Deaf Like Me Book Report

Elm. ASL 1

3/10/16

Jenna Schettler

Book Report: Deaf Like Me

Deaf Like Me For my book report I decided to choose the book Deaf Like Me written by Thomas and James Spradley, copy write by Gallaudet University Press in 1987. I was beyond pleased with my choice of book and reading it has been a great experience. I would recommend this book to anyone and believe that they would have the same experience that I did. This book started off in early November, 1964. During 1964 a lot of important things were happening in deaf culture. A special phone for the deaf was created by Robert Weitbrecht, who is deaf. He invented the teletypewriter, which enabled deaf people to call one another and type out their words. That is an extremely important invention

This led to a teaching method being created in 1970 that did not favor sign language or oralism and every child was considered equal and able to get the education that they needed. This is extremely important to me as a future educator that every student, no matter the disability, was treated equally. Every student should be able to have the same opportunity to learn. The method used in education that started in the early 1970s was known as Total Communication. In an article called The History of Communication, written on start ASL’s website, stated that Total Communication gives the opportunity to deaf students in numerous ways such as ASL, fingerspelling, lip reading, pictures, use of computers, writing, gestures, reading, expression and the use of hearing aids that some schools had to provide. Again, this information is tremendously important to me because as a future educator I would want to do anything and everything that I possibly could to make sure that every student has what they need to succeed and love getting their education. Following this, in 1975 the IDEA,

The book opened with Tom Spradley, whom was the narrator, Husband of Louise Spradley, and father of Bruce Spradley. Louise and Tom were a very standard American couple with one son that was 3 and a half at the time. At this time Louise and Tom had just newly found out that they were pregnant with another baby and were very excited but they noticed that Bruce began to get sick. Louise decided to take Bruce to the doctors, very unsure of what he may be coming down with. When they arrived the the doctor, Bruce was diagnosed with Rubella. Rubella was not a big deal for Bruce because it was something that he would be able to heal from and it is widely known as the German measles. Unfortunately, when Louise took Bruce to the doctor, he seemed more concerned about her health because Rubella can cause many different types of congenital defects to a newborn if the mother becomes affected with rubella. When Louise and Tom found out how dangerous rubella could be to her babies’ health, they began to stress out beyond belief. The author truly exaggerated how stressed out she was by throwing in the fact that Louise began to wake up in cold sweats every night with nightmares of her pregnancy going wrong. The couple didn’t know what to do other than to wait it out and get her checked because she had started noticing a rash on her arm. A rash was not a good sign because that