This same young couple learned about growing a tomato plant that did not come out fruitfully because they failed as a “grower” or should I say “nurturer”.  But hopefully that the failed lessons are learned.

Read about this couple; http://blog.deafread.com/egbertpress/2007/01/10/

lessons-learned-in-growing-tomato-plant/

This couple, 18 years ago, had a beautiful son, 2 months old, diagnosed deaf. After several weeks of devastated mind-blowing horror of having a deaf child, they were visited by some people that their doctors recommended to talk about how to cope with raising a deaf child. The couple realize that there are many hard of hearing children that grew up normal by learning speech and lipread. They were shown films and movies of how hard of hearing children were able to talk very well and that they can live growing up in the normal world. They were emphasized that their child is not deaf, but hard of hearing and can hear some with an hearing aid and will talk normal. They were also emphasized that they should never learn sign language or even be surrounded around other deaf children using sign language.

For many years what the couple learned was that communicating was very hard and their child still could not speak well and the voice was more of a monotone sound as well as many of his classmates at the oral school. The couple admired a very few deaf students and was told by the speech therapist that their child will talk just as good someday like them.

But the couple’s deaf child started having behavior problems and was a little rebellious at times especially when they tried to communicate each other.  The son ran away from home several times and did not finished high school because he was so lonely and did not have many friends in mainstreamed school. The couple was very disappointed that their son decided to work in another state and start a new life.

Several years later, the son visited his parents during Christmas and finally became a family again. The parents learned that he went to Gallaudet and learned sign langauge, going steady with a girl from Georgia and was happy everyday.

The couple explained to their son about how sorry that they did not  try to learn more about deafness and why they did not want him to use sign language and beg forgiveness. The son forgave them and explained that many of his new deaf friends at Gallaudet have gone through the same thing.  He explained that many of his friends want to start a class action lawsuit against several organizations that have ruined their childhood life by telling their parents to deny them sign langauge.
But still, it is a lesson that the couple learned the hard way, almost lost his son. It is a lesson that can not be replicated, meaning that after 20 years of marriage, you can’t have another child again and do the right thing…….like you can with a tomato plant in the following spring if you goofed up just recently.

Posted on January 12th, 2007 by egbertpress
Filed under: Uncategorized