Should Deaf babies learn just only ASL?

Any language, whether ASL or English,...

is better than no language at all! Some Deaf Children of hearing parents have NO language till they go to school at age five or six.

My niece was one of these children. She was six years old and all the "professionals" said that she was "retarded" because she could not speak. My husband and I, both hoh, kept asking her teachers and parents,.."Have you checked her hearing?"

Her parents FINALLY had her hearing tested and she was hearing almost nothing!! Then, she had an operation to take some bones out of her ears or something like that, and now she hears more than my husband and I can hear!! The sad part is that she can barely speak and has lost many concepts that she should have learned as a young child!! She is very much behind socially and academically!!

....Stanelle
 
Her parents FINALLY had her hearing tested and she was hearing almost nothing!! Then, she had an operation to take some bones out of her ears or something like that, and now she hears more than my husband and I can hear!!
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How long ago was this? I am very puzzled at how a kid could escape detection of a hearing loss in this day and age....
It's also impossible that a conductive loss can cause such a significent loss. I don't have earcanals or eardrums and I only have a moderately severe loss.
 
I am teaching Landon both. He is hearing, and I want him to be fluent in english and sign language. I sign to him sometimes and he has a big grin on his face when he watches me. I also talk and talk to him.

In Psychology magazine, they say that babies learn sign langauge faster than they learn to speak. I was 5 months old when I first signed "milk" hah.
 
I think Deaf babies should learn ASL first to guarantee a strong L1 language instead of a mediocre one with both and then struggle with literacy later on.
 
mysteriesofthes said:
is better than no language at all! Some Deaf Children of hearing parents have NO language till they go to school at age five or six.

My niece was one of these children. She was six years old and all the "professionals" said that she was "retarded" because she could not speak. My husband and I, both hoh, kept asking her teachers and parents,.."Have you checked her hearing?"

Her parents FINALLY had her hearing tested and she was hearing almost nothing!! Then, she had an operation to take some bones out of her ears or something like that, and now she hears more than my husband and I can hear!! The sad part is that she can barely speak and has lost many concepts that she should have learned as a young child!! She is very much behind socially and academically!!

....Stanelle
Click to expand...

This is just too shocking to let it go that long. My parents realized I couldn't hear around 2 or 3 and had my hearing tested. It doesn't take 6 years to realize the child can't hear. Amazing!
 
mysteriesofthes said:
is better than no language at all! Some Deaf Children of hearing parents have NO language till they go to school at age five or six.

My niece was one of these children. She was six years old and all the "professionals" said that she was "retarded" because she could not speak. My husband and I, both hoh, kept asking her teachers and parents,.."Have you checked her hearing?"

Her parents FINALLY had her hearing tested and she was hearing almost nothing!! Then, she had an operation to take some bones out of her ears or something like that, and now she hears more than my husband and I can hear!! The sad part is that she can barely speak and has lost many concepts that she should have learned as a young child!! She is very much behind socially and academically!!

....Stanelle
Click to expand...

I really can't believe she went that long without the parents not knowing sooner! What the heck? When I was born they didn't have all the technology they have today ( not that I'm that old, but technology has advanced a LOT ) and my parents realized I was deaf around 2. How do you not know for THAT long?!? That absolutely baffles my mind.... it's almost a little too much to swallow honestly....
 
absolutely deaf babie NEED ASL, or BSL, or Auslan or NZSL, absolutely essential for the connection, moreover the voice box isn't developed till later, and signs is already 'ready to use' , eyes and fingers already good enough for sign...
no arguments on that
 
For 8 1/2 years (from birth to young child of 8 1/2) of not being able to talk and communicated with family and friends without sign langauge, my parents forced me to speak orally which was hard to do. I don't know how my parents, sibling and I communicated over the years before Speech thearpy. I might have use gestures and my family might have use gestures. I wish they would sign with me if we had learned to sign ASL for me to communicate with them. It was a waste of my life not being able to understand them for that long.

That is why it is important that hearing parents should let Deaf babies learn to sign ASL just for communication, even if they have a voice box. Still it would be better if they can sign ASL only before trying to use speech thearpy later on. :(
 
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