Deaf Camp

This past weekend I volunteered at a Deaf Camp. There were about 30 kids...Deaf and CODAS. We went to New Orleans to go to the Aquarium and the Insectarium. I ate a cinnamon sugar wax worm and a Cajun cricket...pretty sure I wouldn't do that again. We went fishing, had egg hunts, magic shows, and lots of other fun things, but let me tell you...it wore me out!

One thing that stood out to me the most was the reality of seclusion that Deaf kids face on a daily basis. At the camp there were two brothers and a sister who were hearing and didn't know sign language. I figured they were there because either their parents were Deaf or they had a Deaf sibling. I saw how the three of the them interacted...they acted like normal brothers and sisters...teasing, playing, calling each other names, etc. Finally by the end of the weekend I saw facial similarities of these three kids to one of the Deaf kids and finally put two and two together. I would have never known that they were all related because they didn't even talk to their Deaf brother the entire weekend. I feel so bad for that Deaf kid. He must feel so left out. It just seems so unfair and wrong that his family doesn't try to learn sign language and communicate with him. I think I read somewhere that in Sweden the family of a Deaf child was required to learn sign language and if they didn't...they would be charged with neglect. I could totally be making this up but I am pretty sure I read about it somewhere about ten years ago when I first started learning sign language. I think it's a good law. I am so sick of meeting Deaf kids whose sisters, brothers, and even parents can't communicate with them. I wish I could just adopt them all!

On a good note though...there were also other families where the hearing brothers and sisters were completely fluent and hung out with their siblings.