A First Language: Whose Choice Is It?

One preschool where expectations are particularly high is housed at the Dövas Hus, the Deaf club in Stockholm. Here at the Skeppargatan School, hearing parents and their children not only get to know Deaf adults, but these parents have frequent opportunities to see other Deaf children carrying on animated conversations with their parents—Deaf or hearing—when they come to pick them up from school. Parents in such settings are not encouraged to disregard normal developmental milestones, to "be patient" as parents of children focusing only on speech are often asked to do, or to set lower goals for their children (K. Lindberg, Skeppargatan Preschool, personal communication, May 14, 1994). Through interactions with Deaf children of all ages at social events, hearing parents of Deaf toddlers can't easily forget about the intense, searching, interactive, playful dialogue that normally characterizes the communication of children between the ages of one and five. They are frequently reminded that children gain much of their knowledge and the answers to their constant questions through language well before they start school. Basic communication is just not enough.

Given this kind of exposure, parents can no longer be satisfied that their child's communication at the age of three is limited to the few spoken words he or she can pronounce or lipread. It becomes crystal clear to parents that it really doesn't matter WHAT language it is—as long as their child can HAVE language, in all its richness and complexity.