142 Deaf Epistemologies, Identity, and Learning
of VLOK-CI, an organization of parents of deaf children. Tibo thought there
would be deaf children who sign. We were surprised to see that this was not the
case. They communicated with each other through speech. Tibo asked me why
they were talking, and I explained that that was their decision. Lotte follows
Tibo everywhere. Sometimes she can’t, for example when he is playing with
a group of boys. Then she stays with us adults, to listen to what we are talking
about. There are few deaf girls of her age. I wish there were more deaf children,
but I can’t just snap my fingers and change this.
Tibo: I like to watch Karrewiet, a children’s TV program, especially when it is in
sign language. I often miss sign language on TV. At school, we don’t sign, but at
home we do. I learned it from my parents, and it makes me happy.Karrewiet is being interpreted by Kathleen, a deaf interpreter. The documentary
continues with Kathleen, who talks about her son Basil:KAThleen: After Basil was born, they first checked whether everything was okay.
He was fine. Then a pediatrician asked us immediately to test his hearing. I
told him that that was not necessary. The baby was not ill, so I didn’t see why a
test would be necessary right after birth. I wanted to spend some time with my
baby first and build a relationship with him. The second day, during a medical
check-up, we received the same question. For the second time, the doctor rec-
ommended a hearing test. I said, “No, thank you.” I didn’t know why he was ask-
ing this, because he was not an ENT specialist. I explained to him that it would
be okay to do this later, since we wanted to have time for our family now and
that we would find out later whether he was deaf or hearing. They kept asking,
and we kept refusing. We wanted to find out ourselves whether Basil was deaf
or hearing. Already from the very beginning, we felt that he was deaf, since he
was very visually oriented and didn’t react to noise. Three or four weeks later, a
hearing test confirmed this. We are deaf, so it didn’t matter to us, and we were
also happy because we use sign language at home.
Andy: Tibo’s CI [cochlear implant] was a very hard decision for me. I have deaf
parents and grew up with Flemish Sign Language, so that’s a strong part of me.
For my wife, it was easier to accept this decision, since she has grown up in a
hearing family. She often felt isolated as a child. That’s why she thought that a
CI would maybe be good for our son. Then one day, Tibo told me that his hear-
ing had decreased. He admitted that. This referred to the limits of his hearing
aids. I wondered whether we should give him a CI. I was thinking about that,
looking forward, and found an answer. When Tibo grows up, he can decide
for himself whether he wants to keep his CI on or off. We don’t have to delay
giving him a CI until he is 18. We can do it now. That helped me to accept the
decision.
KAThleen: Apart from this medical pressure, we also thought about assistive
devices such as hearing aids or a CI. Increasing numbers of children have these
now. We were open to all possible options for Basil. We followed up on this