For A Deaf Son Summary

The documentary “For a Deaf Son,” delineates a young boy, Thomas Tranchin, who was born deaf into a hearing family, and the battle his parents endured to decide to teach Thomas in sign language communication, strictly communicate in English, or both. The documentary is educational for the hearing world to shape their own particular opinions on what type of technique would be better for their child in the event that they were to ever be in a comparative circumstance. As Dr. Carlos Erting expressed in the film, 93% of hearing impaired children have hearing parents; therefore, this documentary gives a glimpse at both perspectives of nonverbal communication and oral communication. However, as I viewed the short film, the clashing feelings of Thomas’

mother left a solid effect on me. Thomas’ mother strived for techniques similar to those used in Oralism; while, his dad became open-minded to Bilingualism for Thomas. As a mother, I would have considered a similar method as the father in showing my child ASL and English joined until he could determine the choice for himself.
There appeared to be four occurrences throughout this film which captured my attention. The initial event happened when Thomas' older sibling, Matthew, articulated his emotions on Thomas' deafness.

In an overwhelmed hearing world, it was comprehended that Thomas would need to strive to convey what he wanted to express himself; however, I was not anticipating that Matthew would have the same amount of challenging time. When he illustrated that he would get harassed by different children for having a profoundly deaf sibling appeared to bring on an uneasy feeling to me. I feel that Matthew required as much love and acknowledgment as Thomas during this time, which he might not have received it to its fullest degree. He clarified that he was sad and cried for three days after the of discovery that Thomas was deaf. This was greatly heartbreaking to hear because although Thomas was not sad to be who he was, his family seemed to mourn what he was not going to be able to hear. In my opinion, at first the family made Thomas' inability appear to be difficult to work around instead of embracing it and showing Matthew all the positive things that could rise up out of having a deaf sibling. The second occurrence was during Thomas’ speech therapy sessions and at home with

his mother. Thomas seemed to be frustrated with therapy and at some point conveyed to his father that he would not like to do the session. It appeared to have a great deal of stress for the family to do these hour-long sessions day by day with little to none advancement in his speech. Thomas’ inability to communicate his thoughts, feelings, or his personality to his parents affected me since I also have a four-year-old son. At four-years-old, he already has an enormous amount of personality and I know things such as what’s his favorite color, what toy he adores, dislikes and likes. In my opinion, I feel that if sooner or later I was not able to know these things than I would utilize nonverbal communication and signing because having that connection to my child would exceed a troublesome technique I believed was best for him. I however, cannot judge Thomas’ parents in their decision to try all they could with strictly oral communication because I have never been in their situation and I know as a parent it is difficult to see your child go through any obstacles in life.
The third occasion was during the meeting amongst Myrna and Luis Orihuela.

In my view, I feel that I would have taken a similar form of instructing method that parents of Kenny Orihuela did. His mother desired to give Kenny choices so that he would be able to decide for himself in the future which led towards bilingualism. If he decided to sign later on she would approve of his choice and that seemed to draw my attention and convey my thought and feelings if I were in the same situation. During the interview, Kenny's father explained how rewarding he felt knowing that Kenny was able to hear a little more than before and that joy was directly shown through the interview. I my opinion, I feel that they are attempting to make the right decision to benefit Kenny, and they acknowledge that he is deaf and need to accommodate his needs instead of attempting to change him to suit their own needs. I firmly opposed the therapist’s thoughts that without practical speech, deafness determined what a person could do in their life. The reason behind why I differ from her opinion is because there have been many hard of hearing individuals who have not utilized functional speech and have still turned out to be exceptionally successful, for example, Leah Katz-Hernandez and Marlee Matlin. Lastly, the final event that caught my attention was the point at which the man was narrating to the children. What I think truly got to me was the interview with Nancy Shook, she stated Thomas is learning

words yet he is not learning concepts and ideas through signing. To watch the children, comprehend and remain intrigued by visual communication was an astonishing thing to view. The actor expressed he would love to see more parents acting thoughts out with their children, it reminded me of a few books I received for my son little while back. These books had no words just illustrations and the story dependent upon us to create. In my opinion, I believe doing these stories with Thomas would have given him a significant advantage as much as it would a hearing child. Imagination is an important key to child development and I think he would have had some sort of approach to express his thoughts and feelings through visual storytelling to his parents, perhaps this would have lessened the great a barrier between them.
In conclusion, the documentary, "For a Deaf Son," was hard to watch because arose clashing purposes of perspectives for me; however, it was extremely educational for me not knowing anything about signing, oral communication and bilingualism. If by chance that I had a hard of hearing child, I would show him as much English as could be expected, thoroughly working with him, yet in the event that I can't comprehend what makes him frustrated and sad or things that he appreciates doing then I know I must learn ASL regardless of how tough it might be for me, I know it is similarly as tough for him to learn English.