https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GbxFIVQv8c&ab_channel=NITVShorts
*Spoilers Ahead*
The Silent Child is a short film on sign-language that won Oscars for Live Action Short Film in 2018. It follows the chronicles of a 4-year-old Deaf child (Libby) born in a hearing family. The family hires a social worker to help Libby be more confident before starting school. They tell the social worker that Libby is a quiet child, who rarely talks. So, they want the social worker to encourage Libby to lip-read more. The social worker brings up the topic of British sign language (BSL), but the mother swiftly dismisses that possibility. In the following days, the social worker realizes some bigger problems going on in that household. The rest of the family members: the parents and two adult children make no effort to communicate with Libby at all. Their attempt at conversations with Libby is just shouting louder at her and hoping that she will hear it.
While working with Libby, the social worker realizes that Libby can barely lip-read. So, she starts teaching BSL to Libby. This opens up a whole new world for Libby where she can easily communicate with the social worker and express herself. However, this upsets the parents, who wanted Libby to not sign, but instead lip-read and do speech-therapy. In a final attempt to push their agenda, the parents fire the social worker and enroll Libby into a regular school with no extra support for Libby’s disability. The final moments in the film show Libby not being able to hear anything that the teacher is saying and feeling isolated, juts like in the beginning of the movie before the social worker came into her life.
This short film was written by Rachel Shenton, based on her own experiences of growing up with a Deaf parent and it manages to get almost everything right about the challenges associated with growing up as a Deaf child in a hearing household. It also excellently points out the deep embedded nature of audism and oralism in our society to the extent that Libby’s parents try to force her to lip-read. It is audism and oralism that drives the parents to deny Libby the opportunity of learning BSL from the social worker. Ultimately, it drives them to fire the social worker and forcefully enroll their child into a regular school. Their actions really made me wonder how low one must think of Deafness to treat their own child that way. The social worker even recommends the family to learn basic sign language to be able to communicate with Libby, but the mother responds by saying “No, I want her to be normal.” The social worker fights back saying “Libby is normal. She just needs the right resources.”. There are some beautifully shot moments in the film where Libby stares at her family laughing and talking at the dining table and she is completely left out of it. The family labels her as “shy”, but what they don’t realize is that they cannot force Libby to lip-read or talk just because it makes their life easier. There is also another crucial part in the movie where Libby’s grandmother asks the social worker if Libby will ever get a job because the only job a Deaf person can get is that of a cleaner.
All these little moments in a 20-minute movie highlight the gravity of what happens when a Deaf child is born to hearing parents, especially when they are unaccepting of Deafness. With 9 out of 10 Deaf children born to hearing parents, this movie highlights all the things that can go wrong for a Deaf child. It also shows how people like interpreters, social workers, audiologists etc. might try to advocate for Deaf kids, but ultimately, it is parents who decide and that decision may not always be in the favour of Deafness.
Comments
I am adding this to the list of movies that I definitely want to watch ones all the workload slows down. From what you said about the movie, this seems like something that needs more attention. I can't imagine being a child to parents who do not even try to understand or communicate with me or make no effort to make sure that I am accustomed for. The whole idea of parents not wanting to do something a certain way even though it would help their child makes no sense to me as I would want my child to learn and grow instead of forcing them to conform into what I should think they should do.
Susmita, what a very powerful short film! I felt incredibly sad and moved seeing Libby's experiences with her parents, school, and the social worker. Unfortunately, to this day many parents continue to have pre-existing biases regarding sign language and what that means for them and their children. More parents need to realize that learning a signed language doesn't automatically make their kids "broken" in ay way. They need to stop forcing the idea that these kids need speech therapy and regular schooling as well.