Re: Sharon's Newbie Intro

[Guest guest]

,

Thank you for taking the time to write your very appreciated

advice. Definitely, I can see that a lot of research is necessary

to choose a communication method. I change my mind every day it

seems, everytime I read something else or talk to somebody else. I

have a friend who lives locally and had a career (before children)

as an ASL interpreter. I expected her to be " militant " ASL, but she

is actually recommending SEE. My personal preference, from what

limited information I have, has been for SEE because I appreciate

precise speech and writing, and I want Cami to have strong literacy

skills. But then the representative from MSD assurs me that they

have been very successful developing strong literacy skills in their

students with the bi-lingual approach, and says research shows that

deaf children of deaf parents have stronger literacy skills than

deaf children of hearing parents, which indicates that bi-lingual is

best. She was trying to teach me about how ASL is a " concept "

language that is more appropriate for younger children than learning

English grammar, and I guess I just don't " get it " because I haven't

yet learned what ASL is all about. ASL seems so general and non-

specific to me, but those who use it say that it isn't like that at

all. <throwing up hands> But then I think, what if we teach Cami

SEE, and the CI doesn't work the way we hope and she doesn't develop

speech and can't be mainstreamed into the public school system. If

that happens, she'll already be experiencing isolation from her

extended family that doesn't sign--I don't want her to be isolated

from the deaf community as well. But my friend who was an

interpreter says that if we teach SEE, ASL will be easy for her to

pick up.

Forgive me for going on and on about this--I don't expect anyone to

solve these dilemas for me, but it helps to write them out. I hope

I'm not offending anyone in the process.

Sharon

[Guest guest]

My feelings about sign - coming from an interpreter and as a friend

to many deaf friends growing up.....

I was an interpreter in Kansas before moving to California, this was

8 years ago....We were taught SEE in the school system, but as I was

ending High School and starting college I met a lot of friends that

did not attend the local public schools who signed ASL.... and

Immediately I loved it. ASL makes so much more sense to the

brain.... Ex. The word Park has many meanings and many ways to use

it right? Park the car, going to the park etc. Well, in SEE there is

ONLY 1 way to sign Park. So when you are going to the park you sign

it the same way you would as park the car... and in ASL you use a

sign that describes parking the car.... I am not going to say what

choice of communication to go with.... I would never in a million

years do that but I am just giving my opinion on Sign.

Now, as a mother, I have chose to use Spoken Language with my

newborn son. I do plan to teach him to sign as he gets older, after

we get spoken language down... I have a friend who is deaf and

speaks/communicates with the hearing world SO Well ... and signs too

with the deaf community, that way he communicates with everyone ...

that is a wish I have for my son too.

> Sharon,

> I think the key to deciding a communication method is to read

everything you can about that type. I mean not just the pros and

cons but also how the system works. I also am very choosy of the

words I use and we did choose ASL because my son for the first 3

years of his life understood nothing as far as speech goes, and we

didn't expect him to. For this reason we hoped that he could be

taught to lip read but we weren't sure because he has some

neurological issues and his visual attention and processing were not

good, for that same reason he didn't do well with sign either, but

we didn't know what else to do. The past 3 months he has started to

act more like a child with a mild to moderate hearing loss which is

what it appears he has (long story, he shows a loss but the audi's

insist that it is processing and they aren't even following what his

audiograms say. He doesn't have an OAE on one side and yet still

they think that's just a fluke). Anyway he now says no, oww, on,

up, mommy, ready set go (EE set o), and eat,

> he signs eat, more and thirsty, he sometimes uses hungry also.

> Anyway We chose ASL because conceptually it is easier for deaf

children to understand and we needed to treat as a deaf child

since he didn't understand anything. We were doing total

communication, and given his lack of diagnosis ( they say his

hearing is normal to near normal even though he shows a 40 dB loss

on audiogram and that I don't think was even accurate because they

counted a little flinch as a response and couldn't get him to repeat

it then they assume that his hearing is normal but he didn't want to

respond. They didn't even try to get a consistant response or a

normal audiogram. So basically he doesn't qualify for services

because they refuse to state that he has a hearing loss, so

basically we had to learn sign by our own means, no one offered

classes to us. He is diagnosed as centrally deaf, but that doesn't

count to them. We still are not fluent but we sign to and we

speak to him also.

> Anyway as far as SEE goes it can be very very difficult and

confusing because when you use signed exact english technically you

are supposed to sign all the words in english order with pre and

afixes attached to the end. You pluralize words that is the part

that most deaf people find very difficult, the endings and things.

