The Best Method of Educating Deaf Children
             When a couple finds out they are going to have a baby they are thrilled. They put time and preparation into the arrival of their new baby. The wonderful day finally arrives and the couple is blessed with a beautiful child. Months pass by and the watch as their child grows from an infant to a toddler. When they go to the pediatrician for a routine check-up, they find out that their child is deaf. The parents are now forced to change their entire method of raising this child. The most important aspect of this child's life is what is the best form of education. At the EUD Conference in Belgium, in 2000, Corrie Tijsseling stated:
             When a child is diagnosed it is immediately brought in special care, and parents do have to make a choice about the way in which the child should gain language. Each choice is attached to a certain way a child is raised and educated. So, prelingually Deaf children enter the educational system at a very young age. This has as a result that a huge amount of educating the child and raising it takes place in the system, next to the fact that the way the child is raised at home is based on the choice which has been made about the way [the child] should gain language, by signs or by speech. (Tijsseling internet)
             Oralism would be one method of choice. The child would develop English skills; being able to form sounds, words, then sentences. To make oralism successful, many long hours, patience and hearing aides are a must. One of the benefits for the Deaf child, if successful, is they are able to be successful in a hearing world. Lew Golan, a man who became deaf at age six because of meningitis, made this comment:
             Assuming that the major purpose of an education is to prepare a child for an independent, productive, satisfying adulthood, how can we maximize the opportunities for a deaf child? It may not be fair, but it's a fact: deaf people with usable oral ca...