The short film The Silent Child tells a story about a young girl, misunderstood by her family because she is deaf, and the journey of her tutor as she tries to help rectify the issue. The film focuses on the lack of understanding prevalent in the family and on the plight of the young girl. It successfully presents a story which both educates and inspires viewers in regards to the difficulties that deaf people face in life.
Relationships between the characters constituted the aspect of educating and inspiring viewers. When the social worker begins teaching the child sign language the mother pushes back because she does not want to learn sign language herself. She cites excuses of busyness as to why learning sign language is unfeasible. What the mother ultimately wants is for her daughter to learn how to speak through lip reading, in effect having the daughter conform to her ways rather than conforming to her daughter's ways. This presents a very sad situation that helps the viewer empathize with the deaf girl.
The film also utilizes items such as music and sound to influence the viewer. There is one particularly strong scene in which the sound is turned off completely so as to show a normal event from the perspective of the girl. Altogether the film is successful in its design to educate and inspire viewers in regards to the difficulties that deaf people face.
The silent scene broke my heart! Music is a powerful device and it's used quite well throughout the film. But sometimes silence is deafening.
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