Language is a very important tool for communication otherwise we as human beings would not have a way to communicate with each others, pardon me I am actually wrong because as I wrote that I just realized that the human beings can communicate with each others using gestures or by visual but still a language is what makes it easier for us human beings to communicate with each others and thankfully there is a very long list of languages that allows us human beings to communicate with each others. Each language is in within’ our DNA, in other words our native language that we inherited from the earlier generations or the first language that we learned after the birth so that we can be able to communicate with our parents or to kickstart our education because without language then how are we able to learn? The language is very essential in our life, the language that we comfortably understand and communicate smoothly with others. Now there are a very large group, some organizations and even corporations always set out to make sure that we communicate using their language preference such as English here in the United States therefore they are on the look to deprive our native language by trying their darndest best to convince many of us human beings that their language preference will make us more successful in a long run than our own native language that we inherited from the many generations of our families or to try to come up with false medical information such as saying that using our own native language over their language preference will cause us to have a brain cancer or similar (it’s true, Starkey Foundation is one perfect example of that).
With that being said, some of you know that I was born hard of hearing genetically so of course the language I am mainly talking about is American Sign Language (ASL) or even any of other country’s own sign language such as British Sign Language (BSL), French Sign Language (FSL) and others.
##Language Deprivation
One of the most languages that’s being or attempted to be deprived is American Sign Language or other country’s sign language sadly. In fact the American Sign Language were almost successfully deprived for good but many of us can thank National Association of the Deaf (NAD) from making that to happen back in the year of 1880 at the conference in Milan hosted by International Congress on the Education of the Deaf (ICED) when they attempted to successfully deprives the language that we Deaf and Hard of Hearing uses everyday to communicate so imagine having no language which means not being able to communicate or let alone get some education indefinitely. As for many of you who like to social with a group of your friends or some family members, imagine that English doesn’t exist and you have no way to communicate? I know first thing comes to your mind is isolation, truly isolation and very lonely because that is the same way we think of when some of us Deaf or Hard of Hearing individuals read the history about the year of 1880 in Milan when they attempted to erase a language that we truly understand and communicate by it from existence. It is a wild and upsetting to read the history of that along with many of other organizations who have their mindset on making sure that the native language in Deaf community to be deprived from them especially the newborn children so this makes them victims. That is what I advocate daily for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing children but sadly some organization such as Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing know how to convince the parents of newborn by giving them false information or false medical advice with no sources or let alone some studies to even back up their own medical advice or their medical opinions. I recommend that you head over and read one of my article about the response from Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing to Washington Post about Nyle DiMarco here.
Several years ago there were several institutes and schools who have Deaf or Hard of Hearing students, the facilities or staffs would often slam their hands with rulers or a such object and tells the attending students that American Sign Language is prohibition in some of their classes or on some of the campuses such as institutions while telling them that if they want to engage in a conversation with anybody or to talk to the facilities or staffs directly that they must use the spoken language which have proved a major failure through studies. You can find some of these studies that American Sign Language or other nation’s sign language do actually helps Deaf and Hard of Hearing students to success better than they ever will with any spoken languages in the article that I provided above about AG Bell’s response to Washington Post regards Nyle DiMarco.
The bottom line is everybody still to this day deprives Deaf and Hard of Hearing from using their native language. American Sign Language in fact is now recognized as a language and have been for many years. If you don’t believe that it’s recognized as a language then I give you a duty to do a search on search engines and there you will find plenty of information along with some studies from PhD professionals, or read a book called “Understanding Deaf Culture: In Search of Deafhood” which is an excellent book written by a PhD Paddy Ladd.
The biggest problem of all on this day, several anti-cultural organizations and even some individuals made it their goal that they are to deprive a language from children; from newborn to age 3 in particular. My heart is deeply broken for these children that have to suffer the language deprivation, especially being that it is their native language which is the same way as a large organizations or groups force some newborn or young children of a Mexican family to use their language preference such as English instead of Spanish as their native language? Cold-hearted isn’t it? You are French? Awesome! Oh you’re about to become a father or a mother? Congratulation! Aw, one cutest babies I ever seen, oh excuse me sir/ma’am your child are forbidden to use French language and must use English as their language from on now or else. What? I am cold-hearted? Heck yes! I am going to profit the heck out of your children and there is nothing you can do about it. Now that is something that I am strongly against, language deprivation and I encourage your children to use their native language that has been in the generations of your family more than anything. Because of their native language is the language that runs in their DNA hence the language in family generations is a language that they can easily understand and grown up to be a successful person because they get some education by learning in their classes using a language that they understand than forbidding them to use a language that they cannot understand which that is what will set them failures in their future.
