Throughout the book, there is an undeniable correlation between the socio-psychological development of deaf children and the degree of parental support and involvement. The importance of collectiveness in decision-making, consistency in providing loving support, and compliance for the best of the deaf child is manifested, vividly demonstrated and observed in the relationship of the deaf son and his father.

A parent’s lack of awareness of a profoundly deaf child’s needs results in his or her life being not only more difficult than his or her hearing contemporaries, but simply more difficult than necessary and often accompanied by dejection.

The expectation of hearing parents for their deaf child to communicate as a "normal hearing" person is unrealistic. Interestingly, many forget or are unaware of the fact that the average person lip reads with only thirty-percent accuracy. Imagine having to watch the television without volume all day and night. Imagine talking unintelligibly in front of your hearing peers because you are unable to discriminate speech sounds. Imagine being forced to wear something that you unequivocally know does not benefit you. Imagine being deaf.

An excellent allegory would be that of a blind child. Would forcing a blind child to wear glasses help him or her to see well? Suppose as with the deaf child, the blind child’s eyesight is beyond repair, but that fact is neither realized nor recognized. A doctor or a parent believes that putting on corrective lenses will solve this problem. To make matters worse, the blind child is frequently apprised of the need to persevere with the lenses with the presumption that he or she will soon be able to use sight to function normally. The child can actually do many other things individually without the preposterous expectation that the lenses will correct his or her sight, but rather than be encouraged to do those things, he or she is forced to conform to the standards of those with sight. As unrealistic as this seems, this is comparable to how a deaf child is treated by the hearing world.

For the deaf, sign language communication comes to the rescue. As an extremely effective communication method, American Sign Language (ASL) maintains the same unique properties of language as any spoken language, including American English. It is a visual-gestural language that accurately exchanges abstract concepts and has been passed on from one contemporary to the next. ASL is able to convey "sounds," or phonemes, discretely in the form of handshape, movement, location, and orientation of the wrist, not to mention some non-manual facial expressions. In this book, ASL has helped the deaf son to lead a successful life in both the hearing and Deaf worlds.

I am extremely grateful for the love and understanding that my parents provide me and very fortunate to have such dedicated and compassionate people in my life. Also, many thanks go to some of my former teachers who tirelessly and patiently trained me to speak. In addition, I want to acknowledge that if it were not for my friends, especially my former roommate and trusted friend, I would not be able to communicate freely and effectively in a language with which I feel very comfortable. Because of these people, I have been able to function in two worlds—the hearing and the Deaf.

Blair and Michelle, it has been a privilege to read Silent Ears, Silent Heart and write this Foreword. Thank you.

Read and enjoy.