Going deaf

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Jessa6625

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Should my family learn how to sign when I am going deaf?
 
It depends if you are going to use an device such as hearing aids or cochlear implants. If that is the case, having your family learning how to sign may be a bit unnecessary. (It is a good idea, it just may be a bit of a learning curve for them.) However if that is not the case, it might be an excellent idea.
Also you can learn how to lip read which is not hard with practice. Knowing how to lip read ensures that a window of communication is always open, regardless of the person you are interacting with. It can also boost the success of HA or CIs because you do not have to rely on them 100%.
 
Hearing aids or cochlear implants aren't a cure its a fix. Hearing usually will continue to worsen over time anyways and a cochlear implant isn't perfect there are times you still can't hear with it when there's a lot of background noise etc. Reading lips helps yes but not always possible. A person don't always have a CI or HA on either so ASL would serve as a back up language when all else fails or may become the primary language eventually.
 
Of course using a Hearing Aid/Cochlear Implant is NOT a fix re DEAFness. It is one way to deal with the actual condition. Suitable for "all" NO.

Contingent on actual circumstance of EACH person.

Aside: I am bilateral DEAF since December 20, 2006.
 
Only my daughtet has learned ASL since I started losing my hearing. I love her so much for that. For now, mu husband chooses not to. I am going to start using hearing aids soon. I hope before too long, my son and husband willl learn asl. I see they have picked up a few signs watching my daughter and I sign to eachother. If my daughter didn't learn with me, it'd probably make me sad. At least I have someone :)

Also i use asl at work a lot. That makes my life so much easier. So my advice is to encourage your family to learn it, and you should use it as much as possible :) asl makes life for me so much easier, less frustrating, and much more enjoyable. Plus, it may open doors for you to meet and make friends with people like you who can support you with this transition.
 
Thank you. I have talked with my family about it, but they don't see how this would do anything. There point of view is, I am not deaf yet so there is no reason to change the family
 
Jessa6625 said:
Thank you. I have talked with my family about it, but they don't see how this would do anything. There point of view is, I am not deaf yet so there is no reason to change the family
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Why would u wait until u need it to learn it? Learn it now so u have it when u need it. I learned asl and im hoh, not deaf. It already helps me so much and saves me so much headaches from trying to lip reqd all the time. I strongly encourage you to learn it now and encourage yout family to as well. My hope is now that my daughter and I use it other people will pick it up and start using it too. I certainly wish my family would all learn it
 
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