Cultural Aspects of the Education
of Deaf
Students
Topics
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Deaf Education
THE
MANUAL/ORAL CONTROVERSY
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The
manualists (those who sign)
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The
oralists (those who rely on speech and speechreading for communication).
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In
addition, there is a third camp, those who use cued speech.
Cued speech is not really speech at all, but a
visual representation of English sounds.
In relative terms, it is a new method that will be
discussed later.
Medical Vs. Cultural
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My deafness is a functional defect.
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I cant hear anything at allconversations, music, automobile horns, the radio,
Scud blasts.
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I unquestionably recognize that in one specific
area I am, yes, impaired/disabled/ handicapped/ deficient/deviant in the real
world.
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This causes me a number of problemssome big, some small.
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Its obvious to me that I have a
set of completely broken, totally useless ears.
Medical vs. Cultural Cont.
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Generally, people holding this viewpoint consider
the hearing condition the optimal model and use the auditory methods to obtain
the goals of using residual hearing, speechreading and speech.
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An individual is deemed successful if he/she gains
good oral skills.
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The use of assistive devices such as hearing aids
and cochlear implants is considered appropriate.
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A person who has this viewpoint is called deaf.
Medical vs. Cultural
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Deafness is viewed as a difference, a
difference which in no way connotes inferiority.
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The individual is viewed as a visual being whose
natural language is ASL or any other naturally occurring signed language.
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The individual does not need to be fixed.
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An
individual is deemed successful if he/she attains fluency in ASL. A person with this viewpoint is considered Deaf.
PUBLIC
LAWS THAT AFFECT DEAF EDUCATION
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Prior to 1975, more than one-half of the children
with disabilities in the United States did not receive appropriate educational
services that would enable such children to have full equality of opportunity.
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One million of the children with disabilities in
the United States were excluded entirely from the public school system and did
not go through the educational process with their peers...because of the lack of
adequate services within the public school system.
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Families were often forced to find services outside
the public school system, often at great distance from their residence and at
their own expense.
Public Laws
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Congress passed a series of laws that were aimed at
addressing the problems.
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
Public Law 94-142 (the 1975 Education for All Handicapped Children
Act) assured a Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) for every
child with a disability.
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Then in 1986, Public Law 94-142 was further amended
by Public Law 99-457 (Education of the Handicapped Amendments of 1986).
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Finally, the 1990 Individuals with Disabilities
Education Act (IDEA) was enacted.
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The IDEA now refers to the entire package of laws
that assures a decent public education for all children with disabilities.
IDEA
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The IDEA requires:
Early and unbiased evaluation of hearing loss in school-age children
Unbiased
evaluation of deaf children using a variety of communication methods, including
sign language.
Each local educational
agency shall ensure that tests and other evaluation materials used to assess a
child under this section are provided and administered in the childs native
language or other mode of communication, unless it is clearly not feasible to do
so
IDEA and LRE
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In addition the IDEA and supporting Public Laws
require that:
Disabled children need to be placed in the Least Restrictive Environment
(LRE) that is as close to their home as possible.
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Due
to the communication issues inherent in deafness, the LRE clause required more
careful definition by the Government.
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[The]
communication nature of the disability is inherently isolating, with
considerable effect on the interaction with peers and teachers that make up the
educational process.
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This
interaction, for the purpose of transmitting knowledge and developing the
childs self-esteem and identity, is dependent upon direct communication.
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Yet,
communication is the area most hampered between a deaf child and his or her
hearing peers and teachers.
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Children
with disabilities must be offered a continuum of placements ranging from
hospital environments to school environments.
IDEA and IEP
The
IEP Team must develop an IEP [Individual Education Plan] for each child with a
disability.
The
IEP Team must consider the communication needs of the child, and in the case
of a child who is deaf or hard of hearing, consider the childs language and
communication needs, opportunities for direct communications with peers and
professional personnel in the childs language and communication mode,
academic level, and full range of needs, including opportunities for direct
instruction in the childs language and communication mode; and [shall]
consider whether the child requires assistive technology devices and
services.
The
Law also requires that parents are included in the IEP discussions and are to be
a part of the IEP Team.
IDEA and Bilingual Education
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The Bilingual Education Act of 1988 provides the
legal definition of the terms native language and limited English proficiency.
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Deaf students were included in its terminology for
the first time.
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Yet with all of this legal coverage, many of the
parents responded that getting what they felt their child needed was like
pulling teeth.
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One parent noted that the only thing the courts
require is that the schools provide a LRE and a FAPE; they do not have to offer
a program in which the child will excel.
THINGS
TO CONSIDER WHEN CHOOSING EDUCATIONAL OPTIONS
DETERMINING TYPES OF DEAFNESS
CONDUCTIVE LOSS
SENSORINEURAL HEARING LOSS
MIXED LOSS
CENTRAL HEARING LOSS
PROGRESSIVE HEARING LOSS
CONDUCTIVE LOSS
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Conductive losses are caused by blockage or disease
of the outer or middle ear.
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They generally are less than 60 decibels (dB).
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Conductive hearing losses are generally treatable
by a physician and account for 5 to 10% of all hearing loss.
Examples of conductive losses
are:
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Wax
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Rupture of the eardrum
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Deformity of the outer or middle ear structure.
SENSORINEURAL HEARING LOSS
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Sensorineural hearing losses
are losses that involve damage to the nerves of the inner ear.
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These losses cannot usually be fixed.
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Sensorineural deafness affects both loudness and
fidelity of sound, making the sound
distorted.
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A common difficulty is loss of the high tones.
This is pertinent since
consonant sounds are high tones.
