Viewing page 6 of 13

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

Transcription: [00:14:20]
Would you like to tell us a little bit about what it's like at home?

[00:14:25]
Okay, as I told you, I have a hearing sister, and we both can't communicate smoothly because she signs and my parents and myself taught her as she was growing up.

[00:14:37]
We played games with her, with her friends, her -- sometimes we'd play games and her friends wouldn't understand, so I'd have to ask her -

[00:14:44]
my sister - to interpret, you know things like that.

[00:14:46]
We get along very easily. Sometimes, she'd go off with her friends talking and I'd feel left out, and I'd try to, you know, go after them and say

[00:14:55]
"well, you know, what are you talking about? What are you playing now?" And we'd get along just fine.

[00:15:01]
Thank you.

[00:15:05]
[[clapping]] Barbara, would you like to add something?

[00:15:11]
Growing up in a deaf family, communication was fine. We had no problems, like language development among deaf children of deaf parents is the same as hearing children of hearing parents.

[00:15:29]
I was born and I started signing, meaning... concentrating on the meanings and everything and just signing.

[00:15:37]
I didn't know a lot of English words yet, but I made the connection between signing and English later in my life. But just -- new signs, and when my hearing sister...

[00:15:51]
I thought it was very strange because we had hearing children of deaf parents become automatically expert signers. But that's not true of my sister.

[00:16:04]
We use homemade signs, and she's good at finger spelling. She can finger spell very good.

[00:16:12]
I have to be really good at reading her finger spelling, but homemade signs, mouth movements, and so on, and as I grew up, I look back and I'm wondering why my sister isn't, you know, uh, as fluent in signs.

[00:16:25]
I asked her why one time and she said: "Well, I can understand my - our parents," you know, that we - that they have deaf speech,

[00:16:34]
but she can understand their speech well enough so she didn't feel it was necessary to learn sign language. And I said: "What about me?" I can't talk!

[00:16:44]
And she s- she thought, well we communicate fine, so.

[00:16:49]
[[clapping & laughter]]

[00:16:54]
How 'bout games as kids? What kinds of games can you share with - with hearing kids, whether they're your brothers and sisters or your friends, your playmates?

[00:17:06]
There special things you could tell 'em about?

[00:17:08]
Bill?

Transcription Notes:
Not really sure on who's speaking, so if anyone could fill that in that would be great.