Miss-Delectable
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Deaf children without barriers - Haaretz - Israel News
If I were just a regular citizen reading Or Kashti's article "At Yehud high school, no exceptions for the deaf" (December 26, 2006), I would have been overwhelmed with emotion as to the plight of young deaf adults in Israel. How difficult their lives are! How lucky they are to go to a school like the Yehud Comprehensive High School that is so caring and supportive.
However, I am not your run-of-the-mill citizen. I am a mother of twin girls with profound deafness who hear nothing without their cochlear implants. Having said that, I have to describe my girls. They are sixteen-year-old teenagers who speak on the cellular phone, study in a regular high school, are counselors in a youth movement, and spend endless hours socializing with their hearing friends. All of this was made possible thanks to the rehabilitation approach we used to teach them language - the auditory-verbal method. This method uses available hearing technologies like the cochlear implant (my girls have two implants for stereo hearing) and believes in maximum integration of hearing impaired children into the hearing world in preparation for a full and rich life in that same world.
Kashti's article presents the "deaf culture" with a sentimental and nostalgic tone - but the life at Yehud Comprehensive High School describes the reality of only a segment of deaf teens today. The description of the advantages of sign language along with the insulated closed deaf community which communicates through that mode, portrays only part of the story. Even more so, accepting this reality in 2007 turns the wheel of progress in the area of deaf education many years backward.
Today, thanks to advances in technology and science and in the area of language development and brain activity, there is no room any longer to accept the isolation of the deaf as a value. I do not reject the choice of "deaf culture" for those who did not learn to listen and speak through listening, even though the method has been around for over fifty years. I understand the need for a peer group for bolstering self-confidence. But the long-term implications of cutting oneself off from the rest of the world are grave - limited vocational opportunities and employment, and a distancing from the general public and from our surroundings. In the article, the teacher describes the need to treat deaf students like their peers and demands that they enter the classroom with the bell, as "this is the last chance to prepare them for real life." But this preparation starts well before high school.
Statistics show that 95 percent of deaf children are born to hearing parents. Apart from the advantage of learning spoken language and verbal communication, which allow for full integration in the hearing world, learning sign language in a hearing family is an almost impossible challenge. There is almost no way that most hearing parents can learn sign language at the rate of their deaf child. Most parents will not learn the intricacies of sign language in order to be able to fully communicate with their child on a deep level. The reality in most of these families, albeit being emotionally close, is characterized by a real communication gap between the parents and the child. As a parent, I cannot imagine the possibility that I would not have a full and deep connection with my girls, and they with their father, their hearing sisters, our extended family and our community.
Today, thanks to technology, there is little difference between one who is "hard of hearing" or one who is "profoundly deaf." If deaf children are taught to use their residual hearing through hearing aids or through the cochlear implant, there is no reason not to expect normal and intelligible speech - just like that of every other child. (If, of course, there are no other serious complications, which, in most cases, do not exist.)
In addition to my role as a mother, I am the chairperson of A.V. Israel, a non-profit organization offering support and education to over 250 families with children who are deaf or hearing impaired from around the country. Many parents reach us after their toddlers are diagnosed with degrees of deafness. New parents who read Kashti's article will believe they will never have a normal relationship with their child. They will be distressed by the sense of loss their child will experience, being cut off from the surroundings. I invite new parents of children who are hearing impaired to visit us and be exposed to a completely different portrayal of the future of their deaf child - a future full of hope. I also invite Kashti and all those who were moved by the life of deaf teens as portrayed in his article to meet our children, the kids of A.V. Israel, who have learned to listen and to speak. You can meet them in regular schools across the country, in music and dance classes, in youth movements and at the homes of their hearing friends. Ask them what they think of the barrier between them and the hearing world. P.S. - They can be reached by phone.
Elaine Matlow Tal-El is the chairperson of Auditory-Verbal Israel.
If I were just a regular citizen reading Or Kashti's article "At Yehud high school, no exceptions for the deaf" (December 26, 2006), I would have been overwhelmed with emotion as to the plight of young deaf adults in Israel. How difficult their lives are! How lucky they are to go to a school like the Yehud Comprehensive High School that is so caring and supportive.
However, I am not your run-of-the-mill citizen. I am a mother of twin girls with profound deafness who hear nothing without their cochlear implants. Having said that, I have to describe my girls. They are sixteen-year-old teenagers who speak on the cellular phone, study in a regular high school, are counselors in a youth movement, and spend endless hours socializing with their hearing friends. All of this was made possible thanks to the rehabilitation approach we used to teach them language - the auditory-verbal method. This method uses available hearing technologies like the cochlear implant (my girls have two implants for stereo hearing) and believes in maximum integration of hearing impaired children into the hearing world in preparation for a full and rich life in that same world.
Kashti's article presents the "deaf culture" with a sentimental and nostalgic tone - but the life at Yehud Comprehensive High School describes the reality of only a segment of deaf teens today. The description of the advantages of sign language along with the insulated closed deaf community which communicates through that mode, portrays only part of the story. Even more so, accepting this reality in 2007 turns the wheel of progress in the area of deaf education many years backward.
Today, thanks to advances in technology and science and in the area of language development and brain activity, there is no room any longer to accept the isolation of the deaf as a value. I do not reject the choice of "deaf culture" for those who did not learn to listen and speak through listening, even though the method has been around for over fifty years. I understand the need for a peer group for bolstering self-confidence. But the long-term implications of cutting oneself off from the rest of the world are grave - limited vocational opportunities and employment, and a distancing from the general public and from our surroundings. In the article, the teacher describes the need to treat deaf students like their peers and demands that they enter the classroom with the bell, as "this is the last chance to prepare them for real life." But this preparation starts well before high school.
Statistics show that 95 percent of deaf children are born to hearing parents. Apart from the advantage of learning spoken language and verbal communication, which allow for full integration in the hearing world, learning sign language in a hearing family is an almost impossible challenge. There is almost no way that most hearing parents can learn sign language at the rate of their deaf child. Most parents will not learn the intricacies of sign language in order to be able to fully communicate with their child on a deep level. The reality in most of these families, albeit being emotionally close, is characterized by a real communication gap between the parents and the child. As a parent, I cannot imagine the possibility that I would not have a full and deep connection with my girls, and they with their father, their hearing sisters, our extended family and our community.
Today, thanks to technology, there is little difference between one who is "hard of hearing" or one who is "profoundly deaf." If deaf children are taught to use their residual hearing through hearing aids or through the cochlear implant, there is no reason not to expect normal and intelligible speech - just like that of every other child. (If, of course, there are no other serious complications, which, in most cases, do not exist.)
In addition to my role as a mother, I am the chairperson of A.V. Israel, a non-profit organization offering support and education to over 250 families with children who are deaf or hearing impaired from around the country. Many parents reach us after their toddlers are diagnosed with degrees of deafness. New parents who read Kashti's article will believe they will never have a normal relationship with their child. They will be distressed by the sense of loss their child will experience, being cut off from the surroundings. I invite new parents of children who are hearing impaired to visit us and be exposed to a completely different portrayal of the future of their deaf child - a future full of hope. I also invite Kashti and all those who were moved by the life of deaf teens as portrayed in his article to meet our children, the kids of A.V. Israel, who have learned to listen and to speak. You can meet them in regular schools across the country, in music and dance classes, in youth movements and at the homes of their hearing friends. Ask them what they think of the barrier between them and the hearing world. P.S. - They can be reached by phone.
Elaine Matlow Tal-El is the chairperson of Auditory-Verbal Israel.