These sounds help
discriminate one word from another.
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Amplification is not always helpful because the
distortion is amplified, as well as, the sound.
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Different causes of sensorineural losses are:
Heredity
Bacterial meningitis
Excessive noise.
MIXED LOSS
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Mixed hearing losses are exactly what they imply.
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It is a mixture of both sensorineural and
conductive losses.
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Mixed losses cause difficulty with both distortion
and loudness.
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As conductive losses tend to fluctuate, depending
on the nature of the loss, mixed losses may also fluctuate.
CENTRAL HEARING LOSS
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Central
hearing loss involves the auditory centers in the brain.
This kind of loss involves the brain-end of the process rather than the hearing
end.
PROGRESSIVE HEARING
LOSS
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The
progressive hearing loss is one that worsens over the course of time.
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Individuals
with these losses need repeated testing to keep tabs on what is happening with
the child and to plan appropriately.
Things to Consider When Choosing Educational Options
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TIME
OF ONSET
PRELINGUAL DEAFNESS
POSTLINGUAL DEAFNESS
PRELINGUAL DEAFNESS
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Prelingual
deafness can be defined as deafness that occurs before the child has the
opportunity to learn and begin speaking his parents
native language.
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This
only is true for children of hearing parents.
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Children
of deaf parents learn ASL or whatever sign system the parents already know.
POSTLINGUAL DEAFNESS
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Postlingual
deafness can be defined as deafness that occurs after the child has learned the
parents
native spoken language.
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Again,
this only applies to the child of hearing parents.
THE
IMPORTANCE OF LANGUAGE
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LANGUAGE
Definition
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COMMUNICATION
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SPEECH
Language and Humanity
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The importance of language to the human being
cannot be underestimated.
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It is the one special trait that all human beings
seem to possess.
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The process for learning language is the same for
all humans, regardless of culture.
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Language was not something that came from without
to shape human thought and behavior, but rather something that come from within,
an attribute of the human mind, a biological endowment, innate, and particular
to the human species.
Language and Families
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Parents generally start the ball rolling by
modeling their own language.
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When a child is deaf and the parents are hearing,
this process is altered. The many methods and
strategies designed to give deaf children access to language are an attempt to
circumvent this wall of silence.
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It is important to understand what language is, as
opposed to communication or speech. These are terms you should
be familiar with and should consider when you are examining the different
options for your child.
LANGUAGE
Language is the combination of semantics
(vocabulary), syntax (form or structure of the languagetenses,
word order, plurality, etc.), and pragmatics (how language is used to meet
communication needs).
Language has meaningful patterns.
Language is arbitrary, its symbols agreed upon by
its users.
Language is symbolic.
Users encode their life experiences into words or
signs, then recipients decode the messages to understand the experience.
Language is social and modified by experience.
Language has grammar.
These rules define relationships between words or
signs and sentences.
Language has meanings that go beyond dictionary
meanings.
Language is variable among individuals.
Language evolves and changes over time.
People communicate language through different forms
and modalities.
Speech, writing and signing are examples of
different modalities.
Language does not need to have a written form.
COMMUNICATION
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The ability to have ones
needs understood by another individual.
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It is not necessary to adhere to proper grammar or
syntax to do this.
Babies cry. This is considered communication.
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People who speak different languages often develop
pidgeon languages to communicate with one another.
A mother communicates a
message by glaring at her teenager when he burps at the table.
SPEECH
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Speech is articulation and voice quality.
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A person can have language without speech.
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An individual that signs in ASL certainly has
language, but speech is not a part of the language since it is gestural.
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A person can have beautiful spoken language, but
poor speech. Hence, the voice quality and articulation are
poor, but the ability to communicate clearly in the target language is
excellent. Conversely, a person can have poor spoken language
and beautiful speech. In this scenario, the
individual articulates beautifully, but does not use the proper syntactical
structure for the language he is speaking.
THE
VALUE OF ENGLISH
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Perhaps the most challenging issue that parents
must meet head on is how to give their child access to a language which he has
never heard.
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Indeed, it is difficult to have native ability in a
language which one is not bombarded with daily.
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Why even bother?
ASL is a perfectly acceptable
language.
It provides a good language
base for a child.
It is highly accessible and
designed for the eyes.
These are legitimate
observations and good questions.
English vs. ASL
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ASL is a perfect language, particularly for quick
and easy communication among individuals who know the language.
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However, one of the drawbacks to having ASL as ones
sole communication tool is that, to date, it does not have one generally
accepted written form.
The wonderful body of ASL
literature has been passed down from one individual to the next in previous
generations.
Videotapes are now being used
to record the wonderful visual poetry and stories shared by those who are
members of Deaf Culture.
Why Exclusive ASL has Drawbacks
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Although individuals choose to remain a part of
Deaf Culture, they still should have a means to access the body of literature
from other cultures and times for their own edification.
Without a written code to
represent ASL, there is no way to transcribe the literature of other cultures
into ASL aside from filming it.
There is also no easy way of
getting the vast body of general information available into ASL.
Other Reasons
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English is the language of the land.
Deaf children need to have
the tools to become independent deaf adults.
Some deaf children, but not
all, will acquire the speech skills needed to communicate their desires within
the larger society of hearing individuals.
It is important to be able to
clearly write if speaking is not an option.
Writing and understanding
English well are communication tools that will hopefully reap dividends when
seeking employment as well.
