Quote:
Originally Posted by R2D2
I can see why deaf of deaf would get such good results. However, with 90% of children being born into hearing families how would the child get sufficient native exposure to ASL (or BSL or Auslan depending on where you live!) in the first critical few years of their lives? Parents are the main transmitters of language in that time and from what I have seen, it has to be fluent language for the child to develop appropriately.
It seems to me that with cued speech, one advantage is that it's very easy and fast for a hearing parent to pick up, whereas with sign language it takes a great deal of commitment and regular immersion to get to a fluent level quickly. It would require a massive shift in lifestyle to achieve it i.e. spending lots of time in a deaf club to allow the child access to native or fluent sign.
What would be your suggestion from a social policy point of view to overcome those practical difficulties when there are givens such as most parents are often busy with work, other kids, find it difficult to transition to a new culture, find it hard to pick up a new language etc. I know you might personally feel that if the parents are not prepared to do all the hard work they are selfish, but a social policy maker has to make decisions based on the givens.
|
Sweden has a wonderful policy that insures that all parents of newly diagnosed children are exposed to Deaf culture and receive instruction in sign...homebound instruction if necessary. And while a parent may not become fluent immediately, they will, if the effort is expended, be able to communicate on the developmental level of a young child, much in the same way that hearing parents alter the way they use oral language with a small hearing child. CS might be easier to learn, but it simply isn't useful for acquisition purposes. And I tend to agree with you. You make the effort to provide your child with the things that will meet that child's needs. If it is difficult, oh, well. That is an obligation you take on when you make the decision to become a parent. Judging from the number of parents that are forced to attend parenting classes in the United States, however, it would appear that a social policy needs to be in place to insure that parents do what should be a given.