Our little Luca (5 1/2 months old) has a mild hearing loss and were not sure what this means as far as how well he'll develop his language. I think he has a good chance of developing speech normally with extra help and care, but I'm still starting to check out sign language. Signing is great for anyone with a young baby regardless of their hearing.
So as we were signing mommy and papi at the table the other night, my 2 year old daughter Sophie says, "How do you say my name?" Good questions. So I looked on-line and zapped a few emails and found out that in the signing community you are given your signing name by someone already within the deaf and signing community. Interesting.
In Pueblo, we don't have a strong signing community that I know of and for now, the treatment that Luca requires does not involve a signing person. Right now we are just using basic signing for a few words within the family. Since it is "in the family" for now, I thought I could give Luca and Sophie their signing names.
I think I need to read more about this "giving of a signing name" and talk with more people in the hard of hearing community. While you are waiting for your signing name to be given to you, you just spell out your name. That seems kind of a burden for someone with a long name. But I was just thinking to myself, maybe in the past hard-of-hearing children weren't diagnosed until later in life and many children like Luca were never diagnosed because his hearing loss isn't that severe.
But for now, I'm going to give Sophie and Luca both their own signing names. I learned a little sign language in school and I still remember it. So as not to go totally against the establishment, Sophie's name will be the S drawn in the air and the i sign and Luca's will be the L (sign) followed by an A. Also, these names aren't set in stone, down the road, if that means something else and if it's not a good sign name, then we can always change. But for right now, within the context of my family, it works for us.
Has anyone else come across this same dilemma and if so, what did you do?
2 comments:
Megan,
I don't know if you remember but I served a mission in Australia for my church where I signed the entire 18 months. The "deafies" as they liked to be called would not give me a sign name for months, it was almost an acceptance into the group (very interesting indeed). Well to say the least I earned my sign name and the rest was history!
Shemri,
I can only imagine what your name is sign language must be! Megan
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