ENGLISH
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AUDITORY
(ORAL) METHODS
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CUED
SPEECH
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MANUAL
CODES FOR ENGLISH
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SIGNING
EXACT ENGLISH (SEE-2)
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SIGNED
ENGLISH
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CONTACT
SIGN
AUDITORY
(ORAL) METHODS
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The goal of the auditory methods is to teach a
child how to use his residual hearing so that he may have access to spoken
language.
Most deaf children have some
residual (remaining) hearing. The brain, which develops
rapidly in the first few years of life, needs rich language input during that
time.
The speech signal is
redundant. Since it carries excess information, it is not necessary to hear
every sound to understand a message.
Additionally, there is also a great emphasis on speech and speechreading.
The ultimate educational goal
is to place the child in a mainstream school environment.
Arguments for Oral Methods
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No one method can unilaterally guarantee success
for every individual.
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Parents that decide to pursue an auditory method
need to understand that there are four critical factors that can make the
difference between success and failure.
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Early intervention is key.
For language to be successful
with deaf children (no matter what the educational approach), programs of early
intervention must take place during the critical language-learning years of
birth through 6.
In fact, if children start
auditory stimulation after age 3, the process is progressively more difficult. Listening is a "use it or lose it skill.
Oral Methods
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It is imperative that the parents obtain the
services of an excellent pediatric audiologist for their child.
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The audiologist must know how to set the childs hearing aid for speech.
The
child will need audiological testing every 6 months.
The importance of aggressive
treatment should not be underestimated.
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Good training is a must.
If the parents pursue the
auditory option, they must be willing to find people capable of training their
child. The U.S. is, traditionally, a signing nation.
Since the 1970s, there has
been a decline in the number of pure oral programs.
Parental Involvement for Oral Method
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There is a need for high-level parental
involvement.
Learning spoken language
requires more effort and is a slow process. It requires a lot of work.
Parents are urged to talk to
their kids as much as possible.
Language doesnt just happen in therapy a few times a week.
Language happens all day long
and the primary teacher is the parent.
About thirty percent of the
programs in the U.S. are oral programs and there are three oral residential
schools.
It is conceivable that
parents wishing to pursue this option will have to deal with availability
issues.
They may also need to invest
in private schools and speech therapists, since many school programs do not have
pure oral programs.
Two Types of Training
Auditory/oral
training not only stresses auditory training, but also trains a child to use
speechreading and contextual clues to receive information.
Children that have
auditory/oral training tend to pick up sign as a second language so that they
can communicate with signing peers.
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The main focus of this type of training is to teach
the child how to use his residual hearing.
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The earlier a child is given hearing aids, the
better.
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Humans are uniquely programmed neurologically to
develop the auditory pathways for language usage in the early years.
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Once this brief window of opportunity is missed,
the neurolinguistic capabilities will forever be diminished due to retrograde
auditory deterioration.
Speechreading
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In addition to training residual hearing, the child
is also trained to speechread.
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Speechreading is challenging for several reasons.
Only about 30 percent of
English sounds are visible on the lips, and 50 percent are homophonous, that is,
they look like something else.
Look in a mirror and say without voice the words kite, height, and night.
Youll
see almost no changes on your lips to distinguish among those three words.
Then say the following three
wordsmaybe, baby, pay me. They look exactly alike on the lips.
Speechreading
In order to speechread well, the individual must
use high level mental gymnastics.
He must make an educated
guess on much of what he sees, using situation and context.
This almost always requires
an excellent grasp of the target language.
Many prelingually,
late-diagnosed deaf simply do not have the exposure to English to pull these
gymnastics off.
Most deaf individuals do some
speechreading.
Some individuals truly have a
knack for this skill.
Since the goal in
auditory/oral training is for the individual to both understand speech and
communicate through speech, speech therapy is a necessary component in the
training process.
Speech therapy involves
one-on-one interaction for many years and a great deal of repetition is
involved.
Benefits of Speechreading
The immediate benefit of this method is the ability
to communicate with the wider hearing world.
There are some studies which support the notion
that the emphasis on the English language as the mode of communication results
in higher reading levels than with signing approaches.
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Each method has its own type of challenges and the
auditory/oral method is not different.
The method is one that
requires many, many years of hard work on the part of the child, his parents and
his teachers.
Often, there is little gain
for many years. For a deaf child to benefit from amplification (if
this is, in fact, possible), it will take time and effort.
More Benefits
Quality oral programs are not always available.
Quality speech therapy and
private schools may be required.
With few exceptions, the successful implementation
of the Oral approach has been achieved in private school settings for an array
of possible reasons.
People who have gone through oral programs
successful tend to:
Have extraordinary study
habits
Developed an impressive work
ethic
In order to succeed in the
mainstream, they all had to study harder, and in greater depth than their
hearing peers.
Many were unable to
speechread their teachers because they constantly moved about the classroom or
faced the blackboard.
Auditory/Verbal Method
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Auditory/verbal
(AV) training only trains the child to use his residual hearing.
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Children that have successful AV training tend to
be completely mainstreamed into hearing society.
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The auditory/verbal method (AV) is totally reliant
on a child learning to use his residual hearing.
The auditory/verbal
philosophy is based upon the belief that children with all levels of hearing
loss have the basic human right to the opportunity to develop the ability to
listen and use verbal communication.
No effort is expended on honing speechreading skills.
As a matter of fact, if a
child tries to speechread during therapy, the therapist covers her mouth to hide
visual clues.
Speech training is a part of
AV therapy.
Speech Training
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AV Therapy requires one-on-one interaction. It is very intensive.
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The goal for these kids is to go straight into the
mainstream. They usually do not go into any deaf education
programs.
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AV Therapy is not widely available.
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This method is only for children that are aided
young.
In addition, these children
must have some residual hearing when they are aided.
