Introduction
When a child is diagnosed as deaf, parents are faced with a critical decision to make in the first few years of their child’s life. Deafness as defined by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), means “ a hearing impairment that is so severe that the child is impaired in processing linguistic information through hearing, with or without amplification, that adversely affects a child's educational performance” (34 Code of Federal Regulations [section]300.8[c][3] [2013]). Parents can choose to either communicate with the child in English, the major language of society, or teach the child manual language such as ASL and become a part of the Deaf culture. This decision is especially hard for parents to make who were never exposed to the non-hearing world before, and see deafness as a medical problem that needs to be fixed. This can become critical for the child’s future years and development as a person in the society since the child will always be viewed and judged as different. It is mandated that each child with a disability will be viewed individually to make the best decision in how to treat and help the child. The oral approach, audism, is a method in which children learn to use whatever residual hearing they have, in combination with lip-reading and contextual cues. The children will also thus use an auditory approach, in which they receive amplification devices to correct their hearing and to make use of the residual hearing they have as much as possible. Audism is a mainstream-type approach where the children will go to regular public schools and make use of a special education classroom or resource room when and if needed. The child would be exposed to the required regular curriculum and have the opportunity to meet and interact with hearing peers. The Deaf culture is very greatly against this approach, as it sees that children