I have a character that's hearing but was adopted as a baby by a young Deaf couple. He grew up signing (BSL) but they (he and his parents) also spoke around the house fairly often. Because of his upbringing (unrelated reasons), his parents were his main/only exposure to English. Would it be realistic for him to have developed a Deaf accent because of this? And would it be reasonable/inoffensive for him to have been put in speech therapy for it when he started primary school?
Hi!
For the accent piece: it might be realistic. Kids tend to adopt the accents of their parents. But if kids are also relatively exposed to other sources, they might learn that accent more. For example, if your character watches English TV frequently, he would probably pick up on accents from TV, not just his parents' accents. But if he only (or very majorly) spends time within the Deaf community, he's more likely to adopt a Deaf accent.
Speech therapy is totally realistic. While spoken language comes more naturally to hearing children than to deaf children, a culturally Deaf child's first language is usually a sign language, and they might pursue speech therapy to learn how to speak and understand spoken language. (This typically will happen in younger elementary school so the kids don't actually tend to have much choice.)
Mod Rock