Absence of cochleas
contraindicates this method.
Specialists, called auditory
verbal therapists, train these children.
Benefits and Problems of Speech Training
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The benefits of this type of approach are that if
the therapy and the child work together well, the child can go straight into
mainstream education.
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Drawbacks connected with dependence on
speechreading are eliminated.
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One of the methods
biggest drawbacks is lack of availability.
There are only 50 100 AV therapists in the US and Canada.
Another potential drawback is
the question of whether distorted sound is a good basis for establishing the
native language and, if so, is language gained early enough to be useful?
CUED
SPEECH
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What is Cued Speech?
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It can be defined as a visual picture of the speech
sounds and sound patterns that are used in the English language or any of the
other 50 languages and dialects for which cueing has been adapted.
Dr. Orin Cornett invented
Cued Speech in 1966 at Gallaudet University.
In American English, this
system uses eight different handshapes in four different locations near the
mouth.
The shapes and locations in
combination with the mouth movements eliminate the ambiguity of speechreading.
Cued Speech What it is not
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Deaf children learn the cues much like they learn
signsa cued sequence represents a concept when it is
connected with that concept.
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Cued speech is also known as cued language or cued
English.
It visually encodes English
speech sounds and patterns when aural encoding is incomplete or inaccurate.
Cued speech is a finite system which provides access to
languages, rather than being a language itself.
Cued Speech is not meant to
replace ASL; each provides visually clear communication
ASL in the signed language, Cued Speech in the spoken language.
The major purpose for Cued
Speech use is to develop a childs language.
It is not intended to help a childs
speech.
Cued Speech What it does
Cued Speech does indicate the pronunciation of
words and can be very helpful when used in conjunction with good articulation
therapy.
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Cued speech has quite a number of benefits.
It can be learned in a
relatively short period of time.
Most parents can learn the
system in a weekend. It takes about three to twelve months of
consistent cueing to achieve fluency.
Professionals and parents who
do not have a native grasp of ASL will be poor language models for their deaf
children.
Positives of Cued Speech
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Cued speech positively affects literacy.
Hearing children become
literate because they have a strong language base and an internal understanding
of the syntax of spoken language long before they ever see the written word.
Enable the deaf child to
internalize the target language.
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The step of internalizing a language is critical to
the process of learning how to read and write.
Children can speechread more accurately.
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There is improvement in auditory discrimination.
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Children who use Cued Speech generally read at or
above grade level.
Fewer behavioral problems.
Possibility to learn to speak
a foreign language in a clear and accessible manner increases.
Parents and Cued Speech
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Cued speech prevents parents from over-simplifying
their English because they are communicating in a language they are intimately
familiar with.
Hearing parents, who live
with deaf children often dumb down their language to make
themselves more easily understood
When parents dumb down language they use fewer
idioms, adjectives, and synonyms.
Children need to be exposed
to the orchestra of vocabulary and expressions that is within a language to gain
native fluency.
Frustrations with Cued Speech
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Deaf Cuers are dispersed geographically.
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Many individuals who cue also sign for
companionship with other deaf individuals.
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There are not enough Cued Speech transliterators.
Cuers are encouraging
interpreter training programs to help meet this need by including Cued Speech in
their curricula.
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Cued Speech can be somewhat tiring to the adults
and it is very important to stay in good physical form to prevent repetitive
motion injuries.
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Other
professionals are not familiar with the method, often making unfounded negative
statements.
MANUAL CODES FOR ENGLISH (MCE)
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A manual code for English is an artificial system.
Its purpose is to present
spoken English visually.
Sign codes have been designed
to convey, insofar as possible, the detailed structure and grammar of the spoken
language.
The end goal of using these
systems is English literacy.
The rules are different from
code to code.
They all use English word
order and they are signed while speaking simultaneously.
Advantages of MCE
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They are easier for parents and teachers to learn.
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The vocabulary is different, but there is no need
to learn a new grammar.
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These systems are useful to individuals who have
not made progress in oral programs.
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MCEs can start the communication ball rolling.
The frustration level dropped
significantly when we added sign to oral language.
[There was] almost an
immediate increase in vocabulary usage and understanding.
The deaf child has a hard
time distinguishing a difference with just oral communication alone, when the
sign is added, they can see the difference and listen carefully for the
difference.
Disadvantages of MCE
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Tend to be slower to use.
On an average signs take
twice as long as words to produce.
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It is very hard to speak and sign at the same time.
When native English speakers
sign they tend to leave up to 50% of the signs out of any given statement.
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The research shows that most parents and many
teachers who are trying to use these systems end up leaving out many of the
grammatical markers and the children exposed to them end up modifying them to
more ASL-like forms.
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If the purpose of using an MCE is to give a deaf
child a language base on which to build, parents need to be aware that MCEs are
hybrids.
Are MCE Systems Effective
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Perhaps the most disheartening fact is that, in
spite of twenty years worth of refining these systems, deaf teenagers continue
to graduate high school reading at the 3rd to 4th grade level.
Literacy has not been
significantly improved.
This argues that the designed
signing systems, then, may not be successful when success is defined as
empowering deaf students leaving school with literacy and general knowledge at
or near the level attained by their hearing peers.
Other Facts about MCE
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Seventy percent of the programs in the United
States are sign-based.
Most of those programs use
some type of MCE. Of the remaining 67% of the students who are D/HH
and who are exposed to sign in the United States, most are in programs in which
sign is used in conjunction with speech.
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The
simultaneous use of speech and sign is known as Simultaneous Communication
(SimCom).
