Gallaudet University

I had a very interesting conversation today with a patient and had to share. Gives you an insight on to those in the deaf community and how it affects their family.

As I'm starting an evaluation on a new patient, I begin to introduce myself
Patient: "you're hearing impaired"
Me: "yes I am" and I try to change the subject back to PT since most of them are just curious and as a result, ends up in multiple questions
Patient: "you have really good speech"
Me: "thanks, now back to PT"
Patient: "Where did you go to school?"
Me: "Tennessee for undergrad and then North Ga for grad school"
Patient: "oh, my daughter went to Gallaudet University"
I start to think to myself, hmm, maybe this patient does know what he's talking about after all. Then I realized that Gallaudet University are anti cochlear implants and prefer deaf people to be signing and involved in their deaf community. So I decide to avoid any conversation regarding my cochlear implants.

Later that afternoon, during my second session with him, he starts asking more questions, one of them is do I have cochlear implants? So I tell him yes. He starts telling me how his daughter was born deaf because her mom was exposed to german measles when she was pregnant with her. Her mom spent HOURS with her learning how to talk. They didn't teach her sign in attempts for her to be oral and be involved in the hearing world. Sounds familiar huh? However, she learned sign with her deaf friends, went to Gallaudet, married a deaf man, has a deaf son and now live in their parents' basement. Of course, he's proud of his daughter but I couldn't help but notice how he commented on my speech several times, comparing it to his daughter's speech, and mentioned his wishes for his daughter to get a cochlear implant. Interesting to see how two people start out on the same path but end up on other ends of the world.