Euroa parents Irais Trejo Medécigo and Alex Tsymbalov had to adapt quickly to learn this new language for their deaf son, Leo.
“It certainly was a journey from the start, and the shock of wondering how we were going to raise a deaf child,” Irais said.
“I’m not fluent in Auslan and I’m still learning.
“You've got to practise and remember the vocabulary — and keep practising and keep practising.
“And we have the motivation every single day. But it's often challenging.”
There is a lot of technology to assist deaf people, Irais said, and they made the decision to get cochlear implants for Leo when he was 18 months old.
Leo’s cochlear implants give him access to sound, which has given him the ability to learn spoken language to communicate with his family, but Irais said that because he is ultimately still deaf, it’s important for the family to learn Auslan to communicate with Leo, too.
“He's developing our language, but at the same time, we use Auslan as another way to communicate, and as a way for him to find his own identity ... and be part of the deaf culture,” she said.
“Auslan not only gives us access to a way to communicate with Leo, but it also gives us access to a community and culture.
“It’s very exciting seeing him using Auslan and seeing him very proud and very happy about participating with deaf kids and adults.
“I can see this as a sense of belonging, a sense of him being proud about that.”
Leo’s deafness has provided the family with a special experience with language and culture to which Irais and Alex never would have been exposed.
“It's a new world, a wonderful world that we live in now that maybe we never would have known about until our son was born,” Irais said.
This story originally appeared in Kids Now Magazine. You can find the full publication at https://www.sheppnews.com.au/features-and-magazines/kids-now-2022-23/
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