SASL Newsletter - Spring 2019 Issue Issue 13 - Spring 2019 | Page 9

As a young child, we chose to actively engage Hayden in the choices we made for him. Two
events come to mind. The first was his interest in attending a residential school – which will be
another story. The second was when Hayden had the option for a cochlear implant (CI). In short, his
comments were “I cannot wear a CI to bed, in the pool, under my bike, football or baseball helmet,
and I am not supposed to sweat or get it wet. Well, this leaves me still Deaf, so no, mom, I do not
want a CI!”
We had every ASL dictionary that was made – one in the house, one in each car, one in my
purse (no computers or cell phones back then for easy access to ASL signs). We were constantly
learning ASL just as he was. I became a “skilled signer” to allow our family the freedom to do
whatever we wanted when we wanted. When we did have an interpreter, I became the sponge and
was eager to learn new things from her/him. ASL became a part of Hayden’s educational plan as he
was mainstreamed through the public- school systems. All the siblings learned ASL to communicate
with their brother because as a parent, I refused to be the interpreter in my home. We had all six
children attend a “reverse mainstream school” – a school where hearing children could attend a Deaf
school – all the classes were taught in ASL. We felt it was Hayden’s birthright to have access to
communication and language just as it is our hearing children’s birthright to have access to their
language and communication.
Looking back now Hayden has been extremely successful as a military child moving every two
years and being mainstreamed into different public-school systems. We fought very hard for his
educational rights and we are proud to say his success in learning ASL at such an early age gave him
the ability and tools needed to learn English – a sound-based language that is extremely difficult to
learn for a person with no benefits to sound.
Hayden graduated from high school at 18 years old. He earned his bachelor's degree from
Gallaudet University at 22 years old and graduated with his Master’s in International Marketing from
Hult International Business School in Boston at 25 years old. He works full time now as the
_________
Communication Manager for the Military
Order of the Purple Heart and still enjoys
his international traveling.
For our family, we view ASL as a
different language like Spanish or French.
We never saw “deafness” as something
that needed to be fixed or changed. With
all my children, we strongly encouraged
the schools to provide the tools needed for
their academic growth so that our children
could
become
strong,
successful,
educated,
independent,
contributing
members of society. In Hayden’s case, it
was through ASL and his continued
support of his family. Our little family of
eight are now successful in ASL. As for
me, I am an ASL Interpreter now and
active on the Fairfax County Public School
Parent Panel for Hearing Parents with Deaf
Children.
Hayden, 24, with his service dog, Remy, in 2017
The Power of ASL
9
Spring 2019 – Issue 13