Why American Sign Language (ASL) is very important to me? Let's start with how I became deaf, during the time that my biological mother was pregnant with me, she had a relapse with alcohol and drugs. And I was born three months early, I was very premature. Because of that I became deaf, but I call myself a hard of hearing (HH). My parents adopted me when I was three years old, at that time I did not know any sign language and spoke only a few words. ASL is the first language