Louise contracts rubella during early pregnancy, putting her unborn baby at risk of deafness and other health complications.

Lynn is born appearing perfectly healthy, initially relieving Tom and Louise's fears about rubella's effects on their baby.

At a Fourth of July parade, Lynn shows no reaction to loud sirens or a fireworks display, alarming her parents.

Doctors at the John Tracy Clinic confirm that Lynn has profound hearing loss after conducting a series of tests.

Tom and Louise commit to an oral-only approach with Lynn, forbidding all gestures and focusing exclusively on lip reading.

Lynn's borrowed auditory trainer arrives in the mail but makes no noticeable improvement in her ability to hear.

Tom and Louise hire a private tutor named Jill Corey to work with Lynn on lip reading and speech.

Lynn falls and hits her head, requiring stitches, and her parents cannot explain the frightening hospital visit to her.

Tom and Louise tour the Jane Brooks School for the Deaf and enroll Lynn in its oral-only program.

Lynn contracts meningitis and is hospitalized, leaving her parents helpless to comfort or explain anything to her.

At a school parent meeting, Barbara Simmons reveals that only 5 to 10 percent of deaf children ever learn to speak intelligibly.

At a public meeting, a Deaf adult delivers a powerful defense of sign language that deeply moves Tom.

Tom and Louise visit the Simmons family and meet Deaf couple Jim and Alice Hudson for the first time.

Tom and Louise sign 'I love you' to Lynn for the first time, and she signs it back to her mother that night.

A 19-year-old Lynn writes in the Epilogue about how learning ASL transformed her education and sense of identity.

Tom and Louise Spradley's second child, Lynn, is born after Louise contracts rubella during pregnancy, and the family soon realizes Lynn is profoundly deaf. Following the advice of audiologists and the John Tracy Clinic, the Spradleys commit to an oral-only approach, working tirelessly to teach Lynn to lip read and speak. Despite years of effort with auditory trainers, tutors, and a specialized oral school, Lynn's progress remains frustratingly slow, and her inability to communicate leads to dangerous and heartbreaking situations. A turning point comes when Tom attends a public meeting where a Deaf adult powerfully defends sign language, prompting Tom and Louise to finally connect with the Deaf community. They begin learning ASL, signing 'I love you' to Lynn for the first time, and Lynn immediately begins to blossom linguistically. By the time Lynn writes the Epilogue as a 19-year-old, she has thrived in a Deaf school environment and credits ASL as the foundation of her identity and independence.

The headline events of Lynn Spradley's journey from diagnosis to ASL fluency.

Before Lynn's birth, Louise sees a family with a deaf child wearing hearing aids and feels horrified by the sight.

Tom and Louise conduct hearing tests on Lynn at home but get inconclusive and inconsistent results.

Lynn's family doctor repeatedly dismisses Louise's concerns about her daughter's hearing and refuses to arrange proper testing.

At a Chicago Hearing Society meeting, a teacher insists speech is every child's birthright and blames parents when oralism fails.

Tom and Louise watch a TV news broadcast on mute and discover how nearly impossible lip reading truly is.

Tom and Louise hear a simulation of what sounds like through a hearing aid and are dismayed by how distorted everything remains.

Tom and Louise create an experience book of pictures for Lynn so she can point to communicate her needs.

Lynn repeatedly waits at the curb on weekend mornings for a school bus that does not run on those days.

Lynn is nearly struck by a car she cannot hear while riding her tricycle on the street outside.

Tom attends a psychologist's lecture on how to tell a deaf child a story but receives no useful guidance.

Tom uses a chest-vibration technique learned from an article, and Lynn pronounces the word 'blue' almost perfectly.

The family drives past a residential school for deaf children that teaches sign language but decides not to go inside.

Louise spots a newspaper notice that concerned parents are petitioning the school board to allow sign language in classes.

The whole Spradley family begins taking ASL classes, with Bruce proving especially quick at learning and teaching new signs.

The family meets Mark, a deaf boy who cannot sign, speak, or lip read despite years of oral-only education.

Long before Lynn's deafness is confirmed, Louise's fear of disability is evident when she recoils from the sight of a hearing aid on another child. Once Lynn's deafness is diagnosed, Tom and Louise follow oralist advice but experience a series of frustrating setbacks, including dismissive doctors and tools like auditory trainers and hearing aids that offer little real benefit. As Lynn grows older, the gaps in her ability to communicate lead to dangerous moments and daily frustrations, from waiting for a bus that never comes on weekends to narrowly escaping a car she could not hear. Her parents try creative solutions like a picture book and continue searching for answers through lectures and speech techniques, but progress is painfully slow. The tide begins to turn when Tom and Louise encounter advocates for sign language and eventually commit the whole family to learning ASL together. Their journey ends with a vivid illustration of oralism's failure when they meet Mark, a boy whose oral education has left him entirely without communication, a stark reminder of what Lynn's path might have been.

The secondary struggles and small moments that shaped Lynn's early years.

Tom recalls watching people use sign language at a church service as a child but knows nothing about Deaf culture.

After months of home tests, Tom and Louise become certain Lynn cannot hear but feel completely lost about what to do.

Louise's mother arranges an urgent appointment at the John Tracy Clinic in California, bypassing months of waiting for local specialists.

An audiologist at the John Tracy Clinic tells Tom and Louise that Lynn has some residual hearing, giving them misleading hope.

Lynn's hearing aid finally arrives after a long wait, but she finds it painful to wear and it does not help her hear.

After weeks of patient practice, Lynn finally learns to blow out birthday candles just in time for her third birthday.

Lynn spends her first weeks at Jane Brooks preschool crying until exhausted and unable to join any class activities.

Lynn surprises her family and teachers by saying her brother Bruce's name out loud for the first time.

During Lynn's meningitis hospitalization, Tom notices Deaf people signing nearby and briefly wonders whether they could explain things to Lynn.

Tom reads an article discrediting fingerspelling and decides to attend a school meeting specifically to argue against sign language.

After the school meeting ends, Tom speaks to Barbara Simmons and accepts her invitation to meet Deaf adults at her home.

Watching the Simmons family communicate with Deaf adults, Tom realizes it is the lack of ASL access that isolates Deaf people, not deafness itself.

Lynn learns her own name in ASL for the first time and immediately begins demanding to know the signs for everything around her.

Lynn is forced to sit on her hands at school for using ASL, enraging her parents who have seen how much signing helps her.

On a flight home from a family funeral, Lynn signs to ask whether God can sign, revealing the full depth of her new linguistic ability.

The turning points in the Spradley family's story are defined by moments of sudden, often painful, realization about Lynn's needs and the limits of oralism. From the first confirmation of Lynn's deafness at the John Tracy Clinic—which comes with a misleading promise of residual hearing—to Lynn's frustrated tears at her first school, each moment reveals the widening gap between the oral approach's promises and Lynn's reality. A hospital stay for meningitis becomes a heartbreaking near-miss, as Deaf signers who could have helped Lynn are nearby but Tom does not approach them. Tom's thinking shifts dramatically when he attends a school board meeting already planning to argue against sign language, only to be moved by a Deaf adult's impassioned speech. Once the family begins signing, Lynn's transformation is immediate and profound, beginning with the deeply moving moment when she learns her own name for the first time. The pool closes with the joyful image of Lynn asking whether God can sign during a family flight, a scene that captures how completely ASL has reshaped her ability to ask questions and understand the world.

The key turning points and revelations that changed how the Spradleys understood deafness.

Thomas S Spradley

Autobiography / Memoir

Nonfiction

Guide