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The two most commonly used Manual Codes are Signing
Exact English (SEE-2) and Bornsteins Signed English.
SIGNING
EXACT ENGLISH (SEE-2)
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People who use SEE-2 speak when they sign. SEE-2 was designed to correspond with the number
of morphemes (or smallest units of meaning) of English.
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So the word butterfly is only one sign because butterfly has one unit of
meaning. The word underline is composed of two signs because it is composed of
two morphemes.
If the meaning of the words
separately is consistent with the meaning of the words together, then and ONLY
then are they signed as the component words.
SEE 2
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Many
of the signs are borrowed from ASL, however, certain signs are distinguished
from others by initializing the signs.
Grammatical markers for number, tense and person
are added.
Prefixes and suffixes are also added to base signs.
All articles, conjunctions, and helping verbs are
signed.
SEE 2 Odd Rule
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This
rule is called the two-out-of-three rule.
This rule applies to words
that sound identical.
A word that sounds like
another word is weighed against three different criteria: sound, meaning and
spelling.
Words that differ in only one
category will use the same sign. For example: right
(direction) and right (correct) are signed identically.
They sound alike and are
spelled alike.
However, write and right
would be signed differently because they are spelled differently and also mean
two different things. SEE-2 tends to be less
conceptual and more literal.
SIGNED
ENGLISH (SE)
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Signed
while speaking English simultaneously.
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English
word order is generally used.
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This
manual code was originally meant for young children, however entire programs
began using this method.
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Some
signers are more conceptual in their signing, while others tend to be literal
signers.
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Most
of the signs in Signed English have ASL origins.
Bornsteins basic rules for SE are
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Sign either a word alone or a sign word and one
sign marker; fingerspell words not provided in the dictionary; and create
plurals by repeating the signs for nouns.
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Signed English has fourteen affix markers (e.g. ing, -s, -ed, -y etc.) Signed English has fewer markers than SEE-2 and
once the child understands the use of the marker, adult users may drop the
marker.
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The verb to be
is signed. Homonyms are sometimes signed the same and other
times are signed based on the conceptual meaning.
CONTACT
SIGN (PSE)
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Contact sign was known as Pidgin Sign English or
PSE.
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It is considered a contact language.
When people have two
different languages and desire to communicate with each other, contact languages
are the natural outcome of their communication.
In the case of contact sign,
the two parent languages are English and ASL.
Contact sign is actually its
own entity and has influences from both languages.
Contact sign was not designed
or invented as in the case of the MCE.
PSE
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Contact sign cannot be taught.
It is, instead, the natural
result of bilingual interaction.
The sole purpose of contact
sign is communication.
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Contact sign can be more English in its
presentation or more like ASL, depending on the skill of the signers.
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Contact sign is a commonly accepted form of
communication between deaf and hearing people.
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Contact sign is used between deaf signers as well.
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If the parents are in the process of learning ASL,
contact sign will be a natural artifact of their learning process.
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If the parents want their child to learn ASL, they
should expose their child to native ASL signers because the child will need good
language models.
American
Sign Language (ASL)
ASL or American Sign Language is considered the
language of the Deaf Community.
It is used in the United States and in Canada.
ASL is
a visual/gestural language.
It is
composed of manual gestures called signs in combination with various types of
non-manual grammar (mouth morphemes, appropriate facial expression, body
movement etc.).
Some of ASLs grammatical features
include directional verbs, classifiers, rhetorical questions and the temporal
aspect.
ASL has its own grammar that does not in any way
reflect the grammar of English.
ASL
Where
English is linear and requires many prepositions to create a mental picture of
where things are in a sentence, ASL uses the physical space in front of the
signer to create the mental picture.
Unlike English, ASL is well suited to the eyes.
The eyes see the
whole picture
if you will, so a signer can use more than one sign concurrently.
Advantages of ASL
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All children need a working language and should
receive it during the magic time when humans are primed to learn language from
birth to three years.
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ASL is highly accessible to the deaf child.
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Kids learn about their world by passively absorbing
information.
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This process is known as incidental learning.
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Moreover, children who acquire language at the
appropriate time also learn appropriate social cues and have fewer behavioral
challenges.
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Deaf children who learn sign language in preschool
do better in academics, learning to read and write English, behaviorally and
socially.
ASL
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Many experts in the field of language acquisition
question a childs ability to acquire a second language when they
have failed to acquire a first, or native language.
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There is some evidence that deaf children of deaf
parents fare better linguistically than deaf peers born of hearing parents,
possibly due to early language acquisition.
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Since ASL is visual, deaf children will gravitate
towards it.
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[Since} Deaf people have hearing losses, they
naturally gravitate towards a language received through the eyes rather than the
ears and a language which is structured for visual, rather than auditory,
processing.
ASL
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ASL is also far easier on a childs eyes than any of the MCEs.
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Perhaps one of the most outstanding features of ASL
is that this language gives average parents the ability to communicate clearly
and easily with their children.
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As children mature into the teen years and then
young adulthood, ASL can, with the help of an interpreter, allow them to
maximize their higher education.
Disadvantages of ASL
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Ninety percent of deaf children are born to hearing
parents.
The vast majority of these
parents are not native ASL signers.
Even if their children were
identified as deaf within the first few days after birth, they would still be
behind the curve.
Most languages require five
years of steady practice to attain any kind of fluency.
The issue of parents being
inadequate language models should be a consideration.
An early intervention,
bilingual program might address some of these concerns.
More Disadvnatages
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Acquisition of English grammar and English
literacy.
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It
should never be a forgone conclusion that the deaf child will speak.
Some children master this
skill and some do not.
