Chapter 36

"What do you call a deaf person who doesn't speak?" I thought this question was funny but a good question I guess. The book answers the question simply, you call them a Deaf person. You should not refer to them as mute or deaf-mute or deaf-and-dumb. It would be very insensitive to call them mute or deaf-and-dumb. It's rude to call people dumb anyway but to say someone is mute when they are Deaf is really not nice. 

All Deaf children will have some sort of speech coach and auditory training. I think it's okay that they get this training because it could help them in the long run. I don't think they should be forced into it but they should be shown the advantages and disadvantages. 

For Deaf people, it is hard to control the volume of their voice. Makes sense, they can't hear how loud or quiet they are. I'm sure they are able to hear the volume of a room, if it is very loud or very quiet but that doesn't mean they can hear their own voice.

This reminded me of a time I was in Florida with my family. My stepmom had on headphones and was listening to music. We asked her a question (had to shout because of the music) but when she started answering us back she was yelling! We all were like, "Betty, shhhh" and started laughing. She took off the headphones and was so confused as to why we shushed her. We then told her, just because you can't hear your voice over the music doesn't mean we can't either. Now looking back on this, I feel kind of bad that we did that because this is what Deaf people would experience all the time. Luckily, it was just us in the hotel at the time so our reactions didn't offend anyone. 

Chapter 35

"If you're deaf, how come you can talk?" This question was the focus of the chapter. The answer is that some Deaf people have good speech skills while others do not. Almost all Deaf people have normal vocal apparatus (p. 205).

Speaking for Deaf people can become a touchy subject. Here are some questions they ask themselves, "If we don't use our voices, do we give hearing people the wrong impression? If we do use our voices, are we oppressing other Deaf people? Whatever we do, are we encouraging labeling and stereotypes?" (p. 205). These are some pretty heavy questions and could be very difficult for Deaf people, especially Deaf children. I think it should be up to the person if they decide they want to speak or not. 

Some hearing people won't use their voices when they are in the company of Deaf friends or family members. I think this is a good practice to keep. It would be hard to keep your voice off at family events but if you are talking to only the person who is Deaf, maybe it would be best? It is respectful to try signing as best you can and to be understanding. I could understand why it wouldn't be very polite to speak and sign with a Deaf person. 

Chapter 34

I really liked the intro to this chapter. This man just got a job as manager of an office. He has a worker there who is Deaf so he took it upon himself to start taking ASL classes and to learn Sign. He said he felt it was important to communicate with this woman and was surprised by what he found out. He asks this question, "We do hear actual understandable words from her once in a while. Does this mean that at some time, someone has worked with her in speech? And is it wrong to want to hear her verbalize?" (p. 201).

I think I liked the intro so much because this man is trying to understand the Deaf culture more because of a single worker. He wants to communicate with her so, instead of asking her to talk, he is taking sign. I think this is awesome  of him. 

The book answers his question in saying that it is not wrong to want her to speak...its human nature (p. 202). I wasn't surprised when the book talks about how many Deaf people have had humiliation when they try to use their voice. You know why I wasn't surprised? Because after reading all these other chapters I don't think anything people do to/around Deaf people would be surprising. People can be very cruel. Parents should explain to their children and children should have a better understanding and compassion for other people. 

The book ends with saying that it would be alright to ask her about her experience with speaking but her actually speaking should be voluntary. 

Chapter 33

Speech pathologists and why Deaf people sometimes do not like them. 

Deaf people have had issues with Speech Pathologists for a long, long time. After reading the chapter about them hitting students who mispronounced words, I can understand where the problem would come from. The book talks about how its their job to help Deaf students become better with their speech so they are thrown into these classes to become better. 

These speech teachers are drilling their students to correctly pronounce words that they can't hear or can barely hear. It would be very frustrating to students because they may not get it right a lot of the time. The book also states that, "Most ASL-Deaf people are not opposed to speech training. Even Deaf parents of Deaf children believe in giving them practice in speech." (p. 196). I think it's important to read this part of the chapter or you could be really confused. Deaf people want speech teachers in their lives but I could understand where it would become agitating. 

I still hate that some teachers will do mean things to their clients when they would get a word wrong. I understand that time were different back then but come on. If you go into a field like that, you need to have patience and understanding, not be hateful. 

I can understand why some Deaf people would have their regards to Speech Pathologists because of the past but I'm glad that times have changed and they are SLOWLY getting better. 

Chapter 32

Chapter 32 is about lip-reading. I had been looking forward to reading this chapter for quite some time now. The chapter explains very well that lip-reading is something very few people are able to do. Words can be hard to make out when you lip-read. The book says this, "Can you read my lips? This is the one question all deaf people can undoubtedly speechread!" (p. 191). I understand why it would be the one thing all deaf people can do because I'm sure they get this question all the time. It is the first question some people probably ask them. The book mentions a few things that I would have never thought about when reading lips. 

30% of spoken words can be seen through the lips. 
Homophones? 
Facial Expression
Mouth movement 

Homophones are hard to explain to children when they can hear, see, and visualize the word. It would be difficult to understand the context of the homophone if you are lip reading and are only getting parts of the conversation. 

Facial expression is important in speech. It is extremely important in the Deaf culture so Deaf people want to look at your entire face, not zoom in on your mouth. If you are focusing your attention on the mouth and what you are lip reading, you are not able to get the full context of what they're saying.

Mouth movement is something everyone does differently. Some people move their mouth a lot when they talk, some barely at all. I could understand where some Deaf people would get tired of trying to understand you if they aren't used to the way your mouth moves. 

While reading this chapter a question popped up in my head. If some Deaf people have trouble with English sentence structure, wouldn't it make lip-reading even more difficult. Hearing people would speak in English sentence order. I feel like it would be hard to understand, even if you can lip-read.