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My child is deaf…What do I do?

When I was in college, I went home to visit my parents for the summer. There, they had a couple who just found out their child was diagnosed with deafness. It was a surprise to them and they turned to the closest people they knew that had been in the same situation. Out of curiosity, I accompanied them on a trip to a nearby town to meet them.

They were faced with several options: to send him off to a school for deaf in another town, to teach him sign language, or send him to an oral school. They were daunted by the tasks all equally. As it was their first child, they were faced with an enormous responsibility: the education and mental growth of their child. I remember that we discussed my experiences growing up. I had grown up with sign language as my first language (not exactly ASL, but it was more of a mix between ASL and SEE depending on my interactions with family and friends). My parents were set on learning from the onset when they found out about my deafness as they believe it to be a best way of communication between me and them. I started out in a local deaf program before mainstreaming in second grade and above.
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