Book Report: Deaf Like Me: Having a child can be a wonderful yet terrifying experience. It is an opportunity to love someone fully and raise them into a well-rounded person, but it also holds a tremendous amount of responsibility. Becoming a parent can be an even more terrifying experience when it comes to knowing there is a risk to your child's health. This was the case of Louise Spradely, who was sick with rubella while pregnant, in the book “Deaf Like Me,” by Spradely. There are health risks at stake, and possibilities of Louise and Tom’s baby being born either deaf or blind. This is a true story of their daughter who is Deaf and went through a long journey of discovering what is best for them and their child, Lynn. Oralism Resources in this time period appear to be limited.…show more content… Because of this, Louise and Tom only knew Deaf people to be “dumb” and “unable to live a normal life.” They were discouraged to find out that Lynn was in fact Deaf. They checked twice to be sure. Since they solely had their audiologist to inform them of what they could do, Mrs. Caldwell at the John Tracy Clinic, introduced them to oralism. “Treat her just like a normal child”. Talk to her just as if she can hear you.” (Spradley Pg 46) From here on out, this is all they stuck to. They also signed up to get journals from the “Volta Review” which would mainly talk about successful Deaf people who stuck to oralism. They even enrolled Lynn into Starr King Exceptional School (Spradley), which was a pure oralism school, and refused to “gesture” Lynn. They followed this to a t for years. Frustrations. Communication is important between children and their parents. It was difficult for Louise and Tom to not be able to speak to Lynn outside of the few words she was learning to lip read. That and only knowing what was in her experience