Thanks to LEAD-K and Nyle DiMarco Foundation as they are the organizations or individuals that heavily promote the parents to not fall in a anti-cultural, organizations who deprives language for livings or individuals that deprives language trap by giving them a boatload of false information about if Deaf or Hard of Hearing children uses their native language American Sign Language that would set them huge failures down the road in their lives and that if they want their children to be successful individual(s) that they should consider a spoken language such as English. What most of the people does not realize that the children learns their native language using American Sign Language that will help them to understand other languages such as English enough to learn and by doing that their children will be fluent in bilingual by using both their native language American Sign Language and English in the future. Nonetheless not many can understand that they need to learn American Sign Language first so that they can learn the other language, because if I don’t know any language then how in the heck can I learn French? Because since I have no language that I can understand to learn French language by learning the French in French class using a language that I was born with.
Example with language
How can I say hello in French?
Bonjour!
Example without language
_____________________
_____________________
Now with no language, how can I even let alone say “how can I say hello in French?” to learn that hello in French is “Bonjour”.
The whole reasons that I write this article is that I cannot fathom how good that they know how to convince the parents to forbid their children from learning their native language and that they must learn a spoken language instead. It is saddening fact, they are that good of convincing the parents of Deaf and Hard of Hearing newborn children by giving them many false information so that they can be convinced by their lies. Not only that they also install fears in them by lying to them saying that by learning American Sign Language can cause a brain damage which there are already studies that says they will not. Language deprivation is almost like stealing a piece of your soul and sell it for profits by convincing them to get cochlear implants. So if you are friends or family members of the parents that just birth a Deaf or Hard of Hearing child, I beg of you to please tell them to do a very good research, call National Association of Deaf, Nyle DiMarco Foundation or Lead-K for some information before making a rush decision based on a bunch of lies from an organization such as Alexander Graham Bell For The Deaf and Hard of Hearing or Starkey’s Hearing Foundation.
You just birth a Deaf or Hard of Hearing child? We warmly welcome them to our Deaf community. Please do not allow anyone else to deprive your child’s native language which is by automatic; American Sign Language. Fear that it’s too much of hassle? Believe me it’s not and believe me your child will thank you for it. As for them getting proper education, look into your state’s Deaf institutions or schools and or need more helps please call National Association of the Deaf or your state Deaf association which can be easily found by [your state name] association of the Deaf.
There is plenty of groups with full of Deaf and Hard of Hearing individuals on Facebook. If you would like my recommendation on which group on Facebook for you to join and ask them questions around please feel free to shoot me an email by going to the contact tab at top of this website. You gave birth a Deaf and Blind child? NO PROBLEM! They can still communicate very comfortably using American Sign Language in tactile. Contact your State Deaf Association for some information on that or any questions you feel the need to ask them. I would recommend that you contact National Association of the Deaf first before contacting your state’s Deaf association because in some states they don’t have the ways of getting contacted at the moment.
If you would like to personally contact me about your Deaf or Hard of Hearing child or Deaf-Blind or Hard of Hearing Blind child please do feel free to contact me. How can you contact me personally? All it takes is go to the contact tab at the top of this website which will take you to the contact page with forms such as your name, email address for me to respond and write your message. I would be more than happy to help you guys in any way I can because language deprivation is something that I do not take very lightly especially from a such organizations who does not care about your child (fact) and just want to rob your money. Cochlear Implants does not work?! Too bad! That is their attitude so that is why I ask you to please decide very carefully. Of course I have no right to tell you what to do with your children, as I never will so all I do is just share the information and from there you think on them before making a decision on what you want to do for your children. But for me, for my children I would never get them cochlear implants until they gets to the proper age where they can decide if they want cochlear implants or not and I support their decisions. What I advocate is that allow your children to decide if they want cochlear implants or not at their proper age (pre-teenager age).
Links
Information for parents on early intervention for infants and toddlers by National Association Of the Deaf
Family Resources by Gallaudet University
Visual Language – Sign Language Use for Deaf, Hard of Hearing and Hearing Babies: The Evidence Supports It by American Society for Deaf Children
National Association of the Deaf (NAD)
Over To You
Please feel share to comment your opinion, feedback, concern, suggestion or anything about this article below. Also feel free to share your story of raising a Deaf or Hard of Hearing children if you would like so that way other new curious parents of Deaf children can hear them too. Thank you very much for reading today’s article and I hope that all of you stay safe wherever all of you are at!
Joshua “Joshie” Sullivan.
Follow me on Twitter @JoshiesWorld or on other social media! Also be sure to subscribe here and you will be notified when there is a new article posted via your e-mail! Please help spreading the words about JoshiesWorld.com by sharing the website or every new articles to your social profiles such as Facebook, Twitter or Tumblr by using the social buttons at the top of the website or every articles.
