International (MNN) – Imagine not knowing your name for most of your childhood. This isolation is a reality for many Deaf children who live with severely limited access to language. DOOR International and other Deaf ministries seek to help Deaf feel seen as they share the truth of the Gospel.
Delayed Language Access
Rob Myers with DOOR says that around 90% of Deaf kids are born into hearing families. However, many of those children’s families don’t ever learn sign language.
“The statistics that I’ve heard is somewhere around 80%-85%, but it’s at least a majority of the parents don’t learn sign language. When you think about places in a rural area, in a developing country, the percentage is going to go up even more so. So you’re probably talking somewhere between 90%-95%. A vast, vast majority of hearing parents don’t learn sign language, and there’s a number of reasons behind that.”
This delay in access to language means both speech and written language are restricted. Myers explains that learning to read and write is really a sound-based activity. The symbols on paper are connected to a language a person already knows. So many Deaf children struggle to learn to read.
“So there’s this huge discrepancy there in terms of what information a Deaf child will have access to, and that carries over into them knowing that they have a name,” Myers states. “Many Deaf kids, before they get access to sign language, don’t have access to any language and that includes understanding their own name. So most Deaf kids grow up not knowing they have a name. It’s only when they enter Deaf school and they finally get access to sign language that they begin to understand what’s being communicated around them, including their own name.”
Discovering Identity in a Name Sign
Myers says that when a new child comes to a Deaf school, one of the first things that the other kids do is introduce themselves and look for unique characteristics of the new kid. These characteristics can be included in a name sign for the child. A name sign is a special honorific sign given by a Deaf person that incorporates some feature of the person named. For many kids understanding their new name sign is incredibly exciting.
(Image courtesy of Luisella Planeta on Pixabay)
“When I visit Deaf schools kids will come running up, and the very first thing that they’ll do is they’ll give you their name. They’ll say, I’m and then they’ll sign their name. And the first thing that they want you to do then is to repeat back their name sign so that they feel seen and they know that you recognize and understood their name.”
Always Known by God
Two-by-two teams share that the Gospel often moves powerfully once Deaf children begin to understand their names.
“One of the things I’ve heard from them repeatedly is how powerful it is when these kids learn not just that they have a name, but that God knows their name. And that God has always known them. And that even in these isolating experiences where they’re in places where it feels like no one knows their language, no one can communicate with them, no one knows who they are – God still sees them. He loves them, and He’s been pursuing them.”
There are many Deaf who need to hear about God’s love for them through Christ. DOOR works in many countries with their two-by-two teams to go into schools and share the Gospel regularly with Deaf children. DOOR shares updates from these programs through their website and newsletter so people can be praying. Learn more here.
Myers also explains that while DOOR mostly works internationally there is a wonderful ministry in the US called Deaf Kids Connect. He recommends that parents of Deaf children or churches that have a Deaf child check out their resources on how to engage Deaf kids. Learn more here.
Image courtesy of Pavel Danilyuk on Pexels
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