Lola,
What's the sign language in use over there?

There's a big deaf community in the DC area -- Gallaudet College in DC is for deaf. And there's an area college with a master's in deaf education and ASL. I had a Gallaudet student in a class I took as a doctoral student in my intercultural communication program. The deaf culture is very lively and strong and full of good people, like most communities are.

Your granddaughter's experience of the world will be different from your own, but that doesn't mean it'll be inferior. It's interesting to learn that in sign language as with any language, there are things that can't be literally translated to words.You may already know this, but one thing I've gleaned from reading papers about deaf education is that the best teachers for young teachers are those from deaf culture -- i.e., native speakers of sign language who understand all the nuances.