Therefore written English
literacy should never be considered an option, but a necessary communication
skill.
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Since the two languages are very different from
each other, English can be taught as a second language.
Teachers often use English as
a Second Language techniques when teaching English grammar.
They also use Signed English
as a bridge between the two languages.
How to Overcome Disadvantages
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Limited
number of ways to bombard a deaf child with English.
Flood
them with the written word.
ASL alone will not provide all of the necessary
skills that the work environment demands.
Children
who sign must have excellent reading and writing skills.
They need these skills to communicate with their
hearing peers.
More Ideas
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Excellent reading skills allow children access to
information.
Access to information is
knowledge and knowledge is power.
English is ... another avenue
to information, in the form of books, newspapers and computers.
Its
also a bridge to the hearing world and major job markets, like it or not.
It doesnt
really matter if you can sign or speak fluently; if you cant read or write well, it limits your options in
this world.
BILLINGUAL-BICULTURAL
(BI-BI)
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Traditional Approach
Founded on the premise that Auditory/oral and Total Communication approaches do
not meet the linguistic and cultural needs of deaf children; [that] natural sign
language, such as American Sign Language
(ASL) is the biologically preferred
mode of communication for deaf individuals and
[that] deaf children can acquire verbal language in the written form through the
language base of natural sign language.
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Hence ASL is taught to the child first and then
English is taught as a second language.
The benefits of such a
program are that deaf children receive a language that is highly accessible to
them.
BI-BI Advantages
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In the Bi-Bi approach, teachers that are native in
the language model ASL for the child.
Parents who are hearing may
engage a deaf adult who will model ASL in the home environment until the parents language skills are adequate.
If the child attends a
residential school, he also has the opportunity to learn from his peers.
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Since everyone signs ASL, the feeling of isolation
often found among signing children placed in the mainstream is ameliorated.
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Since ASL is strongly connected with Deaf Culture,
children in Bi-Bi programs have the opportunity to learn about, and participate
in, Deaf Culture.
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This method is particularly useful for deaf
children of parents fluent in ASL since the parents already know the target
language and can model it correctly.
Disavantages to Bi-Bi
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Availability
Outside of the residential
schools for the deaf, the Bi-Bi approach is not common.
There may be an insufficient
number of deaf teachers and role models to serve the population in question.
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Signing
is a difficult skill for hearing parents to master and they may resent having a
stranger in their home, should they decide to engage a language model for their
child.
Bi-Bi does not spend time
working on audition or speech.
In fact, it is felt to be morally wrong to impose on deaf
children a language they cannot acquire, this, spoken language.
This policy can limit participation in hearing culture.
BI-BI
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A Non-traditional,
Pair ASL and Cued Speech
together.
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In this scenario, deaf children have English
imprinted via Cued Speech and have sign imprinted via ASL.
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The language of the family would be a practical
consideration in this type of program.
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If the child came from a signing family, his
parents would continue to model their native language and English would be
modeled via Cued Speech at school.
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If the child came from native English speaking
family, the parents would continue to model English via Cued Speech.
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The child would receive ASL instruction by a native
ASL signer at school.
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Speech and audition would not necessarily be
proscribed in this scenario.
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The
ultimate goal would be for each child to become bilingual.
TOTAL
COMMUNICATION (TC)
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Total Communication is an educational philosophy.
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Total Communication can best be defined as
eclectic, borrowing techniques form a variety of different methods.
Ideally teachers can use
sign, writing, mime, speech, pictures or any other communication method that
works.
The method of communication
should depend upon the needs of the student and the situation.
In actual practice, most
Total Communication programs use some form of Simultaneous Communication.
TC in the Classroom
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Children
are encouraged to work on speech and listening skills.
All children are encouraged to develop skill in all
areas (sign language, speech and audition), although children are allowed to
develop a mode of communication that is best for them.
Benefits to TC
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A
benefit of Total Communication is that it can provide a safety
net
for children who have difficulty following oral methods by using English that is
supported by sign.
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It
also allows the child some form of expressive communication.
Disadvantage to TC
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One
of the big disadvantages associated with Total Communication is that it tends to
limit a childs
language experience.
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Children
are never exposed to complex English or complex ASL.
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Dumbing
down
both languages prevents children from attaining fluency in either language.
LEARNING
ENVIRONMENTS
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RESIDENTIAL
SCHOOLS FOR THE DEAF
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ORAL
DAY SCHOOL/SIGN DAY SCHOOL
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EARLY
INTERVENTION/PRESCHOOL PROGRAMS
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MAINSTREAMING
AND INCLUSION
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SELF-CONTAINED
CLASSROOM
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HOMESCHOOL
ENVIRONMENT
LEARNING
ENVIRONMENTS
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There
are a number of different learning environments that can exist for a deaf child.
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The
availability of these environments is dependent on locality.
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In
many cases, if the appropriate setting is not available, parents may need to
deal with the local school authorities.
RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS FOR THE DEAF
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Traditionally, residential schools have had a long
and venerable history in this country.
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They are well known for being bastions of Deaf
Culture and most deaf kids who attend them eventually learn ASL.
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Residential school enrollment has decreased due to
two major factors.
Since mainstreaming became an
option for many children, parents began sending their children to local schools.
Also, the population of deaf
children has decreased due to vaccinations like the Rubella vaccination.
As a result, a number of
schools have closed.
Advantages
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The schools are designed with the needs of deaf
students in mind.
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Some of the schools have excellent programs.
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The opportunity for peer interaction is available,
as are extracurricular activities like boy scouts and after school clubs.
