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I asked my mother to send me here. It was a big decision for her because I lived 8 hours away from here. My mother made the right choice to send me here. It was worth it.

Every deaf child can learn just the same as hearing children can. I think that is one problem is that often there are misconceptions about deaf children’s abilities.

Our daughter’s first language is ASL. It’s very important she understand ASL.

A strong language foundation is very important for their success in life. Research shows that deaf students who have American Sign Language skills are then more successful in English.

We know that learning is a social activity. It’s social in nature. People learn from each other all the time. Children learn the fastest from their peers.

ASL is their language. That gives them the self-esteem and they have a foundation then to support their English development.

I like that I can look directly at my teacher. I don’t have to look at the interpreter. I can get the teaching directly from the teacher.

It is very crucial that the children have access to language development. A natural acquisition of language right from the very beginning.

With ASL I could learn everything. I’ve made so much progress since I came here. I’m grateful to my parents for sending me to WSD. In my opinion, you’ll want to come here.

Once Nicolas started coming here, he blossomed and bloomed. I’m happy to say he walks, talks, runs, reads and plays basketball and does all the things they said he would never do.

Before I got to WSD, I didn’t sign well. I used a little bit of gesturing. When I got here, I got better and better.

I’ve seen a lot of changes because the communications was there to be able to interact, socialize, boost her self-esteem. The teachers, the staff, very positive reinforcements here.

He would start telling me ‘I just want to read at recess. I don’t want anybody to talk to me,’ and I’m like ‘no’. He’s outgoing. That’s not in his spirit. We started looking at different schools and was wowed by this school because of the socialization at recess and lunch and in the classroom is amazing.

[We] came to the school. She fell in love with it. The teachers, the one-on-one, the bi-lingual, the support for speech, for occupational therapy Gabby had at that time. There was a plethora of resources for us. And my husband and I had children. They are our responsibility. We want the best for her. We want her to succeed in the world. Here she goes.

So in one year [Jonathan] has made amazing progress. I think that just how much ASL is going on in the classroom has really made all the difference. So he is exposed to it all day.