Let The Wild Rumpus Begin!

About 12 years ago...

We spent the weekend reading every book we could manage. By Monday we felt a wee bit more secure. I stopped crying Sunday and my husband got the color back in his face. I woke up at 4:30 to go to work and waited for the call from my husband about the calls he needed to make.

He called the school district Early Intervention. Turns out we were lucky to live in a big city. LAUSD was the second largest district in the country and they had a ton of deaf kids. We were assigned a case worker and she was to meet with us soon. He relayed this information and I felt so calm to know the wheels were turning. I didn't however feel calm to be at work. I was so in love with my son I hated to be separated. My family would visit the set at least once a week. Looking back I was very lucky to have this environment. When they would arrive everyone would give us space to be together. They would fawn over my sweet little one as if he was theirs but then they would leave and my mind would go back to how I would get him what he needs.

Tick Tock

Time was the most important thing. Everyone seemed to move so slow when we needed them to act fast.

Tic Toc

Then we had our first home visit. She showed up and took over. Wow, we felted relieved. We needed to decide what we wanted and she would give us the resources to make it happen! She was really excited we were signing, none of the families she met for the first time did this, and she was very eager to help. We studied some literature she left and wrote up a plan. This wasn't going to be a a big deal, tons of people have been given deaf kids we just need to ask for help!

Tic

Toc

Well later it turns out the world was not ready for us.

Today..........

We had plans to meet a friend and her young ones at the science museum. I told my son we would leave at 9am. My friend called and said it opened at 9:30 so there was a change of plans. I did not tell my son of the change because he is the king of DST *again membership has it privileges* and I thought perhaps he would be ready when we wanted to go.

When we were ready to leave my son was shoeless and "sans" hair brushing. He had been reading a book and didn't watch the time. I was a bit grouchy with him as he rushed around at the last minute.

Turns out my friend was late also we had a blast. My son is a science geek and spent most of the time showing the little kids crazy stuff you can do with the aging machine, electricity and some other stuff I don't get. He did this thing with water and air to make a rocket. People cheered, he told me that the ratio of water to air makes it go higher...sorry I was a wee bit tired....

Did I mention it is ok to be tired?

It Boils Down To Language

About 12 Years ago....

So we put our newly identified deaf baby into his stroller and started walking to the bookstore. I occurred to me half way there that he was facing away from us. So he had no way to know if we were even there. We stopped and turned the seat around so he could see us. When we got to the store we found a stack of books. There was all sorts of information and we didn't really know what we needed so we bought it all. We bought books about sign language, deaf education, memoirs and deaf culture. I was startled by the choices. I guess I thought there would be a golden manual waiting for us. A step by step guide on how to raise my precious boy but what I saw was a random patchwork quilt of opinions.

At home we dove in dividing the stack into 2 piles. One for sign language the other for research. We each picked a book from the research pile mine was " The Silent Garden". i picked this book because it was written by a deaf professional and it appeared to be as close to a guide book as I could hope for. Looking back this was an excellent choice. I read it in one sitting and it affirmed my instincts that we must become fluent in ASL. No matter what happens he would have a first language. I began taking notes, the first of many over the years, and organized a plan. Where in the morning I felt helpless I was now seeing a glimmer hope. I continued to read all of the books we had purchased and started feeling a sense of urgency, he had already gone 10 1/2 months with out and real communication.

That day we both decided to spend every free and not so free moment learning ASL. The method I chose was a book, " A Basic Course in Sign Language" by Carol Padden and Tom Humphries. It was published on in California where we lived so the dialect would be pretty consistent with our area and the authors were reputable. My husband signed up for college ASL classes.

At work between shots while the crew was lighting I would pour over this book. Three and one half months later I was conversational. The really cool side effect of this at work study was crew members started to learn with me. One of the Assistant Directors got so fluent we could sign across the set not even using a radio. One time they were having problems keeping a guest actor on set. I was with her and she kept ruining to puke every time she ate. I was to far to walk over and tell them and if I broadcast this bit of valuable info she would of heard. So I signed it across the set. From then on we used it as an effective tool to talk on set when the cameras were rolling or we needed to share sensitive info about a cast member. When my son would visit the caterers had enough sign to take his order with out my help.

My husband had a great teacher who was deaf and a performer. One assignment was to tell a personal story. My husband chose me but there was one problem. He mixed up the signs for hamburger with wife. *this is really only funny if you sign, sorry membership has it's privileges.

The next step was to get an appointment with the school district early intervention program. This is where our story turns into a saga.

Today.....

School is awesome. He loves his dance class and auditioned for the dinner theatre. For his monologue he chose a story he wrote when he was 9. Here is a clip of his original performance of " The Ice Cream Store" at Deaf Nation when he was 9. The are 2 pieces on that clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UW8N2kQrwo

The audition was really fun for him and he was cool as a cucumber even though he was so nervous.

Every week they have a showcase. This is where all of the kids watch performances from students and professionals in the arts. Well the first one was a concert and they put an amp next to him so he could feel the music. The Principal didn't think it was good enough so he did some research and found an amp system that works through the chair so he can feel the separate elements of the music. Did I mention we love this school! The funny part is it is called a buttkicker.