Turn a Deaf Ear By Janet Fiore Honger & Linda Fiore Sanders

As Linda’s sign language improves and she is approached for a potential job opportunity while out shopping with John at the grocery store.  Linda decides to think about the job offer and talks it over with John before making a decision.  She is scared that she doesn’t know enough to interpret for others, John assures her that she would be great at it.  So Linda calls Brain, the psychologist, to inquire about the job offer and accepts his offer.

I love that the author wanted to help educate other’s about the deaf community and ASL.  I felt that this book did a great job at pointing out the stigma that is attached.  Most people often perceive that if you are deaf, that your are dumb as well.  This is not an accurate description, in fact, the opposite is true.  My daughter is very bright and she does things that amaze me each and every day.  She has played in the band for 4 years and how she does it, I have no clue.  She gets good grades in school and she volunteers to work at the concessions stands at events around the metroplex.

Children who are born deaf have so many options available to them.  For example, when my daughter was a baby cochlear implants were fairly young and they delayed surgery until my daughter was at least two years old.  Today children are able to get the implants at an earlier age which helps with the language gaps that my daughter faces.  If you don’t want your child to have a cochlear implant or they aren’t a candidate, you can give them the opportunity to go to the State School for the Deaf or enroll them in a local school program.  In fact, you can get your child care at a very early age through Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) and once your child is three years old they are turned over to the school system.   ECI will begin giving your child access to speech therapy, sign language, and even help train your child to read lips.

I hope that you will read “Turning a Deaf Ear” so that you can understand the challenges that deaf culture faces.  You can find more information about Turning a Deaf Ear on their website.

Do you know anyone who is deaf?