Yea, the parents here on AD who talk about signing really do inspire me..and I really wish they would come to my work and tell that to those parents who put speech development as their #1 priority. I think both ASL and speech development should be seen as equally.
Speaking of being in a bad mood about speech...this did not help my bad mood but I am starting to get out of it. LOL..Today, I was outside with my son playing at the playground in my complex and there was a lady with a toddler and she was trying to get him to walk. When I put my son down, immediately he darted for that toddler cuz he is a toddler himself I guess so I went over there. The lady started talking to me really fast and I, as usual, told her that I am deaf and she needed to repeat what she had just said. Her eyes went wide open and said "ARE u for real, deaf?" I was thinking "oh boy...not another one of those "wow! deaf people can do this or that" but I smiled and said yea...and she said that her son is deaf in both ears. Then it was my turn to say "Your son is deaf??" hahhahaha so I asked her how old he was...she said 18 months old and she proceeded to tell me that he cant walk nor talk. She said he has been trying to get him to talk but it is not working. I asked her about sign language...well, this is where I got pissed again about "speech"..she said that the specialists told her that her son needed to learn speech skills before he can learn sign language. I tried not to show my displeasure cuz she is innocent so I was very polite about it..I told her that was not true ..that deaf people learn ASL since birth and that my son knows sign language and he is hearing and only 16 months old. She went :jaw:. She said that the specialists told her that all deaf people had to learn speech skills before being able to learn sign language. WTF??? That is new to me and one I do not like at all! I asked her if she knew about my school and she said she has never heard of it. Then it was my turn to :jaw: cuz my work was only 10 mins away from our homes. I proceeded to tell her about my work and she said that she prefers to focus on his speech skills cuz he is so delayed already. I had to tell myself "Calm calm...this woman doesnt understand ..so control yourself." I smiled at her and said well, my school do offer speech classes with speech therapists and that was when she said "Oh great!!! Give me the phone number." So I gave her the phone number. Sweet lady but wow..she was misinformed BIG time and I want to find out who those specialists who told her that and scream at them at how STUPID they are!!! Why take that chance on a child's language development like that for the sake of speech? Come on! It was obvious he was delayed ..dont know if he had congnitive disabilities or was due to no access to language ...he was too young to tell but still better to be safe than sorry, right? The point is..the child suffers because of some "idea" that deaf kids needs to learn speech skills before learning sign language. To me that is abuse! Sorry for coming off strong but it just makes me 
