Deaf Actors and Actresses Cast on All My Children

Deaf Actors and Actresses Cast on All My Children

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.

Dont't forget to also check out: All My Children

Sources: ABC

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brianriley4
ciavmom,

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.
4 years agoby @brianriley4 Flag
abcohende
In behalf for TJo,

"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!"
4 years agoby @abcohende Flag
LangDevResearcher
http://www.deafdc.com/blog/chris-heuer/2007-08-16/informed-decisions-parents-know-best-and-other-mythical-creatures-iii-of-iii/

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.
4 years agoby @langdevresearcher Flag
LangDevResearcher
Read this, Chris Heuer "Informed decisions, parents know the best" third of 3 parts
4 years agoby @langdevresearcher Flag
abcohende
Whoa, WHO says that the Deaf Community wants to remove that choice completely? That is not true, it is a fallacy.

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."
4 years agoby @abcohende Flag
ciavmom
The line about deaf adults being angry at their parents for not choosing to teach them ASL is so very dated. My older daughter is 20 years old. She is very grateful that we chose to have her be one of the earliest children in the U.S. to receive a CI and to raise her with the Auditory-Verbal approach. If you don't believe me, read it in her own words at http://deafprogressivism.blogspot.com/2007/07/in-response-to-hearing-mother-of.html.

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.
4 years agoby @ciavmom Flag
LangDevResearcher
Momto2bilateralciuse,

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.
4 years agoby @langdevresearcher Flag
momto2bilateralciuse
I highly doubt that the person below is actually a researcher in language development, considering their comments and grammar. "Many researches" do not show what she claims. However, I wish to congratulate Kassie and her family on a great storyline. I met them a few years ago at CI camp in the Rockies and I am sure that they not only have their son's best wishes in mind, but those of all of our implanted kids. Implantees are showing terrific results these days, and the vast majority of kids implanted by age 2 to 3 are caught up by kindergarten or even preschool age. They are receptively (with audition) and expressively caught up to their same aged peers. They are doing well. The window of plasticity closes approximately from 3 to 7 years of age, after which it is much more difficult to become a comfortable, native speaker. It's laughable to imagine forcing hearing parents to utilize a foreign language (ASL) to communicate with their baby when there is such a great solution. Today's deaf infants do not have to struggle with their parents; they can have the same language as their community and peers. All babies are born with propensity to learn language. There is no more reason for a baby to consider ASL their native language than their is for us to think they ought to learn Russian. If a baby is found not to be an implant candidate, fine-- sign will work. But for the implantees (and more than 99% of deaf babies are likely candidates) they can look forward to normal education and, perhaps more importantly, do not have to rely on government assistance or limit their job opportunities with the disabling condition of not being able to speak the most common language of their community. The research clearly supports the educational and vocational benefit of speaking and audition, and we thank ONe Life to Live for helping bring this to nationwide attention!
4 years agoby @momto2bilateralciuse Flag
LangDevResearcher
I am a researcher in language development of deaf and hoh children, I concur with all commenters supporting bilingualism for each deaf - hoh children. Experiences and many researches already show about two third of CI implantees still have language delay as far as about 4 years behind in spoken English vocabulary by time when they become around 12 years old.
4 years agoby @langdevresearcher Flag
ciavmom
"Some" is in fact the great majority who are in Auditory-Verbal programs. Meanwhile, ASL and deaf schools lead many to 4th grade reading levels and an unemployment rate of 24%. My children were born into my culture, and I was most equipped to teach them a language in which I was fluent. NO ONE ELSE has the right to dictate to parents how to raise their children. My daughters have been deprived of nothing, but they would have been deprived of a great deal had they not developed the hearing, speech and English language skills that they have.
4 years agoby @ciavmom Flag
brianriley4
Even if *some* people are lucky enough to do well with cochlear implants, that does not justify depriving deaf babies of the opportunity to be exposed to language at birth by allowing them to learn ASL. There is absolutely no justification for that.

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.
4 years agoby @brianriley4 Flag
ciavmom
My daughters are ages 20 and 12. Both were born profoundly deaf, but neither has ever learned or needed sign. Instead, we got them cochlear implants at very young ages and taught them to hear and speak through the Auditory-Verbal approach. They both attended mainstream schools all the way through. Both hear so well that they speak on the phone with ease. My older daughter is bilingual, but her second language is not ASL but, rather, French. In fact, she was selected out of a total of 800 juniors and seniors during her her junior year of high school to receive her school's foreign language award, and in her senior year she won an oral only foreign language competition, scoring superior, the highest level. My younger daughter completed her Auditory-Verbal therapy at age 6 with English language skills that tested 6 months to two years advanced for her age.

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!
4 years agoby @ciavmom Flag
Vikee
I wholehaeartedly agree with ASL Advocate and abccohen that using sign language AND AVT therapy is important. By limiting the support to one way of helping is going to cause some controversy within our community and within the hearing community.

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
4 years agoby @vikee Flag
asl4di
I sincerely hope that the producers of AMC have incorporated American Sign Language in their storyline. So many hearing parents are convinced by well-meaning doctors that implanting their child will "fix" their deafness. At night, when the CI is put on the bedside table, the child is STILL DEAF. When the child grows up and discovers their native language and their Deaf Community, it is the parents who tend to be left out. I have known plenty of implanted teens and young adults who discarded their implants and have embraced their Deaf Culture and identity. Parents and child advocates would do well to supplement the CI trend with ASL in tendem. Each child deserves to have a native language, and for the Deaf it is primarily ASL. I will be anxious to see if the AMC storyline is positioned as a CI advertisement or if they show all the options for deaf children.
4 years agoby @asl4di Flag
abcohende
I wholeheartedly support ASL Advocate's suggestion that we use American Sign Language for deaf babies and toddlers WITH cochlear implants along with their AVT sessions.

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...

_____________________________________________

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.
_______________________________________________

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!
4 years agoby @abcohende Flag
ASLadvocate
What this family needs (parents and child) is American Sign Language (ASL) to communicate with each other immediately and effectively. It is not difficult to learn basic ASL vocabulary skills, even as they consider and try other things (i.e., hearing aids, cochlear implants, speech and auditory therapies), which have uncertain outcomes and take a significant amount of time to implement. ASL will empower this family. Parents learn and use ASL (baby sign language) to communicate early with their babies who can hear. Do not deny ASL to parents with babies who are deaf. Give the gift of ASL.
4 years agoby @asladvocate Flag
avbria
Wondering if JQ's parents were ever informed about American Sign Language (ASL)? Regardless of hearing level, ASL plays a crucial role in every deaf child's life even those with cochlear implant. Check out deafbilingual.blogspot.com for resources.
4 years agoby @avbria Flag