Child Oralism Abuse…Not!
18 04 2007ASL Video - Approx 2:43 Minutes Long
Grant Laird Jr. shared his childhood with orals issues…not!
Actually, he never took it because his father won’t let him take it. Grant’s father grew at catholic school in Pittsburgh, PA that doesn’t allow sign language - oral only when he was young. (Image nun would use ruler to hit hand if they use sign language) He believes it is waste of time for deaf children like me to go thru speech therapy.
For almost all of his school life, he doesn’t have to take it because his father fought and blocked it. (Both WPSD and hearing school in Texas) Many deaf friends always upset with Grant and saying he was lucky boy.
Over years, he managed just fine without lip-reading or speech in hearing world by using paper & pen, pager, emails, gesture, etc.
Do you know anybody that parent won’t let deaf children take speech therapy?
Grant W Laird Jr.
http://blog.grantlairdjr.com
Hi there,
I guess we can be independent from any need for speech training. Maybe we need to think about other kinds of training that would propel children rather than focus on what they lack. I think this topic was generated from hearing “loss.” Amazing how different topics are created by watching other vloggers and reading postings. Makes us more rounded, yes?
You look fine to me, too.
Remember how I said a story about how they tried to get me into speech therapy but gave up because of my low vision? Well, I am vastly glad that it turned out that way because I notice that as I communicate with hearies, I find myself very confident and aggressive (appropriate way of course) in forcing the writing back and forth method because it REDUCES misunderstandings that happens so many times according to other deaf people. Guess in other words I go with Aidan when she is glad that she failed because she found her inner strength :).
Your experience is pretty unique because your father was looking out to protect you from “abuses” of speech therapy, oral training, etc. I wonder if your father was never abused while undergoing the oral training, then he probably would let you to take the oral training and watch out to make sure they are not abusing you. Your father dealt with slapping ruler on his hands. It was painful. I am just pondering about that. It only shows that oral training was filled with so much abuses toward innocent deaf children. When I was growing up, I was fortunate that I did not experience any abuses by speech therapists, just that the idea of forcing me to rely on speech alone without understanding what the heck they were saying to me in school, daily life in the world, and family. That was the hardest part to deal and caused more emotional problems because as a child, I could only try so hard to read lips, and if I did not “catch” what they are saying, I struggle with what they were saying to me in my mind all day. I struggled with the low self-esteem, isolated feelings, and many feelings that I had to deal with because I could not catch what the person was saying to me. That was the worst part. You were separated from peers for speech therapy, but you were spared for a short time. Your father did not want you to experience the harsh treatment like he did with oral training. Your father has a golden heart. Bless his heart for looking out for you.
Grant,
You had a strong father knowing that oral method doesn’t work for the majority of the deaf people but we must understand that the reason why some people are against oral method is because of the “eugenic sign language philosophy” denial to have the deaf child to learn visual language which is being practiced all over the country now.
I am not against oral training but I would say about 90% of the deaf people will have no use for it according to their ability to hear the vowels and consonants of each word, they both have different frequency which is high and low frequency sounds.
The majority of the deaf people are unable to hear the consonants level, hence, they are unable to hear every frequency sounds in every word which is the reason why they cannot pronounce every words correctly as every word has a consonant sound.
Does that make sense to you?
It is like a color-blind person being trained to recognize the sight of color.
John F. Egbert
You really fooled me, Grant! I *thought* you grew up with speech training because when you sign your mouth moves quite a bit like you could almost speak well. No offense, please. Just an observation I made. I can understand you just fine, nonetheless.
Check out this: http://my.videoegg.com/video/dsxIqH
You know, I stay away from this discussion until now since I don’t think some people respect my opinion and think I’m negative and such despite their own hypocrisy and self-promotion, but am glad to see other perspectives from you and Karen. I’m wary of some people that stereotype their experiences with others. Some good, some bad yes. I went thru the same as HOH adolescent in younger days. We all either participants or vicitms in the system. Ultimately, some people need a good cry and move on from their past really, IMO.
I don’t blame your father! Your father has a right to protect you from abusing oralisms! He cares about you so much and you should be grateful that your father loves you so dearly! Thanks. Shawn
Hey - I am one of them.. I grew up in DePaul School in Pittsburgh 1978-1983 and then transferred to public school when I was mainstreamed with other kids, and I finally learned sign language when I was junior in high school, which they had Sign Language as forgien language which I must graduate from high school with 1 course of forgien language.
My mother didn’t want me to learn sign language early, and she wanted me to learn lipreading and oral (speaking) so I can live in the hearing world and so on. I know I am so-so different from other deaf people, I don’t know, that what people say I speak so good, and so on… I kept saying, “whatever” but I don’t know. I have never had any experiences in the deaf clubs or learning in the deaf cultures.
I am learning little, and still rusty, but give me some time…