The Silent Child | Oscar® Winning Short Film

The fact that her brother took the initiative to understand some signs and knew she was asking for orange juice is appreciable

I've worked with deaf children from preschool through to high school and one student at university. Sadly, this short film represents fairly accurately what a lot of deaf kids go through. Busy parents, no time for Libby, I've seen it many times. If you're a parent watching this, please, please don't underestimate the power of communication. We all do it in different ways, so sign language is just another tool that can help the child and parents.

It was heartbreaking to see the parents ignore how much the child had progressed, even her siblings understood, but the parents disregarded the progress and put Libby in a place that would not be helpful to her learning. I have several deaf friends who had the support and lead successful fulfilled lives, Libby could too if she had the right support. Great film.

This movie is exactly the same as my experience. It is unfortunate for a deaf child cannot communicate without sign language. I am deaf, I know my hearing parents did try their best for me but they followed the doctor's suggestions. I disagreed with all their suggestions for me to take speech therapy. It helped a little but my education level was low. Because of a lack of learning without sign language. I used oral classes with no sign language from elementary to high school. When I was a high school senior, I failed twice test for college at Rochester Institute of Technology. I wanted to be filming studio and photography. I was upset and angry/blamed my parents. I decided to go to Gallaudet University for all deaf students in DC. They had a special pre-college before entering Gallaudet. All teachers used sign language that I learned quickly and improved my education levels very well. I was excited and made it to Gallaudet Unversity for three years then transferred to RIT (Rochester Inst. of Technology)/NTID (National Technology of the Deaf) in NY. It helped a lot with all sign language in classes. I graduated and got a job as a computer graphics artist in Columbus, Ohio. I told my mother about my experience in life should start using sign language in elementary. I would be a lot smarter and easy to enter college at the beginning after high school. To all hearing parents, I suggest your deaf child learn sign language, and also can sometimes with speech therapy. I would prefer the most important use of sign language most of the time. You the parents should learn sign language for deaf children. Your deaf children WILL match the same as hearing people. Trust me I know your deaf child will be VERY HAPPY and thanks/love to you in the future. I still love my parents but my life wasn't good. I had to fight in my own way and had hard work through the years. Please use sign language for a deaf child to communicate with you.

As a Deaf 36 year old who is also a bilateral Cochlear implant recipient. I stand for Sign Language, Speech & Language Pathology and of course Deaf Culture. We must protect this! Deaf children deserve to participate in Sign Language & be able to feel included. I can relate to this short film and it's definitely heartbreaking!

❤my little sister was born deaf. I attended night classes just so I could learn to talk to her with sign language…the rest of my family slowly followed. Deafness was hard bc children are children and are mean in middle school age but she had lots of support. The adults…us & administrators together made it our responsibility to offer support. Because of the bullying, we were able to create a curriculum that offered counseling and lessons on the subject matter. She is incredibly intelligent and finished school early but kept her behind bc they felt she wasn’t mature enough for college. We agreed that the mainstream schooling experience was tough but the real world is tougher. So again we rallied in support to get her ready. As she moved on to college she was accepted into an Ivy League university, got her Master’s Degree and now is an independent professional living on her own. Strong and Independent. It takes a village but our children are worth it ❤

Didn’t take me long to view this and cry! I’ve been deaf since birth, no one knew, At 3 they took my tonsils out because I wasn’t talking. In forth grade I got glasses to wear. My mother took me in to have hearing test, but no one talked to me about it. I was invisible! After seeing this film I thought people were a lot more educated then in my time , Born 1949! It grieves me. May the Lord bless the ones who are able and willing to help the deaf, and may He wrap His loving arms around those who are deaf. He has been my Hope, in getting through tough times. It’s been very difficult now that people wear mask.

I’m deaf myself, my college professor showed us this(he’s deaf too) and I remember this a lot as kid. My mom only learned ASL for me as a baby then it was “speak don’t sign” because I went through speech therapy. I was expected to lip read, had no help in high school because she was embarrassed to have a deaf child so she kept that out of my IEP saying “she can hear fine” and I can tell you, I love college. We’re finally getting things set up for me like an interpreter and an iPad for notes that can transcribe them when the teacher is speaking. My deaf professor is the one who’s trying to help me, through the disability program they have. I found out they also make a watch for deaf people that will vibrate when there’s a sound so your brain is learning how the sound feels, that we can’t get through the college but he’s talking to his doctor to see if he can get it(obviously none of this is what I expected especially from a professor) but god I love him. It’s so nice having the help I had needed such a long time ago and never got it with my mother.

I am crying so badly. This poor, little, lonley girl....the acting is incredible!

I'm not deaf, but i'm autistic. And i can relate to a lot in this film. The mother who "knows best" agaisnt the advice of people who ACTUALLY know best is very familiar to me. And the bleakness of life that follows. The few adults who crossed paths with me who understood and helped me, i'll always consider them angels.

the massage at the end of the film is really striking too. This is a big motivator for me to learn how to sign. And as i'm already interested in helping people with disabilities who aren't like me this is just fuelling me with inspiration to help! Thank you so much. Beautiful, sad, relatable, inspiring, honest, moving film. Thanks so much.

“When you have a child you want them to be normal, you want them to be perfect”- no you want them to be happy if you always want your kids to be perfect then don’t have kids

Heart breaking to see a child suffer like Libby, especially when she has an educated family. Shows that being educated isn’t enough in life, you need to be sensitive & compassionate too.

Narcissistic parents often don't want the rejected child to succeed because they feel so much shame, because they themselves could not get the child to achieve anything.
This is not just a story about a deaf child. It is a story about a deaf child in a narcissistic family constellation.

I knew I shouldn't have watched this on the "this is going to have me in tears" grounds, but as was mentioned in the film - and it was absolutely beautiful - and at the end deafness is NOT a disability. A wonderful, heartbreaking but educational piece of brilliance x

My heart breaks over the ignorance that permeates our society. This film should be required in all schools to educate and enlighten. It takes this kind of brilliance to break down the barriers of humanity’s ignorance. Thank you for breaking my heart open. ❤️

This is a very moving film. It touches on a very important topic and shows how ignorance and the wrong attitude can harm the development of a child with dysfunctions. It is unthinkable that the parents set their child up in advance to lose and to fail. They took away the only person who could help her.
As a result, it was Libby's parents who turned a deaf to Jo's advice and suggestions. It’s definitely worth watching because conveys a important message!

What an outstanding, sensitive, thought -provoking short film. I'm a grown man, but seeing Libby's little cute face, and adorable smile; broke my heart & made me smile at the same time!!! If that makes any sense. I've always wanted to do short films, and this has given me the inspiration to start 😊

I almost cried when Libby signed "I love you" to the social worker! The little girl is adorable and an incredible actress!

I was about to say it deserves an Oscar then I saw that it already got one! Thanks to everyone who made this film possible

What a touching film! And much needed - it shows something very important that people without such difficulties don't pay attention to on a daily basis. It is also unthinkable that a stranger cares more about Libby than her own family. And saddest of all is the lack of love from her mother - knowing she can't hear she says goodbye to Libby without making eye contact...
:(