Writing a (Formerly) Deaf Character

[howdyadoitsnatty]

Hello again, been a little but I've had a few burning questions in regard to one of my characters who was deaf until about age 6 before getting her hearing restored, with her later becoming a musician. I was a bit curious in particular about this because I feel like I know very little about deaf culture / asl so I wanted to ask about a few things, mostly:

• Would it be proper to give this person a sign name or some other sort of thing like that? Would they even still be proficient in ASL after about 18 years time?
• What sort of other things might come from being deaf in early life? How difficult would adjusting to that be, and since the character is a young adult would any of that still be noticeable?
• How are people who have implants and the like considered by other deaf people? Would she be sort of disconnected from deaf culture due to having it restored at a young-ish age, or would she likely still have some sort of connection to it?

Comments

[conuly]

There's the question of whether she emotionally would, but then there's also the logistical and community aspect. When she regained her hearing, did her parents pull her away from whatever her local Deaf community was, or did she stay in contact with old friends?

There's the secondary question of: how much connection did she have to Deaf culture to begin with? It is astonishing to me how many people think being normal means pretending their child does not have a disability, and that includes deafness. Lots of people more or less deliberately set out from the start to limit any connections their child might develop in that direction.