Early Intervention: The Missing Link videos are British Sign Language and English Audio adaptations of an ASLized video, done for an American audience. The video communicates research done by Rachel Benedict which highlights the confusing and overwhelming experience hearing parents of deaf children are experiencing at hospitals, and the implications of the negative and dangerous use of language, which in effect scares and overwhelms new hearing parents of deaf children.
This video conveys the message that there are deaf people who use sign language daily and see themselves as normal and not disabled. They do not feel that being deaf is something to be upset or worried about.
Rachel Benedict’s research demonstrates an alternative approach which needs to be practised by the Early Intervention team (audiologists, doctors and teachers for the deaf) at hospitals. Deaf role models do not come in the Early Intervention team, this paper discusses the alternative approach which will allow the parents to see having a deaf child in a positive light.
Early Intervention: The Missing Link (English/Audio version)
Early Intervention: The Missing Link (BSL version)
A huge thanks to Drip Media for producing both videos with the permission of ASLized.
Thanks to Liz Wyatt for presenting the audio version and to Deaf Parents Deaf Children’s co-founder Lilli Erin Beese for presenting the BSL version.
Research by Rachel Benedict – ASLized – Produced by Drip Media (2011)
Benedict, B. (2010, July). Early intervention needs your involvement. Presentation given at National Association of the Deaf Conference, Philadelphia, PA.
Hintermair, M. (2000). Hearing impairment, social networks, and coping: the need for families with hearing-impaired children to relate to other parents and to hearing-impaired adults. American Annals of the Deaf, 145(1), 41-54.
Sass-Lehrer, M. (2008, Mar.). Early Intervention for children Birth to 3: Families, Communities, & Communication. EHDI eBook Chapter 7.