20 years ago during my studies I discovered the world of people with impaired hearing. And of course that of sign languages. Most people don't really know what a natural language is. Even less understand how critical for the development of a child's cognitive and social abilities is language learning and usage. Very few can fathom that sign languages (yes, plural) are as syntactically complex and expressively powerful as our audible ones. And as "legitimate" I'd add.
Just like hominids hundreds of millennia ago developed into languages speaking creatures and created languages (evolving simpler communication means) not by a decree but because they were useful, deaf communities all around the world created their languages pushed by the need to communicate. And just as every other natural language, sign languages transformed, forked into dialects or were forgotten.
Nothing of this - which is in a very approximate/summarized way the best of our knowledge on the topic today - can be found in "The Silent Child". Which is odd because it is clearly a piece of progressive propaganda in favour of sign language learning and against conservative social pressures/misconceptions which value a lot of stupid things more than a child's healthy development.
Superficiality is not an acceptable outcome even if caused by the need of fitting into a "short" format, nonetheless "The Silent Child" is a nice way of spending 20 minutes of your time; unfortunately it feels like it doesn't know what it wants to be. Could have been like Mary Poppins, but it's also a progressive commercial with manipulative music, dumb antagonists and tear-jerking drama, and it shows social relevant stats as well (just not the right ones) as if it was documentaristically exemplar of what usually happens.
Therefore, not that good and hopefully they won't make a full lenght out of it unless they do a more serious scientific research and decide which direction they want to take.
Just like hominids hundreds of millennia ago developed into languages speaking creatures and created languages (evolving simpler communication means) not by a decree but because they were useful, deaf communities all around the world created their languages pushed by the need to communicate. And just as every other natural language, sign languages transformed, forked into dialects or were forgotten.
Nothing of this - which is in a very approximate/summarized way the best of our knowledge on the topic today - can be found in "The Silent Child". Which is odd because it is clearly a piece of progressive propaganda in favour of sign language learning and against conservative social pressures/misconceptions which value a lot of stupid things more than a child's healthy development.
Superficiality is not an acceptable outcome even if caused by the need of fitting into a "short" format, nonetheless "The Silent Child" is a nice way of spending 20 minutes of your time; unfortunately it feels like it doesn't know what it wants to be. Could have been like Mary Poppins, but it's also a progressive commercial with manipulative music, dumb antagonists and tear-jerking drama, and it shows social relevant stats as well (just not the right ones) as if it was documentaristically exemplar of what usually happens.
Therefore, not that good and hopefully they won't make a full lenght out of it unless they do a more serious scientific research and decide which direction they want to take.