The Influence Of Deafness: The American Sign Language

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Imagine a world were you could not hear. The world would be mostly silent and you would have to rely completely on your other senses. This is what a deaf child encounters every day. When the word deaf is used it is referring to all levels of hearing loss. This includes partial loss, total loss, and everything in between. Deafness occurs when any part of the ear is not working correctly which inhibits the child from hearing correctly. This could be caused by genetic factors, prematurity, maternal diabetes, lack of oxygen in birth, ear infections, meningitis, measles, and so forth. Usually in infancy parents realize that their child is not reacting to sounds as appropriately as they should. A child is usually diagnosed with genetic deafness …show more content…

They highly rely on this to talk with other deaf individuals and regular hearing people as well. ASL is taught some in classrooms today, but in a perfect world it would be taught almost as a foreign language class, like Spanish. Children would attend an ASL class to help them communicate with deaf individuals, like Lucy. In addition the teachers would learn ASL (McKee 92). Not only is this used with deaf individuals, but with people that may have speech delay. This could help them to talk with many different students in the school and in the classroom environment. Teaching students and teachers ASL will help the deaf individuals, in this case Lucy, feel more welcomed. People will know how to interact with her and how to start a conversation. It will help her be more approachable and boost her social life (McKee …show more content…

They rely on visual communication and not speech. Her parents should encourage Lucy to keep a journal, or something of that nature, to help her work on her literacy skills daily. Her parents are also the ones to decide if Lucy can have hearing aids, cochlear implants, and how to read lips. Cochlear implants have led to significant improvements in the intelligibility and language of deaf speakers, so her parents will most likely have Lucy receive them to better her quality of life (Herman 222). They are also the ones to encourage speech therapy, that way Lucy can learn how to form words when she encounters someone that can not use ASL. With just a few accommodations, Lucy can leave a fairly normal life. Using ASL, interpreters, translators, visual communication, therapy, one-on-one educational benefits and so forth will help to make not only Lucy, but any child with some type of blindness have a high quality of life. Everything in this so called “perfect world,” is obtainable by anyone who has the right determination for his or her child and for any child who wants to help him or