Deaf Like Me

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes ableist language and references to anti-d/Deaf bias. 

Oralism was (and still is) a common strategy for educating deaf children by teaching them to lip read and speak verbally instead of teaching them a sign language. The oralist movement has roots in eugenics. Its original goals were to encourage deaf people to marry hearing people to reduce the number of deaf babies being born and to suppress Deaf culture and ASL. In Deaf Like Me, the Spradleys see oralism as the only way forward for several years instead of doing their own research into the Deaf community or learning more from any d/Deaf adults. Oralism focuses exclusively on the promise of an imagined future where deaf children finally learn to lip read and speak after their parents work hard to teach them for many years. This focus on the future means a lack of regard for the challenges of the present: These children might learn to speak one day, so they should avoid learning ASL or even using gestures that could help them communicate now. 

Over and over, the Spradleys and other parents ask when their deaf children will start to talk. They never get clear answers, which makes it difficult for them to recognize the potential risks of oralism.