The students are involved in
student government, peer study-groups, volunteer activities in the community at
large, sports
all kinds of extra-curricular activities.
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A child who lives in a locality where he is the
only deaf person for miles in any direction is able to meet other deaf children.
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Deaf kids have adult Deaf role models.
Advantages
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The
presence of deaf adults who are well-educated and fluent in sign language has a
significant long-term impact on young deaf childrens
educational and personal well-being.
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Friendships
are made that last a lifetime.
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The
children are exposed to the cultural values of the Deaf community and to the
language of the Deaf, ASL.
Disadvantages
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Many families are not comfortable sending young
children away to school.
Some families feel that the
home and family is the best environment for any child.
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These deaf children need to be with their family
where there is love, discipline and nurturing.
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The residential supervisors
are not capable of meeting every deaf childs
needs (emotionally and physically).
Many parents feel that the
act of sending their child to residential school isolates the child from the
family.
Disadvantages
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Issue of the quality of the education itself.
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Education quality varies from school to school.
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Limited Access
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There are three oral residential schools in this
country:
Clarke School
The Central Institute for the
Deaf
St. Josephs Institute for the Deaf
ORAL DAY SCHOOL/SIGN DAY SCHOOL
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The Day School placement is one of the best
compromises between the residential school and mainstreaming.
Children can remain at home
and are still able to take advantage of a school that is staffed with people who
have the special training needed to educate deaf kids.
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The same kinds of programs and accomodations found
in the residential schools can be found in the Day School placement.
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The disadvantage to Day School placement is
availability.
Day Schools are found as a
part of the Residential School programs.
They are also found in
metropolitan areas.
If a parents job requires him to move to a remote area, a Day
School program may not be an option.
EARLY INTERVENTION/PRESCHOOL PROGRAMS
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Tend to the needs of children ranging in age from
birth to four years.
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Public schools, local health and human services
departments, residential schools and private organizations can run early
intervention programs.
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Some schools have programs that use the services of
itinerant teachers.
Parents need to seek out
teachers who have a Masters degree in deaf education.
Early Prevention Programs
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The focus of these programs is, in a word,
preparation.
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Preschool is important because if helps children
learn how to function socially and within the family.
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The preschool program emphasizes the following
skills: language development, parent-child communication and social skills. These programs also teach strategies for enhancing
the childs development, signing skills and speech training.
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These communication and coping strategies are
important as the children enter kindergarten.
MAINSTREAMING
AND INCLUSION
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Mainstreaming is a placement option in which
children go to regular classes and they also go to some special education
classes.
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These classes are called resource classes and are
taught by specially trained teachers.
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Inclusion is a placement option in which the
children are totally involved in all aspects of public education.
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Partial mainstreaming is a placement option in
which children spend a portion of the day at the residential or day school and
part of the day in public school.
Mainstreaming
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Mainstreaming and Inclusion are supposed to allow
deaf children access to regular education.
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One
common complaint about the Mainstream setting is that the children are only in
the regular classrooms for non-core subjects such as Physical Education and Art.
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The children generally learn their core subjects in
the Resource Room.
Disadvantages with Mainstreaming
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The act of placing a child in a Resource Room for a
portion of the day can generate challenges.
Produce similar stigmas to
those found in earlier generations when children had to leave the classroom for
remedial education.
Social integration comes into
play.
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Children that are not a part of the classroom for a
significant portion of the day have difficulty becoming integrated with their
peers.
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Academic achievement also seems to be lower.
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Partial Mainstreaming between two different schools
requires commuting time that breaks up the school day.
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This wastes valuable learning time.
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Students mainstreamed for 5-10 hours a week do
consistently worse than students mainstreamed for 16 hours a week.
What to be Aware of with Mainstreaming
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Services include
notetakers, well-trained interpreters.
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It is not uncommon for schools to get interpreters
that do not have appropriate qualifications.
Parents need to intercede on
behalf of their child if the interpreter is not doing an adequate job.
A good interpreter faithfully
communicates all that is said by the teachers and students.
They also give the child
access to some of the environmental sounds that occur during the interpreting
session.
Interpreters are bound by a
Code of Ethics and may not discuss the details of an interpreting session.
Children need notetakers in
the upper grades because they cannot look down to write.
Interpreters in the Classroom
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Interpretation within the Mainstream or Inclusion
environment can be viewed from more than one angle.
On the one hand, the
interpreter can act as a link to classroom and all that is within it.
Classroom situations are
usually rife with group discussions.
The presence of an
interpreter can be useful in these situations, since group discussions are
particularly difficult for most deaf individuals to follow.
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Interpreters, however, are not educators.
The child/teacher pair must
always go through a third party.
Deaf children are often
isolated from their peers
Free and easy communication
that occurs between children is less likely to happen between a deaf child and
his hearing peers
Learning comes from social
interaction which is less likely to
occur.
Disadvantages to Mainstreaming
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Children that do not have support services miss out
on most, if not all of group discussions.
They miss out on incidental
learning from their peers.
These kids can feel isolated from their peers.
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Many teachers pace the floor or face the blueboard
during class.
Children that rely on
speechreading may have difficulty understanding a moving target or no target at
all.
Positives of Mainstreaming
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A child that is in these types of environments has
the opportunity to meet and interact with hearing peers.
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They are also exposed to a regular curriculum.
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These children often learn how to be self-starters.
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They develop excellent study habits that serve them
well as adults, often as a direct result of the inability to understand the
teacher and the other students.
Self-Contained Class / Special Day Class
(SDC)
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Some
public school systems have self-contained classrooms.
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These
classrooms only contain children who are deaf or hard of hearing.
