PARENT #1: Some of the advice I have for parents with deaf children is to never give up on the ASL- that's their first language. And to continue learning. I'm still learning ASL. It's been a while but I'm still learning to better communicate with my daughter. If they have any questions or concerns, ask. There's always someone there with the question. Talk to the teachers, be involved in your child's education.

PARENT #2: We heard these horror stories from deaf adults who nobody in their family could communicate with them, and they really weren't able to communicate with anybody until they went to college or something crazy like that.

PARENT #3: We decided that for us it was important for us to be able to communicate with our child, and ASL was the way for us to do that. My advice for other parents would be to educate yourself, know that you're not alone. There are tremendous services out there for deaf children. I would highly recommend learning ASL. It's a way that you're going to be able to communicate with your child the way you always hoped and dreamed to communicate with them. It makes homework a lot more helpful when you can actually communicate with your child when you want to help them, if you want to have other conversations just normally.

Absolutely, I think that information helped tremendously. I was put in contact with the administrator for the Early Childhood Center: Rochester School for the Deaf, Marilyn Curley. She was amazing as far as helping us through the process, getting us enrolled, involving us in everything that Harrison was going to need, giving me basic ASL instruction, pointing us in the right direction as far as where we could acquire language and how important it was for a parent to learn ASL as well. It was tremendous. It was what got me through that bridge to where we are now.