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pproximately 90 percent of deaf children worldwide are born into ..,........._ hearing households to parents who initially have no knowledge of sign language or of what it may mean to be deaf. Members of the medical community, whom hearing parents tend to regard as authorities on deafness, are more often than not unable to give parents positive advice concerning the possibilities for their deaf child, except in the area of hearing amplification. The likelihood that deaf children-isolated from people proficient in sign language-may experience linguistic, social, and emotional impoverishment during a crucial developmental period is high. This is especially true in countries where Deaf communities do not exist or are difficult to find, and information concerning deaf children's need for visually accessible language input is generally unavailable. Most of the papers in this section represent the views of parents who have achieved (often after a considerable struggle) an understanding of deaf children's ability to flourish in an environment that makes full use of their visual acuity and intellectual capacity. Some readers, however, may find it instructive to read the last paper (by Assumpta Naniwe) first. That paper's depiction of parents' levels of understanding and attitudes toward deafness in Burundi (as of 1989) is saddening, as are the apparent consequences for deaf children growing up in such circumstances. Nevertheless, conditions in Burundi at the time of The Deaf Way were not radically unlike conditions facing deaf children in many nations around the world. The paper by Roberta Thomas (United States) (one portion of a three-part presentation ) expresses the view that hearing parents must learn to allow deaf children "to be deaf." Thomas states that once she accepted her child's difference, she benefited in many ways, learning about a culture and language she had never known about before and discovering that her deaf child could be "a source of pride and joy." Michael Tillander (Finland) then describes the difficulties hearing parents face as they struggle to accept their child's deafness, to learn sign language themselves, and to ensure that their child gains adequate access to Deaf culture. He stresses the importance of parents banding together for mutual support in these efforts. Ritva Bergmann (Denmark) presents the point of view of a Deaf parent of a Deaf child. Like the previous two presenters, she expresses the conviction that deaf children need to become bilingual, learning the majority language through reading and writing and sign language as a first language. Although she expresses joy at the realization that her Deaf children felt none of the shame about deafness she had experienced as a child, she also expresses concern over her children's difficulty accepting and dealing positively with hearing people. In the following paper by Jean-Fran.;ois Mercurio (France), we are given a glimpse into what many consider to be the ideal situation for a deaf child: to be brought up in a Deaf household in which the parents sign fluently and are comfortable with being Deaf. Mercurio emphasizes that his daughter Sophie, growing Editor's Introduction up under such circumstances, learned sign language on a schedule matching hearing children's acquisition of spoken language. Furthermore, he points out, she benefited from her parents' complete acceptance of her deafness and never experienced the kind of implicit or explicit rejection that, in Mercurio's view, may lead to serious emotional problems. A paper by Myriam de Lujan (Venezuela) describes a systematic effort in Venezuela to identify deaf infants early and provide a high degree of support for both infants and parents to learn sign language and interact with Deaf people. De Lujan describes the young Deaf adults who teach mothers and infants sign language in Venezuela's Center for Infant Development as "pioneers in a revolution of hope." The marginalization of deaf children described in the final paper by Assumpte Naniwe (Burundi), contrasts vividly with this hopeful picture. 551 THE DEAF WAY ~ ...

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