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The
teachers in these classrooms are specially trained in deaf education.
Advantages of SDC
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The benefit of this kind of classroom is that all
the children are using the same form of communication so the issue of peer
isolation is addressed.
The teacher also uses some
form of sign supported speech unless the school has an oral program.
This addresses the issue of
using a third party to communicate.
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The child can go to a school relatively close to
home, yet will have some of the same advantages as the oral or residential
school.
Since the self-contained
classrooms are located in regular public schools, the special visual needs of
the deaf students are not usually taken into consideration.
More Advantages
Special items such as TTY access, visual- paging
systems, carpeting in classrooms and emergency flashers may not be available.
Children that wish to take part in after-school
activities may not find them as accessible as they would in a residential school
environment due to communication barriers.
HOMESCHOOL
ENVIRONMENT
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Many times parents and school districts cannot
agree on the issue of appropriate education.
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When this occurs, some parents opt to homeschool
their children.
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Homeschooling is currently a popular alternative to
traditional methods.
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An impressive number of parents that have deaf
children have decided to either homeschool full-time, or homeschool part-time as
a supplement to regular education.
Benefits to Home Scool
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Clear communication
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One-on-one attention
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Teaching methods that are adapted to the childs educational needs and learning style.
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The child
can work at his own pace and the parents can choose a communication system that
works for their child.
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Children that are under an IEP may receive support
services from the State.
Some parents do not choose
this option and prefer to hire their own specialists.
Schools are not open to the
idea of homeschooling and recommend against it.
Home School
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Parents willing to put in the time and effort to
create a quality homeschool program often succeed where school systems fail
because the program can be tailored to the childs
needs.
When homeschooling
supplements public school programs, the results can be astounding.
Homeschoolers handle the
issue of peer socialization through homeschool networks and other activities
that include groups of children.
Disadvantage of Home School
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Homeschooling
can isolate your child from other deaf/hh kids, so it takes extra effort to find
opportunities to connect with other deaf kids and their families.
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The
regional program can benefit with connections to the public school.
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Some
homeschoolers are afraid to be involved at all with the public school system,
but it can be a helpful resource.
A
VIEW FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FENCE
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COCHLEAR IMPLANT
Is
not an educational option, but rather a very controversial surgery which may affect the educational option of choice.
Children who have this
surgery normally need special auditory training to teach them how use the
information that they are receiving from the implant.
Sometimes Cued Speech is used
to help the children learn to discriminate which sound is which.
In any case, there is a need
for specialized teacher training, since most deaf education teachers are trained
to use hearing aids and cochlear implants work quite differently.
Cochlear Implants What it Wont Do
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Will not make a child hearing.
The cochlear implant seems to
work best with very young children and with adults who have gone deaf later in
life.
A cochlear implant, as of
this writing is a 24 channel digital processor.
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It is an electronic device that bypasses damaged
parts of the inner ear to stimulate remaining auditory nerve fibers.
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Parts of the device are placed
under the skin in a surgical procedure.
Implants
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The implants are not always successful and are
highly controversial, especially when children are involved.
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There is also some degree of risk involved.
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People who want this implant must undergo an
intensive screening process.
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When the implant works well, the results can be
nearly miraculous.
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Parents should thoroughly research all sides of
this issue using all the resources at their disposal and then make their own
decision based on the facts at hand.
WHEN
ALL IS SAID AND DONE
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Parents need to remember a few core points.
First, your child is a
precious gift and an individual.
Since children are
individuals, they need a wide variety of educational options to choose from.
A method that works
beautifully for one child will bomb with another.
The ultimate goal should be
good communication, social skills and an educational background that will allow
the child to become independent. Parents and professionals
need to remember to be flexible.
It might take some time to
find the right method or combination of methods.
Shifting through Information
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Remember to check all your resources.
Go to D/deaf adults.
Someday your child will be
one.
Ask a lot of questions.
Go to support group and
experts in the field of deafness and deaf education.
Read books, contact
Associations and of course,
surf the internet for information.
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Once you have collected all the information that
you need, make your OWN decision based on the facts at hand and on the needs of your child and family.
Conclusion
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Ultimately,
all the parents concluded that parents are the experts in regard to their
childrens
needs.
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As
far as the educational establishment, the most important advice to keep in mind
is that these people may be professionals, but they are not the expert when it
comes to your child.
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The
parent is the expert.
Words of Advice
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Deaf education has issues, be informed
Accept as a fact that your
child is deaf.
Seek counsel.
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Parents need to research the available information,
seek early intervention (the earlier, the better) and find a communication
method that works for the family.
Go into the Deaf Community,
meet Deaf adults and see what Deaf Culture is about.
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Exposing children to adult role models.
Being a bookworm guarantees
consistent exposure to English grammar.
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Read often with your child and encourage him/her to
read on his/her own.
Parents have high
expectations for their children.
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Expect a lot from your deaf child. You will be pleasantly surprised.
Words of Wisdom
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A positive and patient attitude towards the child.
Be positive with your child
and dont sympathize with them when they complain.
Be your childs cheerleader and tell him how wonderful he is.
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Parents make sure that their deaf children are
exposed to both speech and sign.
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Parents should expect proper behavior from their
deaf children and that they need to teach them good manners.
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Make sure your child has appropriate amplification.
Pearls of Wisdom
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Talk to your child.
If you sign, speak along. (If you cue, its built in.)
Read out loud to your child. (If you sign or cue, sometimes read out loud
without sign or cueing.)
Teach your child to say
things like please and thank
you.
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Above everything else, love and hug
your child as much as possible.
Love is a universal Language