All My Children will cast deaf actors and actresses surrounding a storyline about a toddler who becomes deaf as a result of a car accident, it was announced by Brian Frons, president Daytime, Disney-ABC Television Group. As the parents cope with their son's condition, they will explore a variety of medical options, including Cochlear implants. In the episode to air on August 15, the show will introduce Walter Novak, its first deaf character for this story arc, who will be played by Bob Hiltermann, a deaf actor.
"This storyline gives us the opportunity to explore the emotional challenges and real-life decisions facing the parents of a child who has been permanently injured. We will go on a heart wrenching journey with our characters as they learn about the current medical options and obstacles facing their child who has become deaf. In the tradition of
All My Children's hallmark storytelling, this is a story of strength, love and hope," says executive producer Julie Hanan Carruthers.
One Life to Live star Kassie DePaiva has been consulting with
All My Children, sharing her real life experiences raising her son, James Quentin ("JQ"), who was born profoundly deaf. At the age of 18 months, JQ received his first Cochlear implant, and received a second implant at the age of eight.
JQ is now 10 years old and attends mainstream schooling. As a part of
All My Children ongoing commitment to this topic, JQ will guest star in episodes featuring Erica Kane's (Susan Lucci) talk show,
New Beginnings, which will be dedicated to the theme of deaf children.
These episodes are set to air on September 20, 21 and 24. The show will also produce episodes featuring support groups for parents with deaf children. Deaf actors and actors who have received Cochlear implants will be cast in all applicable roles. The show will be consulting with the League for the Hard of Hearing and will air PSAs is support of the organization.
All My Children has established itself as a leader in daytime dramas as one that educates through entertaining. Over the past three decades, viewers have watched the characters deal with both social and personal issues, including abortion, HIV and AIDS, substance abuse, eating disorders and many more. In 2000, television history was made when
All My Children became the first daytime drama to incorporate a lesbian character as a contract role. In 2003 another historic moment was made when the show aired daytime television's first same-sex kiss between two women in a loving relationship. In 2007 the show became the first to chronicle the coming out story of a transgender character.
All My Children celebrated its 37th Anniversary on January 5, 2007. The program has successfully maintained its popularity and continues to be one of daytime's most compelling dramas.
All My Children took home the 1998 Emmy Award for Outstanding Daytime Drama Series, the third time the show received this top honor, having also garnered the award in 1994 and 1992. In 2004 the show also received its third consecutive Emmy Award for Outstanding Daytime Drama Series Writing, its third Writers Guild Award and its fourth GLAAD Media Award in March 2007.
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17 Comments
You're confusing cause and effect. The reason reading levels have been low is due to the influence of oral methods of instruction in schools for the deaf. If deaf students had been allowed to learn ASL from birth on, then the reading levels would have been normal all of these years.
"This is an eye opening for many. Nowadays soccer moms sign up to sign to babies before they get to speak. It is misrepresentation of the truth that deaf children who are aided with cochlear implants are able to decipher the "speech" spectrum. Many were led to believe it would enable deaf children to become hearing children. Take the time to check http://blog.deafread.com/abcohende/2007/08/05/the-greatest-irony-audiologists-response/ and follow through (do check the original post of "The Greatest Irony")
Even with AG Bell's philosophy, this organization Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf just disencouraged the idea of signing to deaf babies. It makes no sense to use American Sign Language (ASL) to enrich the cognitive development of hearing babies at the same time it is not allowed for Deaf babies to learn ASL! This has bee, and still is the main concern we need to resolve!"
I tried to make a link, this web apparently does not support it. Copy and paste the url address, I highly recommend this reading. It is written by a very respected deaf professor, he eloquently put it all together.
On my comment, I am emphasizing adding American Sign Language to the Auditory-Verbal approach.
What is the harm of having both language input (auditory and verbal) to the child? Hearing babies has a dual language input when they are provided sign language, and it comes with benefits yielded by research.
Now, you are talking about the choice? I cannot fathom this anymore.
You are talking about the 'selected' few - who are successful (your measure of success as described) and why are you consistently overlooking other children who were exposed to ASL and received Auditory Verbal approach are SUCCESSFUL too?
Where is the middle ground here? You are at the far right of the spectrum that shunning ASL, and emphasizing a child who is deaf with cochlear implant to listen and talk ONLY all of the times. Other people are at the far left of the spectrum who shuns cochlear implants and raising children as true bilinguals.