Also the signs aren't conceptual. If I say " do you see what I

mean " obviously I mean do you understand? " but with SEE you would

also sign " do you see what I mean? " and to a deaf child it is hard

for them to grasp the concept of see as anything other than visually

seeing something. So anyway those are the things you should look at

when deciding, read the pros and cons as well as how ASL and SEE and

TC, AV, cued speech all work. There are a lot of books out there,

and it is important not just to read about the language and why it

works or doesn't but also to read how it works and the spacifics

about it so you can decide.

> I am actually considering a change since isn't readily

picking up sign I'm talking to his speech therapist about using cued

speech since he seems to prefer talking over signing. He is almost

4 years old and I don't like the idea of switching after all this

time, however he knows very little so I think it is important to

follow his lead, if he isn't taking to sign very well but does need

visual reinforcement we need to consider a change.

> So it is great to be diagnosed early that way you have time to

choose a method of communication and learn it, you can stay one step

ahead of your daughter int he learning process and do great. But

you never know if they are going to take to it or not and I think

you have to be willing to have an open mind as far as what they

need. Of course they have to be old enough to show a preferance, if

they aren't signing or talking by a certain age you still don't know

what method is best and it isn't a good idea to switch on them

because that would more likely cause more delays in learning. I

don't recomend switching but if something doesn't seem to be working

or they seem to have a preferance to something else than I am going

to consider that, and that is what we are doing. I would also

consider using ASL and speech and when he starts learning more

gramor putting in some english signs and sounds to help him learn

more english. That would be mroe in speech therapy though not

something we do all the time, something more to teach him how to

speek by using visual means.

>

> Re: Sharon's Newbie Intro

>

>

> ,

>

> Thank you for taking the time to write your very appreciated

> advice. Definitely, I can see that a lot of research is

necessary

> to choose a communication method. I change my mind every day it

> seems, everytime I read something else or talk to somebody

else. I

> have a friend who lives locally and had a career (before

children)

> as an ASL interpreter. I expected her to be " militant " ASL, but

she

> is actually recommending SEE. My personal preference, from what

> limited information I have, has been for SEE because I

appreciate

> precise speech and writing, and I want Cami to have strong

literacy

> skills. But then the representative from MSD assurs me that

they

> have been very successful developing strong literacy skills in

their

> students with the bi-lingual approach, and says research shows

that

> deaf children of deaf parents have stronger literacy skills than

> deaf children of hearing parents, which indicates that bi-

lingual is

> best. She was trying to teach me about how ASL is a " concept "

> language that is more appropriate for younger children than

learning

> English grammar, and I guess I just don't " get it " because I

haven't

> yet learned what ASL is all about. ASL seems so general and non-

> specific to me, but those who use it say that it isn't like that

at

> all. <throwing up hands> But then I think, what if we teach

Cami

> SEE, and the CI doesn't work the way we hope and she doesn't

develop

> speech and can't be mainstreamed into the public school system.

If

> that happens, she'll already be experiencing isolation from her

> extended family that doesn't sign--I don't want her to be

isolated

> from the deaf community as well. But my friend who was an

> interpreter says that if we teach SEE, ASL will be easy for her

to

> pick up.

>

> Forgive me for going on and on about this--I don't expect anyone

to

> solve these dilemas for me, but it helps to write them out. I

hope

> I'm not offending anyone in the process.

>

> Sharon

>

>

>

> All messages posted to this list are private and confidential.

Each post is the intellectual property of the author and therefore

subject to copyright restrictions.

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Hi CT,

I don't know anything about cued speech. Can you send me some links

for information?

TIA!

Sharon

>>>> I can honestly tell you that without Cued Speech our family

would have seriously stuggled. It may not be your choice. But for

us it has been a miracle. CT<<<

[Guest guest]

Hi CT,

I don't know anything about cued speech. Can you send me some links

for information?

TIA!

Sharon

>>>> I can honestly tell you that without Cued Speech our family

would have seriously stuggled. It may not be your choice. But for

us it has been a miracle. CT<<<

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

Pidgeon Signed English is like a combination ASL and SEE, right? And

when you say total communication, does that mean that you used oral

communication along with the sign, or what else? Did you use PSE

with your daughter when she was an infant, or just simple ASL

signs? How old was your daughter when implanted?

Yes, MSD (land School for the Deaf) has a new CI program. I

don't know much about it yet, but one of the members here wrote me

privately offering to tell me what she knows of the program. This

group has been such a great resource to me already!

Thanks so much for your input. Sorry so many questions!

Sharon

>>I would recommend a total communication approach with

pidgeon signed English. She will pick up ASL from her friends. The

focus is more on English language as they grow, and then around

middle school time they start transitioned more to ASL. This is our

case, anyway. And my daughter does have an implant now, too, so I'm

familiar with that situation.> Good luck> >