Sign language should be available for deaf/HOH kids

As a Deaf cochlear implant user who lives in a hearing world I actually wish audiologist encouraged sign language.

I went deaf at the age of two because of medications I had been on due to health condition(s.) When I was three/four I was given a Cochlear Implant. However, I couldn’t understand hearing people as well as they understood me (and they understand me very well.)

While I was in elementary, I had a device called a mic that would connect to my implant. The teachers would wear this mic around their neck so I could hear them better but all it did was make their voices louder and that didn’t always help. I also had a learning disability, (I think it’s called “slow learner.”) and all I know is that when I had difficulty understanding the topic, I would get frustrated, cry and give up because I never knew what to do unless someone would tell me.

It also didn’t help that they kept saying “you can do it! You can do it!” When I had no idea what the heck I was doing. I would often get threatened to detention if I didn’t calm down/stop crying which would make me panic and usually make the crying worse.

It probably didn’t help that I would mishear things while the teacher was teaching. Like instead of “add to the top” I would hear “glad to the top.” And it would confuse me even more because it would have no relevance to math, but I would think “it didn’t sound anything like the word “add” so what did she say?“ (And later I would find out it was add after all because My aid would help me with my work. And it was thanks to her that I made it though elementary at all.)

However, when I learned about sign language I didn’t give up as quickly as I did with very thing else. I starred teaching myself. Yes I still got frustrated and annoyed but I didn’t stop or want to stop learning it.

I still don’t know enough to communicate like most singers would, I didn’t have the ability to learn the grammar involved but I know some of the basics. It helped me SO MUCH when others (who knew as much sign as I did) would sign language with me. It’s helped me as much as my implant has, if not more.

So I often wonder, would sign language have helped me have more confidence in school when learning? (I would still be able to speak, but I would also now use sign language.) Yeah I’d still probably get frustrated in class, but would I have cried less and been threatened detention less?

Honestly I think so.