There are many, many of us in the middle of the spectrum who wanted BOTH ends of the spectrum.
Gosh, the erroneous belief that this "Education of the Deaf" is all about black and white, and an obvious and blatant refusal to see that there are always exceptions with huge grey area.
Right now, what I am seeing in many blogs, vlogs, and comments out there about this issue... there are always parents who are persistent with the idea of CHOICE what is BEST of THEIR CHILD, without any consideration of the MAJORITY of the DEAF ADULTS who are trying to say something by sharing their experiences as a CHILD!
Choice versus Informed Choice is one big, big difference here.
Let's talk about the 'choice'....
Would you define that it is a parental choice for a parent to spank a child? Yes.
Would that be a choice for a parent to spank a child hard enough to injure a child?
N O.
This rigid ideology that you are harping is morally harmful for the majority of deaf children.
Would you advise a parent of 3 year old deaf child with cochlear implant at age of 6 months, receiving auditory verbal therapy comes with no benefits for whatever reason, to keep continue with this approach? I doubt it.
But adding ASL after their brains are not most plastic? That is very, very harmful and morally wrong for this child.
Then,
"Because by choosing to emphasize listening and talking only, you remove that choice from a deaf child forever."
I would suggest that, in this day and age, it will be the children raised with ASL as their primary language who, when they are grown, will look at those who learned to hear and speak well with their CIs and to function with ease in the hearing world who will turn to their parents and ask them why they didn't do that for them. It will then be too late, for the critical early years when the brain is at its most plastic for learning to decipher meaning from sound will be long past. My daughters have been given the gift of choice. By choosing to emphasize ASL, you remove that choice from a deaf child forever.
English is one of three languages I use everyday and it is not my primary language. I acquired it later, please kindly show respect.
Wonderful that your implantees are doing well enough, there is a huge moral responsiblity with claiming that many deaf children will be that successful with CI hence "a great solution".
People like us in the field of deaf language development for years suggest that Deaf Ed system holds more responsiblity in providing best ASL model like how deaf schools in Sweden do. Parents simply do the share by providing their spoken language model to their deaf - hoh children at their home environment. Then just allow children figure out than when one day they will say, my parents were not willing to show their respect for my rights and wishes. I learned this hardest way with my mother and grandmother.
It does not make any sense at all to deprive deaf babies of access to a natural (visual) language while waiting for them to be implanted.
Cochlear implants allow *some* deaf children to succeed as handicapped hearing people, while American Sign Language allows *all* deaf children to develop normally, in both the cognitive and emotional sense.
In this day and age of early cochlear implantation, deaf children absolutely do not need to learn ASL or any form of sign if their parents are committed to working with them as needed to teach them English language skills, which will, in turn, provide their children with a broader social network and unlimited college and career opportunities. Furthermore, because children like mine can hear and speak so well, they require much less from their school system and of the federal government when they are adults. They certainly don't need interpreters.
What deaf children have a right to is to have the same unlimited opportunities open to them that all children do. Kudos to "All My Children" for showing what deaf children can achieve today!
Please consider contacting National Association of the Deaf to find out about using visual means...such as sign language to give the deaf child a good start in life. Using just AVT will only cause problems when this child grows into an adult...
NAD can be reached at www.nad.org
I strongly believe in ADDING sign language in this process.
The majority of people who are involved in 'rehabilitation' for 'deafness' are dead-set for not including ASL as a part of the intervention, which is bothersome to me, and to the Deaf community.
On my blog, one commenter wrote which really touched my heart big time...
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Lisa, the commenter said:
My daughter has a profound loss in both ears, she was identified at 2 months. We began learning sign at 3 months.
She received CI at 15 months. Her doctor told me, "ABSOLUTELY NO SIGNING".
They even went so far to tell me "I could sign, but I would have to go some where else for the surgery."
Unbelievable!
I'm not proud that I was not completely honest, but I know it is my choice as a mother to decide what is best for my child.
Kennedy is 2 now and I know we made the right decision. Her speech is beautiful as well as her signing.
Her speech therapist say "she is a poster child for CI" -just not at her doctor's office.
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There is no harm of ADDING sign language in this intervention process! Adding American Sign Language is a natural way to present the visual language to a Deaf child with CI, without any barriers, and it will complement to the AVT process!