When Karabi Sarmah and Tanmoy Pathak found out their newborn daughter was profoundly deaf, they were devastated. “It was heartbreaking,” Ms. Sarmah says. “There was no one in our families who was deaf. We were clueless about what to do.”
The first-time parents set out to find ways to offer their girl the best possible care. One day, during a therapy session at the Lethbridge-Layton-Mackay Rehabilitation Centre, a Speech-Language Pathologist asked the couple a question:
Had they considered learning ASL?
“What’s ASL?” Ms. Sarmah answered.
She soon found out—American Sign Language (ASL), the most widely used language among Deaf people in North America. That discovery led Ms. Sarmah and Mr. Pathak to a classroom at the MAB site recently, where they joined other parents in immersing themselves in the basics of ASL.
The ASL Parent Group run by our CIUSSS’s Directorate of Rehabilitation and Multidisciplinary Services is the only such course in a healthcare setting for English speakers in Montreal. Now in its second year, it aims to create a bridge between hearing parents and their child who is Deaf or hard of hearing—while offering them the chance to learn from other parents who are travelling the same path.
“We can help parents build community and have a healthy relationship with their child,” says ASL Instructor Brenda Too, an Educator who leads the group.
“We’re empowering parents to help empower their children, by breaking down the child’s isolation.”
ASL Instructor Brenda Too
Ms. Sarmah and Mr. Pathak’s story is not unusual: 90 percent of Deaf children in Canada are born to hearing parents, who typically have no experience with hearing loss or sign language.
Many parents direct their children toward spoken language. For example, Ms. Sarmah and Mr. Pathak’s daughter got a cochlear implant, an electronic device that improves the child’s hearing by sending sounds directly into her hearing nerve; it helps the girl learn spoken language.
But the couple says ASL gives them an additional means of bonding with their child, who is 4 years old. Ms. Sarmah has already learned more than 50 signs, including those for “yes”, “no”, “again”, “water” and “stop”.
“We’re learning a new language and, thanks to the team at the MAB, we’re in a much better
place,” says Ms. Sarmah.
The atmosphere in the MAB classroom in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce is convivial, and parents regularly erupt in laughter. Ms. Too leads the group in a Jeopardy-inspired game on the theme of deafness, in which the parents must provide answers by signing. She shows a video on Dinner Table Syndrome, which illustrates how a child who is Deaf or hard of hearing can be left out of group conversations at mealtime. “Try to be aware of what’s going on with your child and to include them in the family,” Ms. Too tells the group. “It’s easy for them to be excluded.”
ASL is a visual language that uses gestures, hand shapes and facial expressions—or, as Ms. Too describes it, “it’s like painting on a canvas.” This visual element can help relieve stress from a Deaf child, she says.
“For someone with hearing loss, listening takes a lot of effort,” she explains. “You have to make your brain work to figure out what’s being said. A visual language is a tool that makes a Deaf person feel less stress and feel more included. It allows them to engage parts of their brain other than the auditory parts.”
In addition to instruction, couples in Ms. Too’s class get invaluable support from other parents.
“We’ve met parents and learned what they’ve gone through with their child, and this gave us direction and a sense of what our daughter might face.”
Tanmoy Pathak
During the recent class, Ms. Too was accompanied by Speech-Language Pathologists Alexandra Meltzer and Emmanuela Avoli; Brooke Nancekivell, a freelance English-ASL interpreter; and Volunteer and Educator Elizabeth Contreras.
“The team gave us guidance and provided support from the start of our journey,” Mr. Pathak says. “They’ve treated us like we were family.”
Adds Ms. Sarmah: “Brenda and the others have been lifesavers for us. Today, I can proudly say: ‘My daughter is Deaf, but she can sign—and now we can sign too.’”
