More Hearing Parents becoming accepting of sign?

deafdyke

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 27, 2003
Messages
15,790
Reaction score
302
I know we all rant and rave about those parents who just cannot accept the fact that their wittle Smashlie is dhh, and so chose the oral route b/c it seems more "healthy and normal." On the other hand, I have noticed that there are many hearing parents out there who seem to be a lot more accepting of sign language! I mean even some of the parents who choose oral only for their kids, are OK with sign...they just want their child's first language to be English...I've also noticed parents of hoh kids tending to be more open to them being exposed to Sign and Deaf culture. I even know of a couple of kids with UNILATERAL hearing loss who are learning sign, or who are even attending schools for the Deaf!!!!! :) What does everyone else think?
 
It would be lovely when the parents accept to learn sign languages. More parents learn how to do it here in Germany. It means that they love their deaf children too much to learn their culture. I find it's so lovely.

I remember back few years, one deaf girl who lives near my friend's house. She has no respect of her parents who want to bring her to oral world. She's an aggressive etc. The parents feel helpless & don't know what they do with her so they heard though village gossip that my friend is deaf & live near them so they went my friend for the advice. The parents are amazed to see her daughter happy face when she use sign language with my friend. Her parents decided to learn sign language for her. They did! The relationship between them & their daughter goes wonderful.

During my hubby's time is sad one!
Every parents demand the teachers to teach their children oral. My hubby is one of them. He grew up with oral & told me that it's very stress of him to consider his teacher's lip than learn anything.

The time at today in Germany is too much better. Most parents learn to sign language for their deaf children. Some of them are interpeter.
The parents demand the teacher to sign their children.

Wonderful isn't it? :thumb:
 
Last edited:
I'm HOH and i take a sign language class ( i know sign language, but i want to improve it) and they're all like, "What will you use it for?" :crazy: What the fuck? What a bunch of fucking morons? No, i'm just taking it so i'll never use it ever. Whatever. I wish they were more involved and acted like they cared.
 
The time at today in Germany is too much better. Most parents learn to sign language for their deaf children. Some of them are interpeter.
.

Wonderful isn't it?
Maybe in a few years, there'll be a simlair sitution in the US. I mean, I think that the old audist "oral is best b/c it's healthy and normal" attitude has slowly but surely begun to die out, which is wonderful. We just need to work on the attitude that Sign is "speshal needs" and is not as good as speech. We need to make people realize that speech and Sign are EQUAL to each other! I think also one of the things that really keeps sign from being viable is the fact that health care is so damn expensive. (but profitable for oral teachers, therapists audis etc) So most oral kids don't really have "freedom" b/c they can hear and speak, since that "freedom" comes at a HUGE price!
 
My parents learnt sign language when I was diagonised deaf at 18 months old -- that was in the 70's. My Mum went on to become an interpreter for the deaf (recently certifed as RID in ASL) and my father learnt enough to communicate with my sister and I while growing up. :)
 
PurpleRose71 said:
My parents learnt sign language when I was diagonised deaf at 18 months old -- that was in the 70's. My Mum went on to become an interpreter for the deaf (recently certifed as RID in ASL) and my father learnt enough to communicate with my sister and I while growing up. :)

That's wonderful, Purple. :) I wish my mother would have thought to do that. Not to say I'm not thankful for my speech training. I am. I think it's great that I have a big mouth, BUT I would have loved to have been able to communicate with the small handful of deaf friends I was in regular contact with. Mom wouldn't even allow me to learn to sign...so the thought of HER learning to sign was also taboo. I do hope that other parents of deaf/HoH babies and children think twice before taking that route. Makes it a lot easier on the kid to be able to do both, and having the parent on their side makes it a little more simple.
 
Back
Top