Raised Oral

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sxg4044

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Welp, I move into my awesome school this saturday, and while I'm happy to have such a large Deaf and hard of hearing community around me, every encounter I've had with anyone apart of NTID, they've been using ASL...

I just wanted to see if anyone else was raised oral, and felt kinda sidelined compaired to others apart of our community...
because for me I'm pretty awkward about it, and I know like, no ASL at all....

Yeah....

~Sam :aw:
 
I don't sign at all and have been in situations where I needed it. I am oral only and would (will) learn to sign when I have to. For now my CI allows me to function in the hearing world with spoken words 99% of the time.

Best of luck to you!
 
sxg4044 said:
Welp, I move into my awesome school this saturday, and while I'm happy to have such a large Deaf and hard of hearing community around me, every encounter I've had with anyone apart of NTID, they've been using ASL...

I just wanted to see if anyone else was raised oral, and felt kinda sidelined compaired to others apart of our community...
because for me I'm pretty awkward about it, and I know like, no ASL at all....

Yeah....

~Sam :aw:
Click to expand...

I thought there were usually a lot of very oral kids at NTID... Even back in the old days,.It wasn't that unusual for kids from the graded oral schools to attend NTID or even Gally! Heck...NTID advertises in Volta Voices and had a booth at the Clarke School Mainstream conference! A lot of the kids you see using ASL were just like you and were new to ASL......they are overall very welcoming to new ASLers......I think most people understand that it wasn't our fault that we didn't get to learn ASL/Sign growing up......We've had a few posters here who went off to deaf school knowing little to no ASL.....when they were immersed in it they became fluent in it!
It's a great super helpful second language for a dhh kid....no more saying "WHAT?" and you'll find learning stuff a LOT easier (since of course you won't have to use your weakest sense!)
 
I was born until about close to 9 years old, I could not speak at all. I did not have hearing aid until I was about 8 years old. But then I was in the mainstream public school with other Oral-Only deaf (Hearing teachers believed and thought that we are hard of hearing, not deaf) students in Special Education, I was forced to speak orally only, no ASL back in the middle 1950. I had a hard time understanding them by lipreading badly and make guess work. I mispronounced a lot of words or sentences back then. I love to read books.

I was frustrated a lot and I told my mom that I need to learn ASL and to go to Deaf school but she refused to do that for me. So when I graduated from mainstream high school, I finally went to the Deaf Lutheran Church (I am Catholic) where there is a Deaf pastor who happened to be a Deaf teacher in the Deaf class. I was so happy and was lifted off my chest feeling so much better knowing all the signs and sentences to communicate with Deaf people in the Deaf Communities. I even went to community college in Seattle where they have Deaf program instead of Special Education. I can understand my ASL interpreters much better than in high school. That is why ASL is very important to me. I could never thank enough to my Deaf pastor as my Deaf instructor or teacher that really open my door. Why can we have that in school years ago? I know the answer is that there was a Alexander Graham Bell, the telephone inventor, who founded a Alexander Graham Bell Foundation to make us go through oral only. No sign language allowed in mainstream school for hard of hearing and deaf students. That is what make us get upset about that. :)
 
sxg4044 said:
Welp, I move into my awesome school this saturday, and while I'm happy to have such a large Deaf and hard of hearing community around me, every encounter I've had with anyone apart of NTID, they've been using ASL...

I just wanted to see if anyone else was raised oral, and felt kinda sidelined compaired to others apart of our community...
because for me I'm pretty awkward about it, and I know like, no ASL at all....

Yeah....

~Sam :aw:
Click to expand...

Don't feel like you are less d/Deaf because you don't know ASL. I've known ASL my whole life but have felt marganilized because I choose to speak and sign.
This is your education, learning ASL might be good for social reasons and maybe for educational reasons but I'm assuming you choose NTID because they have experience with deaf and hard of hearing students.
You don't have to be signing Deaf to use the services your school offers. There are many ways to be d/Deaf. Don't change who you are to fit what people expect you to be. If you need CART but the school is only offering an interpreter, demand CART. This is your education.
 
It annoys me to NO END the insistution that Deaf culture is just a bunch of extreme radical voice offers who burn CIs and HAs in the public square.
There have ALWAYS been Deafies (including DODAs) who are fluent in both ASL and spoken English.....They've never been ostracized for having good speech skills. In fact the Deaf without oral abilty, is in the MINORITY now....Most kids in Sign using K-12 programs, speak and sign.
 
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