Despite the best hearing assistance devices and the best training in speech/language acquisition, the child remains deaf, and is left with constantly having to work twice as hard as his/her hearing peers to get spoken information. This child will never truly be on an even playing field with his/her hearing peers, and likely not gain an advantage.

However, with a bilingual approach, including exposure to ASL very early on, and being taught the various subjects (English, Science, Social Studies, etc.) IN ASL, the deaf child is able to grasp the concepts being taught to his peers much more easily, because ASL is such a natural language for a deaf child. It matches the way he/she thinks and processes information.

While a deaf child can learn both ASL and spoken English, being required to learn only in English is akin to putting a child who speaks Hmong into an English-only school and expecting him/her to do well. It’s incredibly difficult and doubles or even triples the amount of effort required of that child to achieve on a level anywhere close to his peers and it takes that child much longer to get there.

Don’t do that to Deaf children! Let them learn ASL, let them meet other Deaf kids and give them the opportunity to meet Deaf role models who can encourage them to dream beyond age 18. Let them learn the 3 R’s, in their language. Give them hearing aids, or give them CI’s if you wish, but never forget the child is deaf and needs a much more well-rounded experience that includes a greater proportion of the visual component in his/her experience to fully mature and grow into a happy, successful adult. This is an approach that WORKS, and it gives the child a much more well-rounded basis for a successful life.

Your discussion is interesting. There are so many different views on my topic. Pro ASL people have agreed and disagreed with my discussion. It would be ongoing argument. But my argument is based on a few people that cause to feed hatred against ASL and Deaf community. Some disagree with my view but at the same time share with my belief in preserving ASL for Deaf children and tehir parents.

Some Deaf people have told me that they feel more empowerment after reading that and they feel they have their rights and have a good fight. Others think differently. We can learn our views differently within Deaf community that is very healthy. We can agree or disagree but we still value our Deaf community and ASL.

Thanks for sharing your discussion with us. YOur comment is well explained.

Thanks
Deafchip

Asocial
Clannish
Immature
Aggressive
Implusive
Suspcious

and among others. The public has labelled us this way to discredit us.

Paddy Ladd even goes further to discuss this in his book “Understanding Deaf Culture: In Search of Deafhood” that it is audist to label the Deaf people as militants. Paddy Ladd notes that these are the same labels that have caused slavery, witchburning-death of a half million women, virtual extermination of First Nations, Armenia, East Timor, South Africa, Rwanda, and Bosnia.

I agree with you, Deafchip, that we have to protect ASL and the Deaf community from the unsavoury elements in the world. These militants are the only few, as in the civil movements, that are the bad apples but then again, it is NO EXCUSE for anyone to label them and use them against the cause of ASL, the deaf community and the hearing parents of deaf children.

I still stand by my position about Deaf militancy. I do not agree that it is a stereotype. There are several different definition of militancy.

For example, the incident happened in Ontario. One parent whose child was Deaf was attacked verbally by “hatred” deaf militants (I never call them “D”eaf.) Then the parent decided to pull out her Deaf child from ASL program because she was offended by the militants with hatred. She promoted to many other parents to go to AVT programs and not to ASL community because of that. That is why I want people to be aware of that and stop them from doing that to protect.

I already clarified my position in other vlogs and blogs. It is only based on a very very few “hatred militanists”

I want to protect ASL and Deaf community from very few militants that do not promote positive and they preach hatred against parents of Deaf children. That would be very destructive against us and Deaf children.

Deafchip

I am an ASL user, my son is a fourth generation Deaf, and I am married to a hearing person. My Deaf mother married a hearing person…..my Deaf grandfather married a hearing person. My son, who is a 5 1/2 years old already has two hearing girlfriends ( isn’t that cute!!) My son was involved in a T Ball team, took skating lessons and will be participating in soccer this summer.

I appreciate music, especially the British 60′s and Reggae, Wordsworth’s poetry, philosophy and Vespas. It is through literacy that I have come to appreciate myself and to appreciate other people’s ways of expressing themselves. I use ASL.

I understand your confusion on these issues. This is also shared by many parents and people.

The confusion springs out from the defintion of what is literacy and what is a skill. The AVT and the ASL communities have these defintions that are on the extreme opposite sides of the pole.

The ASL community views as ASL as being critical for literacy and views speech as a skill that can be mastered. The AVT groups view speech as the means to acheiving literacy and do not even regard ASL as an important and useful skill.

This is what I try to explain to people who are not sure or confused. I usually expand more on this in person, in workshops or in courses at George Brown College through the ASL Literacy Instructor, ASL Deaf Studies, and the ASL-English Interpreter Programs.

I hope this helps a bit.

I am not surprised that there may be some Deaf people who may have to take a radical or a drastic approach in advocating for their own rights when they have tried to be “nice” in the past. We are all human and we have a diverse defense system to protect ourselves from harm, whether it be mentally, physically or spiritually. It is the people who try to separate us that is causing some of us to take such an approach. It is all just a cause and effect relationship. Look at the civil rights movement of women, black people and the gay rights community. All these movements have a diverse opinion on how to advocate for their own rights and it is all because of the simple cause and effect relationship they have experienced themselves. I see happening right now on this post.

I am really sad to see this happening. The Ontario Association of the Deaf stands by creating a positive environment for the Deaf Ontarians so they can have a better future for themselves in regards to education, employment and access. This is a sentiment that is shared by all in hoping for a positive learning and working environment for all of us, no matter who we are.