Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Some Thoughts...

Today I overheard the weirdest story. A lady at the therapy office was telling one of the physical therapists about someone who makes babies stop crying and then they are not breathing. So the baby learns not to cry. Then she said "So you have these big Mormon churches with 500-700 people and not a single baby is crying. It's crazy. Criminal!" When I heard that last part I was like "What?!" Because Mormons are very sensitive about the fact that we have the family worship together, including babies and noisy toddlers who try to escape and go up to the pulpit. :) I spend half of the meeting in the hall because Penny won't stay quiet. Random.
BTW, I am loving the "Switched at Birth" show. My favorite part is how favorably signing is presented and how each member of the family is now signing. The spanish mom always signed even though the deaf daughter could read lips and speak. Then the red head mom started to learn because the spanish mom convinced her that it was important. Then the white dad started coaching the deaf daughter's basketball team so he signs now. Then the spanish daughter
started dating Emmett (the deaf friend) so she's signing with him and with the deaf daughter. Then the white brother is finally signing because he wanted to tell the deaf boyfriend that he had hurt his sister... I love it. It is showing such a great approach and the natural barriers that people overcome if they want to.
I had an epiphany about the show tonight. The white family, they suddenly find they have a deaf daughter when she is 16. The spanish mother found out she had a daughter when she
was 4, but didn't start signing until she was in 3rd grade. It reminds me of how for hearing parents it is always like a "Switched at Birth" experience. You brought home this baby and started to raise it with this certain set of expectations of normalcy. Then you find out they are deaf and it is like someone switched your baby because suddenly all the past was with a baby
you thought could hear. And the baby you have, has a history and future completely unfamiliar. So you then have the choice to join them, or try to fit them in with your life.

3 comments:

Kes said...

I love that show immensely! I'm crazy about it, and I'm.. not entirely sure why, haha. But just for informational purposes, the deaf girl went deaf at 3 - she could hear until then. Emmett was born deaf. If did confuse me why Daphne's mother didn't teach her to sign until she was 8? So what did she do for five years?! The whole show makes me really want to learn ASL - it's such a beautiful language.

Lucky Day said...

It's a fun show just for the drama and the legitimate difficulty of combining these families.
When kids go deaf after they have learned to talk it's totally normal for them to just keep on speaking and doing the best they can reading lips. The story is very accurate because it shows how a child who can talk at 3 then goes deaf, will be pretty much ok in kindergarten but by 2nd grade it is starting to reach a boiling point. They say kids learn to read until 3rd grade and then they have to read to learn.
I just really like how the show shows people doing a pretty good job of dealing with difficult situations.

Tricia said...

I'm having a panic attack from your description of the people making their babies be quiet! Well, maybe not a bonafide panic attack, but pretty close.