Transcript/Description: I am a white woman wearing a black t-shirt. The background is a plain white wall. I have my brown hair in a bun. I am expressing this story in multiple modalities - ASL, visual vernacular, and English via the captions. The story is told through different perspectives, the deaf boy’s and the mother’s, and my own This story tells a story of a woman who gave birth to a deaf child. After some suspicions, she takes her child to the doctor to check his hearing. The doctor says “I am so sorry” and “he can’t hear”, and proceeds to make strong recommendations on what is the “right” way to go from there with this new discovery, of her son’s deafness. She follows her doctor’s guidance, to never teach her child sign language and to immediately get a hearing device and learn to speak. They go through a very difficult journey, riddled with conflict, frustration, and confusion. When the boy goes to school, the only deaf kid there with no other access, his life is full of blurs and not knowing, and trying to survive. He has temper tantrums and rebels. He is not happy.. The mother one day decides to look up more information online. She discovers a plethora of information, including information on sign language. She sees videos, articles, and is taken aback by how happy some of the deaf people signing look. They’re easily communicating with one another. Looking up signs online, she quickly learns “Do you want to eat?” and decides to test it out with her son. An apple is used to demonstrate what she is trying to say. Her son is immediately intrigued. His demeanor changes. Immediately, he repeats, “I want” in sign. His mom is shocked that the ability to learn language is so effective and quick when it comes to signs - something she had never once used with him before. She wonders to herself why she did not explore or look this up earlier - and remembers what she was told by her doctor, and she never looked back… Until now. She has the realization that there is no one way - she has had her blinders on all these years, and she had neglected that all around her, outside the narrow path she was on, there was a full, beautiful world of sign language, bilingual communication, deaf pride, and community waiting for her and her deaf son. She decides to look up if there is a deaf school in her state, and there is. The mother and her son go for a visit. The deaf principal introduces them to his potential classmates, a group of lively, confident deaf peers. The boy is amazed by how friendly they are and enjoys the visual stimuli as opposed to people moving their mouths all the time. They decide to enroll him. He has a hard time expressing himself and communicating, but his growth progresses, and with continued support and time, he blossoms into a confident signer who has friends. His writing and reading is delayed, as a result of the lack of language in his critical development window. With no full language in these key years, it becomes more difficult for the brain to learn a language later on in life. But, it’s possible. The boy just needs to keep practicing, and get additional support, but he is happy and doing so much better. When the school year is over and his mom picks him up from the dorm to bring him home, they are both able to have a conversation back and forth through signs - she asks him about his classes, he shares his favorite book series, and their connection with each other is stronger than ever. At the end, I tell the audience - “I’m sorry”? No. We are proud. We are proud to be deaf. Imagine if that boy had stayed in that reality for the rest of his life. He would be a withering flower, as opposed to the blossoming one he is now. If you know someone going through this, or are experiencing it yourself, feeling heartbroken after finding out your child is deaf… It’s okay to feel that way. Feel what you feel. You will adjust. Take a step back. Zoom out. Look at the bigger picture. Is your child a failure? Incapable? No! Turn that “can’t” in a CAN. Deaf people can do anything! This is a beautiful thing. Never stop believing. Keep going. Let’s keep an open mind and heart. You with me?
Transcript/Description:
I am a white woman wearing a black t-shirt. The background is a plain white wall. I have my brown hair in a bun. I am expressing this story in multiple modalities - ASL, visual vernacular, and English via the captions. The story is told through different perspectives, the deaf boy’s and the mother’s, and my own
This story tells a story of a woman who gave birth to a deaf child. After some suspicions, she takes her child to the doctor to check his hearing. The doctor says “I am so sorry” and “he can’t hear”, and proceeds to make strong recommendations on what is the “right” way to go from there with this new discovery, of her son’s deafness. She follows her doctor’s guidance, to never teach her child sign language and to immediately get a hearing device and learn to speak. They go through a very difficult journey, riddled with conflict, frustration, and confusion. When the boy goes to school, the only deaf kid there with no other access, his life is full of blurs and not knowing, and trying to survive. He has temper tantrums and rebels. He is not happy.. The mother one day decides to look up more information online. She discovers a plethora of information, including information on sign language. She sees videos, articles, and is taken aback by how happy some of the deaf people signing look. They’re easily communicating with one another. Looking up signs online, she quickly learns “Do you want to eat?” and decides to test it out with her son. An apple is used to demonstrate what she is trying to say. Her son is immediately intrigued. His demeanor changes. Immediately, he repeats, “I want” in sign. His mom is shocked that the ability to learn language is so effective and quick when it comes to signs - something she had never once used with him before. She wonders to herself why she did not explore or look this up earlier - and remembers what she was told by her doctor, and she never looked back… Until now. She has the realization that there is no one way - she has had her blinders on all these years, and she had neglected that all around her, outside the narrow path she was on, there was a full, beautiful world of sign language, bilingual communication, deaf pride, and community waiting for her and her deaf son. She decides to look up if there is a deaf school in her state, and there is. The mother and her son go for a visit. The deaf principal introduces them to his potential classmates, a group of lively, confident deaf peers. The boy is amazed by how friendly they are and enjoys the visual stimuli as opposed to people moving their mouths all the time. They decide to enroll him. He has a hard time expressing himself and communicating, but his growth progresses, and with continued support and time, he blossoms into a confident signer who has friends. His writing and reading is delayed, as a result of the lack of language in his critical development window. With no full language in these key years, it becomes more difficult for the brain to learn a language later on in life. But, it’s possible. The boy just needs to keep practicing, and get additional support, but he is happy and doing so much better. When the school year is over and his mom picks him up from the dorm to bring him home, they are both able to have a conversation back and forth through signs - she asks him about his classes, he shares his favorite book series, and their connection with each other is stronger than ever. At the end, I tell the audience - “I’m sorry”? No. We are proud. We are proud to be deaf. Imagine if that boy had stayed in that reality for the rest of his life. He would be a withering flower, as opposed to the blossoming one he is now.
If you know someone going through this, or are experiencing it yourself, feeling heartbroken after finding out your child is deaf… It’s okay to feel that way. Feel what you feel. You will adjust. Take a step back. Zoom out. Look at the bigger picture. Is your child a failure? Incapable? No! Turn that “can’t” in a CAN. Deaf people can do anything! This is a beautiful thing. Never stop believing. Keep going. Let’s keep an open mind and heart. You with me?
Deaf world