Nelson is a 3 year old boy and is autistic. After talking to his mother and to his teacher; he was born a full-term baby and was delivered without any complications. At his current age of 3 years old, he has very awkward motor skills and has a tough time mimicking skills; for example, running, eating and holding a pencil to name a few. His speech and communication are delayed and has not developed any language; besides making noises to imitate words and sounds. His parents are still in the stage where they know their son is autistic but they believe it might be a wrong diagnosis and their son is only going through a delay.
He trains to extreme measures with Keller and does not want to give up even when his parents have proudly submitted that their son will be a great musician. Paul gives up his study of law to concentrate on improving his piano skills, and becomes overconfident in his talents. With 2 years of travelling, Paul aims to be a concert pianist. However, Paul ultimately fails in his pursuit for perfection. He achieves unsatisfactory results in many competitions, and instead of becoming a renowned and famous concert pianist, he becomes a piano teacher at a school.
This situation was particularly difficult for the family since none of the relatives were deaf. This meant that his parents were totally unprepared to raise four deaf children (Horovitz 85). The fact that Baird’s parents did not have deaf relatives also meant that they were unfamiliar with American Sign Language. To try to cope, they made use of ‘home signs’ as well as finger spelling in order to communicate with Baird and his other deaf siblings. As soon as they were of age, Baird and his deaf siblings were enrolled in the Kansas School of the Deaf in Olathe, Kansas.
Although it was not until he received a copy of Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti from his stepfather when he was twelve that Buckley decided he wanted to become a musician, he had always sung along to the radio with his mother; together and by ear, they would figure out the second and third harmonies of whatever song was playing and sing the parts (“Jeff Buckley 1” 2). People who were fortunate enough to have seen Jeff Buckley perform live throughout the course of his tragically short career attest to the fact that they never heard him sing the same song the same way twice. Even during non-solo shows with his band mates, he would set only the most minimal structure to the songs they played. His close friend Steve Berkowitz recalled a
He wanted to serve his country, but it was explained to him that because he was deaf he could not join. This bothered him but he moved on with his life until about 40 years later when a young man name Keith R Nolan wanted to serve his country as well. The only problem was he was deaf so they would not let him join. The odd part about the story that stood out the most for me was when Keith identified 41 soldiers with prosthetic limbs who are back in the field. This
Even when he was a long boy, rube always knew what he had wanted to do with his life. However Rube was not able to pursue his lifelong dream right away, for his parent did not like the idea of his son of his son being a struggling artist. Max Goldberg wanted his son to become an engineer Rube began attending Lowell High school until 1900 when he graduated. Like
When he is awake, Adam is playing and wasting his childhood away. He is one step closer to growing up because time can’t be stopped. If he is asleep though, Adam believes that he can’t lose any time of his childhood and that all his dreams flow into his mind which brings goodness and happiness to him. Adam loves his dreams so much; he doesn’t want to wake up. The quotes, “Cause I’d get a thousand hugs from ten thousand lightning bugs as they try to teach me how to dance,” demonstrates the bond and reality of Adam and his dreams.
After every hardship the family encounters, Rex does more planning of the castle with his children that allows them to get through the bad times with anticipation for this new life, their father has promised. The children believe in their father and spend countless days digging a base for the castle. As the children grow older they begin to realize that the glass castle will never be built and decide to start making reachable dreams of their own. Through being let down by their fathers dream they are all successful in reaching the dreams they had set for themselves. Even though Rex knew that the odds of the glass castle ever being built were slim, he continuously gave his family belief that it would one day soon be built.
Vinnie and his brother were born deaf but the rest of his family is hearing. He prefers to use ASL to communicate with the deaf world. He communicates a little different with his family through both sign and English. He thought the TV show switched at birth was too girly for him. He absolutely hates the cochlear Implant because it leaves a scar and just doesn’t like it.
Chris said to us that he has been signing his whole life since his parents are deaf. They taught him how to sign and he had a speech therapist to teach him how to talk English. We were very surprised. He said that he is more comfortable signing than talking. He feels that it is easier to sign since that is what he learned first.