Quote:
Originally Posted by Cheri
I did not say to teach speech and use signs in the classroom, they do not have to understand the speech, but I don't see how a teacher cannot speak and sign the same time so that the students if they want to read the teacher's lips and signs the same time for all that means they may. I don't know how many hours of speech therapy do the deaf children have and how many times a week? You never gave me an answer on that one.
Helen Keller was deaf and blind she was taught speech and signs and she can't see or hear but she did a remarkable job and I was impressed, those deaf children have their eyes but they can't hear what excuse is that for not being able to be taught speech. It is going to get hard before it gets better. Its the same as when a deaf person is taught signs for the first time.
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You have to remember that Helen Keller had a full-time teacher living with her daily. That is a different situation since in today's time that is almost unheard of. The question is...wasnt she taught signing first and when she finally had a language, she was taught speech later? If that 's the case, then that called establishing a strong L1 foundation in a language that is fully accessible to her (which was sign language) and then transfering that foundation to develop a 2nd language which was speech/reading/writing. Nothing wrong with that. If she was taught both at the same time then it worked for her.
Now, I am going to use my brother as an example cuz he is a perfect example of how some deaf people are just unable to develop speech or lipreading skills no matter how intensively trained they are. He was in an oral-only program for 5 years after his deafness was diagnosis at birth. It was a complete failure for him..he didnt even develop any kind of speech skills. We dont know why...the point is there are many deaf children out there that just are unable to do it.
In our program, the young deaf children recieve 30 mins of speech therapy 5 days a week along with ASL being used for language development. As they get older, some show signs of being able to benefit from it and others dont show signs. We can make recommendations but the parents have the last say to how often their child can recieve speech therapy. The parents can take our reccomendations to make their decisions or make them on their own. We dont force speech on children who show signs of no benefit so we use the extra time towards developing higher critical thinking skills and so on.
As for speaking and signing the same time, that is using both languages at the same time and like Jillo says..one language or even both languages end up being compromised so the children end up with broken English or broken ASL. Hearing children arent being instructed by a teacher using Spanish and English at the same time, arent they? That would be too confusing for them and even more for the teacher who needs a clear state of mind to effectively carry out the lessons to fit all the diverse learning needs for all of the children.
Teaching is just not easy with using one language...I cant imagine teaching a quality lesson using speech and signed English...my mind would get all jumbled up. That is not my goal as a teacher...speech skills. My goal is to have the children develop strong literacy skills. The speech skills development is the responsiblity of the speech dept. A teacher assuming the responsibility of both is taking on too much and usually ends up teaching a poor quality lesson to the children. I have seen that in so many programs.
If TC was going to be used, it is best for one-on-one or two-on-one situations.