Takia Clayton
4/15/ 2010
ASL
Research Paper
Deaf Like Me
By Thomas S. Spradley
James P. Spradly
Epilogue By Lynn Spradley

Deaf Like Me is a story compiled together by Thomas and James Spradley. It is a compelling story about two hearing+ parents struggling to cope with their daughters overwhelming deafness. This powerful story expresses with simplicity the love, hope, and anxieties of all hearing parents of deaf children. In the epilogue, Lynn Spradley, herself, now a teenager thinks back about different times in her life growing up deaf. She reflects upon her education, her struggle to communicate, and the discovery that she was the inspiration and the main focus of her father's and uncle's book collaboration. Deaf Like Me is a
As Lynn got older her problems were just at school but at home too. A lot of the time Louise and Thomas, both had trouble understanding what it was Lynn wanted or had asked for, which cause to throw terrible tantrums which led Lynn into fits of rage. In rebellion, Lynn had even stopped learning new words to lip read. With all the signs in Thomas and Louise’s face proving that this oral type teaching that they assumed was best for their child was proved to be ineffective. However, even with this knowledge Tom and Louise stilled attempted to be ignorant towards their daughter’s disability. The strongly believed they did not want to teach her "animalistic gestures." Around the time Lynn was 5, By the time Lynn was 5 years of age, Louise received some mail on Volta Review and the notice caught her attention.
Interested in meeting people struggling with the same issue, Louis went to place to meet with parents that were meeting about their methods of teaching. These parents were giving one another advice on what should be done to help their kids. During the meeting a man stood up, One person stood up and announced himself to be deaf since the age of 6 but before that he was hearing. He said because lost his hearing at age 6 it was easier for him to make use of oral speech. He went on to explain that it is not easily the same for someone who is born deaf to pick up. As he spoke his speech wasn't too