Charlie is a 14-month-old female discovering the early toddler years. With the help of cochlear implants, she doesn’t feel intimidated at all as she easily interacts with the hearing world around her. Kate and Dan Walls have chosen to raise their daughter as a bilingual child. They enrich and fluidly mix both Auslan (Australian Sign Language) and spoken English into their everyday experiences. This approach to Charlie’s identity will help build her confidence and sense of self as she grows into her identity as a Deaf child. It gives her the tools to be successful in both realms.
Kate and Dan Walls are currently involved in Auslan classes, as well as incorporating Auslan into their home life. Signing practice at the family’s dining table. Along the way, they’re guiding Charlie to adapt to this new visual language. Incredibly, Charlie is learning new signs daily and is excited when seeing adults use Auslan and would like to learn it himself.
As the proud descendants of the original Walls family residency, they are dedicated to growing a nurturing artist community. They’ve developed resources, such as Auslan instructional short videos, that help extended family members learn Auslan too. Her language access commitment means that all the people in Charlie’s life, from family to medical providers, can understand and communicate with her.
A Community of Support
Charlie goes to an early intervention playgroup operated by the not-for-profit NextSense. This hands-on program purposefully fosters cognitive, social-emotional and motor development. It provides Charlie with lots of opportunities to engage with and observe other kids and adults in a safe, welcoming space.
Kate knows that this bilingual approach is necessary for Charlie’s development. She expressed her conviction that “it was Charlie’s birthright to have sign language as part of her life and to have access to the Deaf community.” By focusing on spoken language and Auslan equally, she believes they are doing right by Charlie and giving him the best possible opportunity to thrive.
Community is essential to this journey, and Brent Phillips, an advocate for Deaf culture, shares the ways community can enrich and empower you. “For the kids, it’s about creating that sense of belonging and connecting with their peers,” he stated. “For the parents, it’s about education and meeting Deaf adults who are successful.”
The walls have done a great job creating this environment for Charlie. Greg Leigh, an early intervention specialist, reiterates this sentiment: “Children need to be immersed in language-rich environments with people who know and use the languages that they’re learning.”
The Power of Inclusion
Ultimately, the Walls family’s commitment to raising Charlie in both worlds speaks to an impressive understanding of Deaf identity and culture. By strengthening her relationship with Auslan, they want to make her feel a pride in her Deafness. Kate notes, “If we’re expecting Charlie to learn spoken language and English, I think it’s important that we meet her halfway, so she can have one foot in the hearing world and one foot in the Deaf world.”
This nurturing, bilingual multilingual development has been positive for Charlie but has made the family’s life multilingual. Kate remarked, “We’re getting double the amount of joy because we’re putting in double the amount of work.” Their work points to the ways that inclusion and accessibility can have a transformative effect on a child’s physical development and self-image.
The family’s eldest daughter, Ellie, is learning Auslan to communicate with her sister. We believe that this group dynamic fosters an inclusive environment to allow everyone in the family to connect with Charlie in a deeper way.
Celebrating Deaf Culture
The Walls family’s experiences parallel a wider trend in the Deaf community today that emphasizes cultural identity, in addition to language proficiency. As Brent Phillips explains, “Just like our Italian communities, Chinese communities and Greek communities have their spaces, their values, their norms, behaviours and cultures, so do we with Auslan.” This acknowledgment of cultural heritage is imperative to children such as Charlie as they develop through adolescence into adulthood.
Kate is noticing that Charlie really seems interested, too, in this sign language. “She loves watching the Deaf adults signing. She’ll just be transfixed on them. It’s gorgeous,” she said. This cultural-linguistic connection properly elevates sign language beyond just a method of communication. It is an invitation to belonging in a dynamic circle.
Additionally, Kate points out that building relationships between Deaf people is about building the kind of understanding that we as hearing folks may never be able to grasp. “It just shows that there is this connection between Deaf people that hearing people just don’t understand,” she advised. The family now lives in Melbourne and continues to be active in Auslan. This commitment ensures that Charlie will forever have a beautiful place to unfold her identity.
As they embrace their bilingual journey, Kate and Dan Walls remain committed to providing Charlie with every opportunity to succeed in life. They know that no child is like any other and they know they need to prepare their daughter with every option possible.
