the members of that family- just because it takes a little more effort to learn to communicate with that person than with everyone else in the family. And honestly, from a hearing mother's perspective, learning sign is really beginning to make things easier. Before we started really learning and teaching her, you could tell that she was getting frustrated trying to understand us and we were definitely getting frustrated trying to make her understand. If people took the time to learn sign for their d/hh kids, they would cut down on so much frustration and irritation!
 
I have a big family. Lots of relatives. Nooooo one bothered to sign. Hell, they betch if I turn on the CC.different families do it differently. Dysfunctional families are weird.
 
I answered that they never got beyond the basics. My mom took ASL 1, but never did her homework and hasn't signed since...
 
Parents tried one time but never got past the basics. They also figured that since I did well orally, there was no need for them to continue to learn despite the fact that I have a deaf brother with no oral skills.
 
you are going to find this is common with hearing parents and deaf kids.
 
rockin'robin said:
No parents...and only 1 of my siblings knew the "basics" of finger spelling...To be HONEST....they were ashamed of ASL....and their way of thinking was that deaf people were labeled as retarded.....

I'm sure times have changed a lot...back in the old(er) days...it was pretty bad...still that way somewhat today....

I do have 1 sister that I ignore completely...1 brother also...whom I will quote..."I'm not talking to a machine!"...whenever I tried to call him via TTY (before VP's came about)....
Click to expand...

Doesn't surprise me......disability stigma and also until about the '70's it was mainstream thought that dhh people weren't exactly bright :( Most likely b/c a lot of dhh kids had delays with spoken language, so hearies thought that meant they were globally mentally disabled.
 
No....they told me later in life that all the doctors told them that I would become dumb if I learned sign language, so they did everything in their power to make sure I was as hearing as possible.....12 years of speech therapy and all-hearing schools.

Man, times sure have changed.
 
my mom sign language awesome me. I teach mom sign language also. she giggle smile. she alots of smile. I oral sometimes, I know I teach sign language love, also mom knew me sign language she tell how role sign language not bad sign language on my parent dad and also my father, It is pretty I disappointment past before i remember i really I believe mom is very awesome is very friendly heartly, it is very she teach learn sign language more than my father, my mom is very impressive, also my sister not bad, sound look likes relative strong family heart warm I miss mom, I know mom is very good sign language she happy love sign language, I know me sign language wonderful!

my uncle also aunt pretty awesome teach alots of me awesome for me

language powerful is strong communication sign language!
 
My mum actually took signing classes for me when I was between 4/5 years old because I used to get so frustrated, but she didnt learn anybody after passing her level 1 as I refused to sign back. But even now, she will fingerspell things or sign a little if needed
 
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