Bilingual Deaf and Hearing Families: Narrative Interviews

6. The Robles-Gordon/McNeely Family

68 6 The Robles-Gordon/McNeely Family “When I found out Diamani was deaf I knew I had to communicate with him. I did the first thing I thought of and that was to get into an ASL program.” —amber Amber is hearing and is Diamani’s mother. Diamani is deaf and has a cochlear implant. He is nine years old and is in the fourth grade at the Clerc Center at Kendall School on the Gallaudet University campus in Washington, D.C. Amber is an artist and has an MFA in painting from Howard University in Washington, D.C. The RoblesGordon /McNeely Family: Amber Robles-Gordon and Diamani McNeely Robles-Gordon/McNeely Family 69 Could you tell us how you decided to learn ASL and, also, could you discuss the process you went through to decide on getting Diamani a cochlear implant? Amber: I started learning to sign when we attended the Parent-Infant Program (PIP) at Kendall. Diamani is nine years old now, so we have been signing for about seven years. PIP and Kendall have really helped out with the signing skills, but, from my perspective, it has not been easy. We had to fit with the school because our ASL classes only go up to a certain level of skill and structure. There aren’t any more advanced classes. There are a lot of people that don’t come to class, that are not involved with the school. Support needs to be shown to those of us that are involved. It’s a hard battle to continue. We have had some wonderful teachers who understood our needs and I hope we can continue to work with good teachers. When Diamani was a baby, we decided to learn ASL. His father and I heard him speaking and his speech wasn’t clear. When we found out that he was deaf it only made sense that we learn ASL. I wanted to be able to completely communicate with him. I am not really sure how we knew that ASL is what Diamani and our family needed. I knew Gallaudet was there even before Diamani was born. I knew it was an institution, a college. I didn’t know that there was an elementary school there; I didn’t know about Kendall or the Model Secondary School for the Deaf (MSSD). I knew ASL was used at Gallaudet. So then I found out more detailed information about Gallaudet and the Child Development Center (CDC) and he has continued on from there. It all started at Children’s Hospital, but I needed more help at that time than they were able to provide. They really didn’t provide a lot of information about deaf related issues in general. I thought Children’s Hospital would know, but I had to find information for myself. They really tried to push the cochlear implant (CI) surgery. At that time I didn’t have enough information myself about what it meant to be deaf or about the CI and about the Deaf community; I needed more specific information for my family. I wasn’t ready to make that kind of decision. I felt that they were trying to push children to have the surgery, even though, 70 Robles-Gordon/McNeely Family to me, they seemed so young. Yes, when he was seven years old he did have the CI surgery but it was for a completely different reason. We did it not to fix my son. It is different trying to push someone to have the CI surgery at the age of two than if the person is seven years old. His father and I made the decision ourselves without any outside influence. We went through the whole Children’s Hospital process, where you have to have an interview and speech therapy. It seemed that Diamani was accepting of the whole process. His dad and I weren’t afraid anymore because we had researched the surgery, the process, and who was the best surgeon. We wanted to give Diamani complete access to language. I wanted him to have access to all he can in the hearing world—to all the environmental sounds. To help him navigate the hearing world. It doesn’t change who he is. How does he like the CI? Let’s ask Diamani. Diamani: I like it because I can hear dogs barking, airplanes, everything . Without it, it would...