Spring Break
Deaf CEO, superintendent talks about life without sound
Greta Fishback
Issue date: 3/28/08 Section: Campus
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Life hasn't always been easy for David Geeslin, deaf CEO and superintendent of the Indiana School for the Deaf.
Geeslin presented a program titled "A Perspective of Being Deaf" at Westminster Village in Terre Haute about growing up deaf.
His visit was sponsored by the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and Blumberg Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Special Education.
From the time Geeslin was young, Geeslin's mother, an audiologist, knew he couldn't hear normally.
She took him in for a hearing test, and sure enough, he was deaf.
Geeslin had to wear two hearing aids for a while and received speech therapy every day.
His mother was a huge influence on his success in overcoming his deafness, Geeslin said.
"She used to keep a journal recording my progress and all my successes," he said. "I was frustrated because I couldn't speak a word to thank her for all her hard work."
Geeslin said that his communication abilities used to make him feel like a Windows computer with a virus. He then attended the Indiana School for the Deaf.
"By the time I had finished my training there, I had become a Mac," he said.
He took sign language classes at the school, and everyone in his life started signing. At this time, sign language was almost unheard of, Geeslin said.
Geeslin then gave the audience a background of the physiological reason behind deafness.
He also showed the audience a video of his 10-month-old daughter signing "mommy" and "daddy," and he explained why he and his wife taught her to sign.
"The motor skills used in signing are easier to control than the fine motor skills used in speech," he said.
He encourages other parents with deaf or hard-of-hearing children to teach them to sign, especially in the first seven years of life, when the brain is most supple.
"The brain doesn't care whether you speak or sign," he said. "It looks at the message being conveyed."
Geeslin also presented a video called "Vital Signs," which was produced by a deaf filmmaker.
Although the video was completely in sign language, anyone could understand the message being conveyed, even if he or she does not know American Sign Language because of the signer's nonverbal communication and images in the background.
Geeslin said he thinks art is a powerful medium, and he displayed several pieces of art by deaf artists.
One work contained images of ears and mouths, and he said it had a profound message.
"This piece says to the viewer 'I have a life which does not only focus on being able to speak'," he said.
He explained how deaf people are often labeled as "disabled."
"We're very normal people-we can do everything you can do except hear," he said.
After receiving his master's degree, Geeslin taught in the public school system as a supervising teacher and doing diagnostic work.
As the CEO of the Indiana School for the Deaf and a former student there, he said he thinks the school is of utmost importance for deaf and hard-of-hearing children.
"The Indiana School for the Deaf is the center of deaf communication-it allows children to socialize," he said. "Parents often thank us for giving their children the leadership skills they need."
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