Question for a deaf father.?

Question

I am deaf.. I have 2 daughters. I love them with all my heart. One problem... they are both hearing.. how can i communicate with them well enough when they get older into teengage years when they use more verbal communication than sign language? Will it create problem between us as deaf parents and hearing children?

Answer 1

I am not deaf, but for reasons of my own, I've had a personal interest in the Deaf community for a very long time, so the advice I give you doesn't come from practical experience but from what I have read of others discussing similar issues with a bit of my own brand of "common sense" thrown in.

This is a topic that seems to get a lot of discussion within the Deaf community. Among the best tidbits I have been able to gather so far is that you probably don't need to worry about this too much. Its primarily important that your children learn to communicate first. Some people believe that infants and toddlers have a capacity for language and understanding far earlier than they have a capacity for speech, so if your daughters are hearing and if you are signing to them, you may actually be well ahead of the game in learning to communicate with your daughters and teaching them how to communicate. This can only be helpful in the long run.

Beyond that, because you daughters can hear, they will have lots of opportunities to learn to communicate with speech simply by hearing others talking. You may be at a slight disadvantage by possibly not being able to help correct your daughters if they make an error in speaking as children do when they are first learning to speak, but you can expect to get lots of help with that from other adults and other children that they socialize with. Basically, your children will grow up in a bilingual society consisting of hearing and deaf people. They should do well with both if they get enough support and acceptance from both communities.

Don't worry about the teenage years yet. If you have taught them that there is nothing wrong with having a deaf father and that there is nothing wrong with their being able to hear, they should become very well-adjusted children, teenagers, and later, adults.

I hope this helps. I wish you the best of luck.

Answer 2

No worries, just sign with them! For now, as they are little, the important thing is to communicate fluently with them. There is no reason for them to stop signing when they get older. They can sign and speak. Though you will have communication problems with your teenage daughters, it doesn't need to be language related!
I think kids automatically respect their parents unless they are given a reason not to, and this is what I've seen from all kids, deaf and hearing, including hearing kids with deaf parents. I think the only thing you need to be careful of is not making your hearing kids interpret, let kids be kids! Other than that, just be a good dad and you'll be fine.