After I got my cochlear implant the audiologist told my parents to stop signing with me because they believed that it wouldn't help me learn how to talk. However, I had a huge signing vocabulary and my parents didn't want to suddenly stop communicating with me. So I grew up with both signing and talking.
The first time I heard a bird, I signed to my dad asking what that sound was. My dad signed back and told me it was a bird. With ASL I learned to hear quicker because my parents would tell me what I was hearing.
If you have a deaf child I would highly recommend learning ASL. I would also recommend continuing using ASL even after your child has the cochlear implant surgery. It has helped me in many ways. Before I got my implant, I was able to communicate by using ASL. I can't imagine not being able to communicate with your deaf child. By knowing ASL, it also helped in speech therapy. They were able to tell me what I needed to do by using ASL.
Even though ASL isn't my main source of communication, I'm glad I still know it. I constantly use it throughout my life. Whenever I need to take off my speech processor like when I am swimming or at night, my parents sign so that I can understand them. I am very good at lipreading, but it is very challenging. ASL allows me to get the full conversation clearly. Another time when ASL was very useful was when I lived in Luxembourg for a year and my speech processor broke. I'll blog about this another time, but long story short I was deaf for two weeks (and it was awful!) My parents interpreted for me in ASL. It would have been very challenging if we didn't know ASL. I'm glad that I still had a source of communication when my speech processor broke. ASL is also very helpful in situations where it is noisy and I can't understand. If I didn't understand what someone said like when a guide is speaking on a tour or in a big crowd, I turn to my parents and they sign for me.
My best friend, Tori, knows ASL and I love that she knows it. We communicate all the time in ASL. We sign across the hall at school, at church, whenever I didn't catch something, or just for fun. It is very helpful to have a best friend that knows ASL, so thanks Tori for learning ASL! We both enrolled in ASL 1 in 9th grade and now we are in ASL 4. I absolutely love it!
I'm thankful that my parents chose to learn ASL for me, and that they kept signing even after I got my implant. It helped me when I was little, and it continues to help me. I am constantly using ASL, even though it isn't my main source of communication. I'm thankful that I know American Sign Language.
The first time I heard a bird, I signed to my dad asking what that sound was. My dad signed back and told me it was a bird. With ASL I learned to hear quicker because my parents would tell me what I was hearing.
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| "daddy" |
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| "it's stuck!" |
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| "kitty" |
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| "gum" |
 |
| "mom" |
 |
| "I'm scared!" |
If you have a deaf child I would highly recommend learning ASL. I would also recommend continuing using ASL even after your child has the cochlear implant surgery. It has helped me in many ways. Before I got my implant, I was able to communicate by using ASL. I can't imagine not being able to communicate with your deaf child. By knowing ASL, it also helped in speech therapy. They were able to tell me what I needed to do by using ASL.
Even though ASL isn't my main source of communication, I'm glad I still know it. I constantly use it throughout my life. Whenever I need to take off my speech processor like when I am swimming or at night, my parents sign so that I can understand them. I am very good at lipreading, but it is very challenging. ASL allows me to get the full conversation clearly. Another time when ASL was very useful was when I lived in Luxembourg for a year and my speech processor broke. I'll blog about this another time, but long story short I was deaf for two weeks (and it was awful!) My parents interpreted for me in ASL. It would have been very challenging if we didn't know ASL. I'm glad that I still had a source of communication when my speech processor broke. ASL is also very helpful in situations where it is noisy and I can't understand. If I didn't understand what someone said like when a guide is speaking on a tour or in a big crowd, I turn to my parents and they sign for me.
My best friend, Tori, knows ASL and I love that she knows it. We communicate all the time in ASL. We sign across the hall at school, at church, whenever I didn't catch something, or just for fun. It is very helpful to have a best friend that knows ASL, so thanks Tori for learning ASL! We both enrolled in ASL 1 in 9th grade and now we are in ASL 4. I absolutely love it!
I'm thankful that my parents chose to learn ASL for me, and that they kept signing even after I got my implant. It helped me when I was little, and it continues to help me. I am constantly using ASL, even though it isn't my main source of communication. I'm thankful that I know American Sign Language.
