ASL-English Bilingual Classroom: The Families’ Perspectives

Traditionally, professionals have provided information about deafness and its implications to families from a “hearing perspective,” but not from a “deaf perspective.” With diagnosis, the family is faced with raising a child that does not match its expectations of a “normal” child. Families may experience grieving, non-acceptance of deafness, and confusion created by an abundance of detailed and contradictory information. The purpose of this paper is to examine families’ perspectives about their children’s deafness, language, and education when the children’s educational setting is bilingual. Qualitative methods, specifically interviews and focus group meetings, were used. The findings suggest when information with a “deaf perspective” is provided and certain classroom conditions are present, families are empowered with new attitudes about deafness.