I wasn’t born deaf, I lost my hearing overnight. from that very moment, my family’s heart sank. How do we communicate? How will she hear us?
I did learn to sign at school with other deaf children, but doctors, and speech therapists all focused on speech, language and vocal sounds. Many many deaf children/people can’t hear vocals even with the most powerful hearing aids available; they just can’t grasp it. They need sign language.
To just have one form of communication reduces frustration and stress for those that need a different method of communication, it’s not only for deaf but for those that are non verbal.
My upcoming film ‘ I Need a Sign’ is based on many deaf family situations where the parents have encountered a deaf child for the first time and followed the doctors advice of spoken language. Their deaf child Jesse hasn’t grasped the language at the age of 8 years old and throws tantrums because he can’t communicate with his parents for something out of the cupboard. Annie (played by Sharon Spink) and Jesse both learn to sign and the bond builds and they can finally hold a conversation in sign language. We also see at the end of the film, Chris (played by John Naylor) say ‘I love you’ in sign language.
The purpose of the film is to bridge the gap in the language barriers that many people face everyday and the importance of sign language, and also to give deaf people the sense that signing is recognised as important.
I wrote and will be directing the film, and it will be put out to film festivals and used as a promo for Ignite the Light sign language coaching.