"Too young for sign?” : Why this advice is hurting our deaf kids

I still remember sitting across from a mum last month, her eyes glassy with tears she was trying hard to hold back.

She told me a professional had said her toddler was “too young” for signed language.
They told her: “Let’s give the hearing aids a chance to work.”

So she waited.
She trusted.
She assumed they knew better.

But no one told her the truth. While they were “waiting and seeing,” her child’s brain was missing out on critical language input. And there’s a heartbreaking reality here. Those missed windows might never fully open again.

When she finally came to me, worried about her child’s slow speech progress, the first thing I asked was simple: “What does your gut tell you?”

Her response came fast.
“I think they’re wrong… but am I allowed to think that?”

YES.
Yes, you are allowed.
You must trust that voice inside you.

I wanted to stand up and shout: YOU HAVE THE POWER TO CHANGE THIS.

We worked together to rebuild her intervention team, connect her with aligned local professionals, and create a plan centred on her child’s actual needs, not just what the system defaults to.

But here’s the part that keeps me up at night.
What about the families who never get that second opinion?
What about the parents still being told hearing devices will “solve everything”?
What about the deaf and hard of hearing kids who are losing their chance to develop language, relationships, and their full identity?

It physically hurts my heart to imagine a world where my own Deaf son’s jokes, opinions, and ideas were never given a voice, where his brilliant mind was trapped simply because the system refused to meet him where he is.

And here’s the truth.
This isn’t just one family’s story.
It’s happening everywhere, every day, because of lack of awareness, lack of resources, lack of time, and every excuse under the sun.

But it’s not the kids’ fault.
And it’s not the parents’ fault.

So why are they the ones paying the price?

We need to do better.
We must do better.

It starts with us.