[stylist] DBG (chapter 4)

[LoriStay at aol.com]

Thanks.   I hadn't heard of cued speech before.
I read a book by the parent of a deaf child who met another family with a 
deaf child.   The first parent had tried oralism to no avail, and was 
astonished when she saw the child of the second family making a joke in sign.   She 
immediately started using sign with her daughter, and the girl devoured the 
language and begged for more.   So I would not be an oralist.   I believe 
in deaf people learning sign and lip reading if possible, but sign first.   
And I believe in blind people learning braille and mobility.   I don't 
understand people who say about their children, "Are you trying to make her 
blind?"   Either she is or she isn't, and no matter what the parent does, it won't 
change the physical fact.

I'm enjoying your story, though I was disappointed that we saw no more of 
the woman (?) who was 3 feet 7 inches who rescued the child in the first 
place.   Or do we?   She seemed the most interesting of the characters to me.
Lori

In a message dated 9/7/09 4:21:34 PM, dreamavdb at googlemail.com writes:


> 
> Cued speech a system of communication that makes traditionally spoken
> languages accessible by using a small number of handshapes
> (representing consonants) in different locations near the mouth
> (representing vowels), as a supplement to lipreading.
> It is not used much since the signing Deaf don't like it because it
> reeks too much of oralism. The strict Oral crowd pay it lip service
> but prefere to use purely oral methods.
> To me it seems a useful tool for learning speech and lip reading but
> the problem is when people use it as a stand alone system competing
> with sign language.
> 
>