Why can't we have Deaf Ed like this in the US?

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deafdyke

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Why can't we have Deaf Ed like this in the US? Very oral friendly but at the same time, the kid can learn Sign? This is the type of Deaf Ed I would love to see...Offering both speech and Sign with no bias towards one or the other...and the oral kids would be encouraged to learn Sign too! One of the problems that some deaf ed activists seem to ignore is that oral training may sometimes be kind of shoddy or neglected. If Deaf Schools/programs offered good oral programs and sign programs, a lot of parents would opt for them, instead of opting for Clarke or an auditory verbal style education (meaning oral preschool is allowed but the goal is mainstreaming ASAP) I think there's an indication that things may be slowly moving towards a true bi-bi education, where speech and sign can be used equally.
 
I am actually kind of excited.........check this out! South Carolina School for the Deaf and the Blind | Cochlear Implant Program
I think Deaf Ed is going through a transistion right now.... I predict that the ONLY thing that will happen is that private oral education is going to be dead. If the state schools and programs can reconize that the best bet is to give kids both oral and ASL, they'll survive.......and they are beginning to reconize that. I don't think you ever would have seen hoh kids at deaf schools even ten years ago. We also need to push and encourage parents of hoh kids to place them in deaf ed, instead of solotairing them. I was reading back issues of the Rochester Advocate. There were a lot of kids back then at the deaf school who were hoh......Imagine if we brought back hoh kids to the fold?
 
DD- that school seems to be similar to the TC programs here in the states. They use "Sign Supported English" in addition to speaking the language, so that the students are still given auditory input, as well as visual input to support the spoken language.
 
posts from hell said:
down with oral education.
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This program is nothing new. Nor is it the direction deaf ed in the U.S. needs to be moving. It needs to be moving into a bi-bi area, not backwards into a TC area. And we already know the problems with sign supported English and all of the MCEs when applied to cognitive processing of language.
 
Totally agree with your both, Post from Hell and Jillio. English and ASL should never be used at the same time. Never.
 
shel90 said:
Totally agree with your both, Post from Hell and Jillio. English and ASL should never be used at the same time. Never.
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If we want to use a model outside the U.S. for educational programming for the D/deaf, we need to look to Sweden. Their bi-bi models are extremely successful.
 
I have a very "oral" class this year who are also fluent in ASL. They go to an oral only class for the first two hours of the day and then the rest of the day, they are with me. They are doing fine with both languages. Their first language was ASL and they developed speecj skills later on. ASL never hurted them. If anything, it has ensured that they wouldn't miss out on anything during their language formative years. Now, their English is fine. I don't see why many parents make a big fuss about ASL damaging deaf children's English skill.
 
shel90 said:
I have a very "oral" class this year who are also fluent in ASL. They go to an oral only class for the first two hours of the day and then the rest of the day, they are with me. They are doing fine with both languages. Their first language was ASL and they developed speecj skills later on. ASL never hurted them. If anything, it has ensured that they wouldn't miss out on anything during their language formative years. Now, their English is fine. I don't see why many parents make a big fuss about ASL damaging deaf children's English skill.
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It has always puzzled me. As well as the "English first, ASL later" philosophy. It just does not make sense.
 
shel90 said:
I have a very "oral" class this year who are also fluent in ASL. They go to an oral only class for the first two hours of the day and then the rest of the day, they are with me. They are doing fine with both languages. Their first language was ASL and they developed speecj skills later on. ASL never hurted them. If anything, it has ensured that they wouldn't miss out on anything during their language formative years. Now, their English is fine. I don't see why many parents make a big fuss about ASL damaging deaf children's English skill.
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That's actually the type of program I was meaning. I was NOT suggesting Sign Supported English. I was saying, a program where a kid can develop decent spoken language, as well as develop decent ASL skills in tandem. As well as a program for kids who are oral and doing decently, (ie they don't have severe language issues) but who could benifit from ASL as an addition, especially in light of the fourth grade glass ceiling. And shel....that sounds like the PERFECT bi-bi education. Bi-bi education can ALSO include speech training.
 
The thing is, we need to tweak bi bi so that it can be compatible with also developing spoken language, as an option is what I meant to say.
I think we have reached the point where dhh kids can become fluent in both ASL and speech concurrently.
 
