Deaf Mentor Services

This past week we had the first meeting with our new Deaf Mentor here in Ohio. We received deaf mentor services in Pittsburgh while Ben was deployed and I thought that the help and guidance that I received was vital. Since returning to Ohio not only have I missed these services, but also I feel that we would really be able to benefit since our family is whole again. RIHP (Regional Infant Hearing Program) was able to connect us with a new deaf mentor and we have services up and running again. I would highly recommend obtaining this service if it available to you--it plays a key role in introducing your family to the deaf community. Since we are a hearing family, we knew next to nothing about deaf culture or about what life is like when you're deaf, what life will be like for Abigail. There are no wrong or inappropriate questions when it comes to your deaf mentor--just answers, answers for anything that we as hearing parents might wonder about.

I learned so many things that I had never even thought of, but probably the most important thing that I learned was that I didn't have to be scared of the deaf community. It didn't matter that I was just learning ASL, it didn't matter that I still talked while I signed and it didn't matter that we were hearing and they were deaf. Everyone that I met was so eager to find out about our family and we were so eager to find out about others.

Some people have questioned our decision to become involved with the deaf community since Abigail isn't really deaf, she's hard of hearing. My response to that is that she's not really hearing either, she's hard of hearing. We believe that she should be involved with both the hearing community and the deaf community because she falls somewhere in between. We could decide not to teach her sign language, we could decide not to take her to deaf community events, we could decide to ignore the fact that she has a hearing loss altogether. But it still wouldn't change the fact that she has a hearing loss and as her parents we want to provide her with every tool possible so that she can succeed.