I finished several books this week, but the best was Deaf Like Me, Thomas S. Spradley and James P. Spradley.  It chronicles the first several years in the life of Lynn Spradley, who was born deaf after her mother contracted rubella early in her pregnancy.  The family opted for a totally oral approach in the beginning, but in the end of the book switched to using total communication, which included sign.  Reading this book felt quite familiar and at times I was almost in tears.  My own small person was born with a hearing loss and I lost hearing in my left ear in 1995.  I have noticed that my hearing has gotten worse and that "What" is the most common word in our house.  In addition, small person has been diagnosed with an expressive language learning disorder by three practitioners, so she has a hard time getting the words out.  Her speech and language therapist several years ago counseled us not to use sign language with her because it would prevent her from using her voice to express her wants and needs.  Like the Spradleys, I listened to the specialists and experts.  Like Lynn, my small person experienced a lot of frustration in getting her needs met.  Like her parents, I experienced a lot of frustration trying to understand her.  Added into all this was my own hearing loss.  I, too, finally opted to add sign language into my methods of communication with my daughter and the tears and the tantrums really began to disappear with this new method of communication.  Most importantly, though, I can understand my child when she speaks to me, and I am not running all over the house saying, "What, What, WHAT?"  I admire the Spradleys for the beautiful book.  I felt like I was taking the journey through deafness and the struggle to communicate with an old friend.  The language was natural and the story beautiful.  I wanted to cheer when Lynn was able to communicate with her parents on the plane ride at the end of the book.  It's a good read for those who are not deaf to get an understanding into what it's like to have a child with a hearing loss, and it's a great read for anyone who knows someone who is deaf.