Would you learn to talk later in your life?
- Thread starter RustyLastCall05
- Start date
HappyRambo said:
Well I was raised to talk. I wasn't born deaf, but I've been deaf since a year and a half. My hearing is the worst - like 90 decibels and down. Everyone thought I should go to sign language instead of teaching me how to talk. My family wanted to me talk anyway. It took so many years of speech. For a short time I had the most perfect speech and I guess I should've stopped going to the deaf program, but my family didn't trust me. My speech is kind of garbled, I stutter, and I don't usually talk because I talk quite low. I wish I could've been sent to a program that taught you how to talk and sign (SEE or ASL). I'm glad I know sign language now, but if I had to choose, I'd talk later on in life. Spoken English is first, ASL is second, and Spanish is third.
Amen! I also wish I'd been able to learn how to speak AND Sign. I am glad I can hear and speak, but on the other hand a lot of oral practioners seem to be very chaunavistic about oralism, and seem to think that it's absolutly posituvely perfect with no downsides.:sure: I wish there was a widely accepted approach that gave ASL and speech equal weight. I know one of the problems is that some people feel that TC programs don't spend enough time on oral training. Then again, I recently found out that the majority of oral sucesses are the result of the private school effect. Most talented therapists are attracted to the private sector b/c it's where they can make the most money. Very few are attracted to public programs, like public early intervention.
C
CrazyMomma
Guest
I learned to speak while growing up and I just learn to use sign language when I was 18 years old (senior in high school).. I am very very rusty in sign language but hoping to meet someone to improve my sign skills. I am very very talkative (nonstop) and I grew up in the hearing world, andI want to know what is like to be in deaf world. I have married my hearing husband and we have a hearing son, so I don't know what is like to be in the deaf world.
My mom and dad wanted me to talk not my hand.. Both of them wanted me to grow up in the hearing world that I would be comfortable in there instead of being in the deaf world.
My mom and dad wanted me to talk not my hand.. Both of them wanted me to grow up in the hearing world that I would be comfortable in there instead of being in the deaf world.
deafdyke said:
I concur, I was born hearing, in an all hearing family, diddn't have a hearing loss untill I was about 14, and it's been progressing ever since. (about 10 years now) I'm not deaf yet, but my ability to recognise speach is getting lower and lower and lower... and since I only hear on one side I can't tell what direction sounds come from etc.. I'm more "deaf" than I am "hearing" in that reguard.
I've tried to associate with some deaf people, I took ASL in college, it's tough.. people assume I'm hearing, and they don't bother talking to me... I recall a couple years ago I went to a party... a couple of people diddn't bother talking to me untill some one else told them I was hard-of-hearing. oh then I'm "one of them" I guess. ugh.
It took me a bit to figure out a few other things.. For one, I learned that Deaf people are not at all impressed at my ability to speak. Here's the thing.. I will speak if I know for a fact that the other person hears and does not sign. If you don't like it go @^ yourself.
Someone explained to me that one reson some deaf seem to resent people who speak is because of the long hours in speech therapy that were like hell. I can understand how they'd be bitter about that sort of thing but hey, just because I speak dosn't mean that I think I'm better than any one else.
It's a sad fact that a good chunck of our society thinks that you need to speak in order to be "normal" but speaking is not such a big deal. Good english skills are what make the difference. If you can read and write you'll do very well.
For those of you who lost your hearing after learning to speak: has your speech degraded as time goes on? I have found that speaking is not like riding a bike. I have to be very carefull to form my words correctly. the sounds I don't hear anymore are the ones I have the most trouble with.. I never hear them and I tend to drop them in my own speech without realizing it.
- farmerjoe
Sigh......limiting access to the deaf-world doesn't mean that a person will automaticly be comfortable in the hearing-world. I can't stand that presumption, that the hearing world is the best thing in the world. It does have it's values and highlights, but it is NOT the best thing in the world...The deaf-world has it's values and highlights too! Too many of our parents listened to the parents who still had emoitional fuckups about having a child who was "different"
:roll: