Deaf Baby Boomers Not Learning Sign Language Until Later

Both My parents are deaf. It's very different from other families(well, for me it is) because my parents were never the adult figures in the family, My sisters and I were, we had to take care of a lot of stuff at a young age...But, anyways, when my mom was born, my grandma decided not to get my mom to learn sign language, so, throughout my mom's life until highschool, it was hard for her to communicate to others...Then, later, when my mom went to a high school boarding school and people taught her sign language then...My grandma recently told me that at that time, doctors found a study that it's better to not get your kids to learn sign language and just make them lip read;that was during the baby boomer time; it just makes me mad that deaf baby boomers didn't learn sign language until they were much older just because of the stupidity of the doctors who made up the study that they shouldn't learn sign language.

I think they should be able to learn sign language, otherwise they're at a disadvantage really.

Nine_Inch_Nails:

I think they should be able to learn sign language, otherwise they're at a disadvantage really.

Yeah, my mom was really effected by not being able to communicate.

Yeah.. things like these happen. I never listen to scientists, doctors, politicians.. etc. I do things my own way... 'cause it feels right. Most of the time.

We have 9 versions of sign language in the US, as far as I know. And lip reading is basically considered a part of that. I think deaf people should teach themselves to read lips, but sign language is also a necessity, because sooner or later they will need it. Besides, not all of them are able to speak well enough to be understood, so even if they can read lips they can't talk back without sign language. It definitely should be taugh to deaf kid. It's stupid to take this away from them.

Faith:

We have 9 versions of sign language in the US, as far as I know. And lip reading is basically considered a part of that. I think deaf people should teach themselves to read lips, but sign language is also a necessity, because sooner or later they will need it. Besides, not all of them are able to speak well enough to be understood, so even if they can read lips they can't talk back without sign language. It definitely should be taugh to deaf kid. It's stupid to take this away from them.

Nononononononononono. Only up tp 30% of what is spoken can be read on the lips. Most sounds we make when we speak are formed at the back of the mouth. And only a small amount can learn to speak. Too many deaf people have had their educations severly compromised because their parents wanted them to learn to lip read and to speak so they could function as a "normal" hearing person in society.

And SO much learning takes place in those first few years of life, that if you can just sign to the child it can learn at a normal pace. Then if you don't sign and you try to speak to it, it's not going to understand anything. And you CAN'T get those years back. Once you've missed those years of learning, you'll most likely be behind forever. It's so much harder to learn.

It's ultimately up to the parents to decide how they're going to communicate with and educate their child, and the argument will probably be around forever, but the Deaf community throws all their support to using sign. And it's really the best option for the child to learn the most. It's not like it'd be they wouldn't be able to function normally in society. There are many interpreters, the Deaf community is very large (we have a really large community in Seattle) and sign language isn't terribly difficult to understand. And if all else fails, everyone can resort to using a pencil and paper if they need to communicate something really quick.

fancy pants:

Faith:

We have 9 versions of sign language in the US, as far as I know. And lip reading is basically considered a part of that. I think deaf people should teach themselves to read lips, but sign language is also a necessity, because sooner or later they will need it. Besides, not all of them are able to speak well enough to be understood, so even if they can read lips they can't talk back without sign language. It definitely should be taugh to deaf kid. It's stupid to take this away from them.

Nononononononononono. Only up tp 30% of what is spoken can be read on the lips. Most sounds we make when we speak are formed at the back of the mouth. And only a small amount can learn to speak. Too many deaf people have had their educations severly compromised because their parents wanted them to learn to lip read and to speak so they could function as a "normal" hearing person in society.

And SO much learning takes place in those first few years of life, that if you can just sign to the child it can learn at a normal pace. Then if you don't sign and you try to speak to it, it's not going to understand anything. And you CAN'T get those years back. Once you've missed those years of learning, you'll most likely be behind forever. It's so much harder to learn.

It's ultimately up to the parents to decide how they're going to communicate with and educate their child, and the argument will probably be around forever, but the Deaf community throws all their support to using sign. And it's really the best option for the child to learn the most. It's not like it'd be they wouldn't be able to function normally in society. There are many interpreters, the Deaf community is very large (we have a really large community in Seattle) and sign language isn't terribly difficult to understand. And if all else fails, everyone can resort to using a pencil and paper if they need to communicate something really quick.

I don't think Faith ever said they shouldn't be taught young.

I always thought lip-reading was quite effective...My chemistry teacher uses it all the time (She's deaf, see).

Bloodraine:

fancy pants:

Faith:

We have 9 versions of sign language in the US, as far as I know. And lip reading is basically considered a part of that. I think deaf people should teach themselves to read lips, but sign language is also a necessity, because sooner or later they will need it. Besides, not all of them are able to speak well enough to be understood, so even if they can read lips they can't talk back without sign language. It definitely should be taugh to deaf kid. It's stupid to take this away from them.

Nononononononononono. Only up tp 30% of what is spoken can be read on the lips. Most sounds we make when we speak are formed at the back of the mouth. And only a small amount can learn to speak. Too many deaf people have had their educations severly compromised because their parents wanted them to learn to lip read and to speak so they could function as a "normal" hearing person in society.

And SO much learning takes place in those first few years of life, that if you can just sign to the child it can learn at a normal pace. Then if you don't sign and you try to speak to it, it's not going to understand anything. And you CAN'T get those years back. Once you've missed those years of learning, you'll most likely be behind forever. It's so much harder to learn.

It's ultimately up to the parents to decide how they're going to communicate with and educate their child, and the argument will probably be around forever, but the Deaf community throws all their support to using sign. And it's really the best option for the child to learn the most. It's not like it'd be they wouldn't be able to function normally in society. There are many interpreters, the Deaf community is very large (we have a really large community in Seattle) and sign language isn't terribly difficult to understand. And if all else fails, everyone can resort to using a pencil and paper if they need to communicate something really quick.

I don't think Faith ever said they shouldn't be taught young.

I always thought lip-reading was quite effective...My chemistry teacher uses it all the time (She's deaf, see).

Yeah. I know. I digressed a little. rofl.

But yeah. Some people are a little better with lipreading than others, but for the most part you can only get a little bit of the information and then you have to piece together everything else from context and it can be really confusing and you can miss out on a lot. And yeah. I don't know. I wasn't disagreeing with a lot of what Faith said. I just intended to talk about how it's not usually effective to rely on lipreading and I.. yeah.

can someone explain the 'baby boomers' thing? sorry i dont get it

well????

Tramp Bear!!! oh yeah.:

can someone explain the 'baby boomers' thing? sorry i dont get it

It's the name of the generation born after world war two. The population was low, so every baby, was a boom to the population.

in others words, every bred like rabbits.

i cant imagine how hard it would be to be deaf, but i think that every deaf child should have the opporotunity to learn sign language...but if there are so many different types of sign language than how would you know what to teach your child, im sure they all must be similar, kind of like the enlgish language, many different accents and terms and spellings but in the end we all know what each other is takling about..ive never really had that much experience with deaf people so i wouldnt even know how to handle a situation where i had to communicate with a person who is hearing impared..i guess if worse comes to worse i'd resort to pencil and paper!

in this country they have special schools for deaf children to attend until they learn sign language and th eteachers will also make sure that lip reading is a part of that. I dont know how it works any where else.

LovesBillieJoe:

i cant imagine how hard it would be to be deaf, but i think that every deaf child should have the opporotunity to learn sign language...but if there are so many different types of sign language than how would you know what to teach your child, im sure they all must be similar, kind of like the enlgish language, many different accents and terms and spellings but in the end we all know what each other is takling about..ive never really had that much experience with deaf people so i wouldnt even know how to handle a situation where i had to communicate with a person who is hearing impared..i guess if worse comes to worse i'd resort to pencil and paper!

There are some different signs that people use in different parts of the country. In school we learn formal sign, but then sometimes we get to talk (sign) with deaf people and they'll use a lot of slang and stuff. There's regular ASL. Then there's SEE, or Signing Exact English, which uses a lot of signs from ASL, but they put them in English word order and add "is", "am", ect, stuff like that that isn't a part of ASL. Then there's Pidgeon sign, which is like a happy medium. It's ASL signs, but they're put in English word order, but without the "is" or "am" or suffixes or anything that they'll use in SEE. A lot of deaf people will use Pidgeon sign when they're talking with a hearing person.

:]

And pencil and paper is a good way to communicate with a deaf person if you don't know any signs. Gesturing is good, too. But it just comes down to whatever's easiest. Communicating is the most important thing. And when children aren't taught a language that they can actually use they're being robbed of that. They're not able to communicate with their family very well or learn as much as they could be. It's quite sad. =(

When i was doing learning as apart of psych, they told us about a group of deaf children who were put into an institute on an island, and basically left to it. They had figured that they weren't ever going to learn anything because they were deaf and couldnt speak.

The Kids ended up designing their own entire language -words, grammar, the lot- all in sign, all without adults influence.

I work with children with disabilities, and this really doesnt surprise me that much, cool yes, but they can really find ways to make up for what they lack. Sign language is excelent for most children, especially if they have have speech difficulties, theres even a form of it called Makaton, which people with speech difficulties or those who are unable to understand full grammar use, where they just sign the key words as they speak.

i cant imagine why you would want to prevent your kid from learning sign.i began taking asl classes last year and its a beautiful language.i really think everyone should at least learn to fingerspell and count.
our teacher taught us in the history and culture half of the class that people thought teaching it would prevent deaf kids from learning to speak.it must be one of the hardest things in the world to try and learn a vocal lanugae when you cant hear it!!!