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[psyche0]

I was just reading this semi-bizarre news story out of Pittsburgh. The basic premise is not unusual in itself. There was a family argument and a man pulled out a rifle and shot his sister and brother-in-law to death. What makes the case so unusual is that his parents, himself, the two victims, and the victims' four children are all deaf and mute

Comments

[missfran]

I know many, many families where all members are deaf. Deafness is hereditary. The reason I am not deaf is that my parents both became deaf in early childhood due to illness. As for "deaf/mute" - that's simply what a lot of people call deaf people since it's often mistakenly thought that they cannot talk (rather than either chosing not to, or not being comprehensible to those not used to "deaf speech").

[psyche0]

I was just quoting the article which described the various members of the family as being unable to hear or speak. Here is a link to the article.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05123/498201.stm

I actually did not know that deafness was a genetic disorder. I looked it up and there is supposedly over 150 different genetic diseases that can cause familial deafness. I myself have only known a couple of deaf people in my life. One was born deaf because his mom contracted rubella during the pregnancy. The other person lost his hearing after a head trauma in his teens.

[missfran]

I hope you don't think I was being snarky at you - I didn't mean it that way! Just that it's a common misconception, often perpetuated by the media, that deaf people cannot talk. Often they can talk, it's just not easily comprehensible to people who aren't used to it. For example, I can understand my mum perfectly, but someone who didn't know her would assume that she couldn't talk because it sounds so bizarre.

Mot children who have deaf parents are born hearing because the parents are deaf due to non-genetic reasons, like in my case. But as I said, I know lots of big deaf families. It's very noisy in a house full of deaf people!

[psyche0]

No, I didn't think you were being snarky at all. My grandfather has been deaf since the 1940's from a war injury. I think his speech is better than most deaf people because he didn't actually lose his hearing until he was 18 or 19 years old. Just in the last few years, his speech has definitely become worse. It has gotten to the point where he won't speak to people he doesn't know, letting my grandmother do all the talking. So I have seen for myself how people perceive him to be unable to speak simply because he chooses not to.