Personally, I wish deaf education would eliminate teaching spoken language skills altogether. Speech is overrated and deaf people, no matter how hard they try, will never fully master it. Believe me, I've worked so fucking hard to have speech like hearing people...and what so I get? "Are you German...you have an accent.". I get to hear my four year old kid correct me on punctuation and articulation. I become more self-conscious and always feel I'm never good enough. I do believe in exposure to spoken language to use speech reading skills and cue speech to learn the visual representation of morphomes and all that...but only for literacy purposes. Deaf Education needs to get brass balls and really start realizing that deaf kids can and will master English if they are fluent in American Sign Language (or the deaf language of their country such as Auslan). If teachers are fully trained in bi-bi methods (many are not). If they would start the kids at the deaf school from the beginning instead of mainstreaming them only for them to fail and end up at the deaf schools with major gaps and delays. If they would eliminate the stupid and irrelevant requirements of NCLB. And if they would develop appropriate assessments for deaf/hh kids. And if they would provide parents with the support tey need in order to be advocates for their children.
 
Hard if hearing kids do need spoken language support. The deaf school isn't the place for that...for deaf culture reasons. In these cases, there should be specialized programs for kids who benefit from spoken language.

In my opinion, some deaf/hard of hearing kids benefit from spoken language skills. But ALL kida can benefit from ASL.
 
Folks have mentioned that deaf schools are becoming hard of hearing friendly. This concerns me...it should be DEAF friendly. Hard of hearing kids benefit from social skills, exposure to ASL, and deaf education practices for instruction. I have many kids who have a lot of residual hearing and who prefers to speak rather than sign. They like to hear the instructions rather than watch the instructor sign in ASL. Usually they are rusty signers. What do we do? They still have the right to have full access to instruction. What I'm finding is a lot of places bend over backwards to accommodate hh kids...sometimes at the expense of the deaf kids who need exclusive ASL.

I also am seeing some trends. HH kids who don't sign but are placed at the deaf school do not have great speech skills ( although they think they do). Often, they have severe behavior issues. Often are delayed in reading and writing. So for me, I'm like..spoken language didn't do shit for them. They are missing out. Time for ASL.
 
shel90 said:
I have a very "oral" class this year who are also fluent in ASL. They go to an oral only class for the first two hours of the day and then the rest of the day, they are with me. They are doing fine with both languages. Their first language was ASL and they developed speecj skills later on. ASL never hurted them. If anything, it has ensured that they wouldn't miss out on anything during their language formative years. Now, their English is fine. I don't see why many parents make a big fuss about ASL damaging deaf children's English skill.
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What a waste of two hours of quality education time. Guess we got to keep the parents happy. *walks on eggshells*
 
"Nearly all of our oral pupils become competent signers due to interaction with signing adults and friends in the signing classes."

"Competent???" It is not a competition, for crying out loud. A few hearing people wrest control of deaf children and see what we get. It is pathetic and it won't be long before they get slammed in court.
 
deafbajagal said:
What a waste of two hours of quality education time. Guess we got to keep the parents happy. *walks on eggshells*
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For them, it is not. It is for Language Arts which is English. Also, these kids like it. It is a small group so they get lots of one on one when communicating orally, not in large groups and of course the teachers in those classes will switch to ASL if any of the students have trouble understanding them. They have been doing that for 3 years now. Just for Language Arts only. The other subjects are instructed via ASL.
 
deafbajagal said:
Hard if hearing kids do need spoken language support. The deaf school isn't the place for that...
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deafbajagal said:
Personally, I wish deaf education would eliminate teaching spoken language skills altogether. Speech is overrated and deaf people, no matter how hard they try, will never fully master it. Believe me, I've worked so fucking hard to have speech like hearing people...and what so I get? "Are you German...you have an accent.". I get to hear my four year old kid correct me on punctuation and articulation. I become more self-conscious and always feel I'm never good enough. I do believe in exposure to spoken language to use speech reading skills and cue speech to learn the visual representation of morphomes and all that...but only for literacy purposes. Deaf Education needs to get brass balls and really start realizing that deaf kids can and will master English if they are fluent in American Sign Language (or the deaf language of their country such as Auslan). If teachers are fully trained in bi-bi methods (many are not). If they would start the kids at the deaf school from the beginning instead of mainstreaming them only for them to fail and end up at the deaf schools with major gaps and delays. If they would eliminate the stupid and irrelevant requirements of NCLB. And if they would develop appropriate assessments for deaf/hh kids. And if they would provide parents with the support tey need in order to be advocates for their children.
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deafbajagal said:
Folks have mentioned that deaf schools are becoming hard of hearing friendly. This concerns me...it should be DEAF friendly. .
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These are interesting points.
 
com·pe·tent/ˈkämpətənt/Adjective
1. Having the necessary ability, knowledge, or skill to do something successfully.
2. (of a person) Efficient and capable.
Wikipedia Dictionary.com
 
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