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Branson Daily News :: News :: Deaf Reeds Spring student a success on speech team
Reeds Spring Middle School student David Gustafson’s teachers call him a pioneer.
How else would they refer to the profoundly deaf eighth-grader who requested to participate in a competitive speech and theater tournament?
“I love to perform and act and do speech,” signed Gustafson, who was the first deaf student to participate in a speech contest in the Tri-Lakes Area. “I feel like I learned how to be part of a hearing contest. It wasn’t a deaf contest.”
Stephanie Upton, the district’s educator for the deaf and a translator, said when Gustafson informed her he wanted to participate in the contest, she didn’t know what to do and wasn’t alone.
“Nobody knew what to do,” she said about contacting other schools in the area. “Everyone was like ‘We don’t know.’”
Gustafson and Upton practiced together as a team, him signing and her translating, right up to the doors of the competition. Upton said Gustafson was so focused on practicing his two poetry readings, his prose and children’s story presentation, that he didn’t notice the reaction of other students.
“Some were like ‘What in the world,’ others were like ‘Wow,’” Upton said.
“I signed everything and did my gestures, the acting part and if I did make a mistake she did not correct me,” he joked about Upton translating for the judges at the Republic competition earlier this month.
Gustafson said he didn’t get nervous, until he was chosen to advance in both events he participated in.
“For the finals, I was really nervous,” he said.
Gustafson received participation medals, and was impressed for it being his first time to ever go to the contest.
This wasn’t Gustafson’s first time in front of an audience, by a long shot, though.
“I was the narrator,” Gustafson said of his part in the school’s spring performance, which was performed five times in front of an audience.
Mr. Gustafson, is how he’d like to be referred to some day.
“Because I love to teach,” he said.
He is already getting his feet wet in the profession, at age 14, as a facilitator for a Missouri State University American Sign Language lab class every Tuesday night.
“I help them learn new signs. I want them to show up and be smart.”
“He is a good teacher,” said Amy Krause, director of special services for the district. “He taught me to text message.”
Because of his presence at the middle school, an ASL class started up this semester, so that Gustafson’s peers can better understand him, but Gustafson said he has a lot of friends who he could communicate with before the class. Krause said she hopes to continue with a similar class at the high school next year. Gustafson is one of two students in the district, who are deaf and he said there are about 200 deaf people total in Southwest Missouri.
There is no documented cause for why Gustafson has been profoundly deaf since birth.
“I was born two months early, premature,” he said. “I can only hear really loud sounds.”
The sounds he can hear, like the roar of the bus, the bellow of fellow students when they all gather in the gym, or the rumble of a motorcycle zooming by, he said he prefers not to hear.
“It grinds on me.”
Gustafson has been with Upton from building to building, his whole journey through school and she will be with him when he starts at the high school next fall.
“He came to me knowing about 20 signs,” she said. “I’ve been with him since he was three.”
“We’ve been together about 12 years,” Gustafson added.
“David is a great pioneer,” Krause said. “He is brave and stretches everybody.”
Reeds Spring Middle School student David Gustafson’s teachers call him a pioneer.
How else would they refer to the profoundly deaf eighth-grader who requested to participate in a competitive speech and theater tournament?
“I love to perform and act and do speech,” signed Gustafson, who was the first deaf student to participate in a speech contest in the Tri-Lakes Area. “I feel like I learned how to be part of a hearing contest. It wasn’t a deaf contest.”
Stephanie Upton, the district’s educator for the deaf and a translator, said when Gustafson informed her he wanted to participate in the contest, she didn’t know what to do and wasn’t alone.
“Nobody knew what to do,” she said about contacting other schools in the area. “Everyone was like ‘We don’t know.’”
Gustafson and Upton practiced together as a team, him signing and her translating, right up to the doors of the competition. Upton said Gustafson was so focused on practicing his two poetry readings, his prose and children’s story presentation, that he didn’t notice the reaction of other students.
“Some were like ‘What in the world,’ others were like ‘Wow,’” Upton said.
“I signed everything and did my gestures, the acting part and if I did make a mistake she did not correct me,” he joked about Upton translating for the judges at the Republic competition earlier this month.
Gustafson said he didn’t get nervous, until he was chosen to advance in both events he participated in.
“For the finals, I was really nervous,” he said.
Gustafson received participation medals, and was impressed for it being his first time to ever go to the contest.
This wasn’t Gustafson’s first time in front of an audience, by a long shot, though.
“I was the narrator,” Gustafson said of his part in the school’s spring performance, which was performed five times in front of an audience.
Mr. Gustafson, is how he’d like to be referred to some day.
“Because I love to teach,” he said.
He is already getting his feet wet in the profession, at age 14, as a facilitator for a Missouri State University American Sign Language lab class every Tuesday night.
“I help them learn new signs. I want them to show up and be smart.”
“He is a good teacher,” said Amy Krause, director of special services for the district. “He taught me to text message.”
Because of his presence at the middle school, an ASL class started up this semester, so that Gustafson’s peers can better understand him, but Gustafson said he has a lot of friends who he could communicate with before the class. Krause said she hopes to continue with a similar class at the high school next year. Gustafson is one of two students in the district, who are deaf and he said there are about 200 deaf people total in Southwest Missouri.
There is no documented cause for why Gustafson has been profoundly deaf since birth.
“I was born two months early, premature,” he said. “I can only hear really loud sounds.”
The sounds he can hear, like the roar of the bus, the bellow of fellow students when they all gather in the gym, or the rumble of a motorcycle zooming by, he said he prefers not to hear.
“It grinds on me.”
Gustafson has been with Upton from building to building, his whole journey through school and she will be with him when he starts at the high school next fall.
“He came to me knowing about 20 signs,” she said. “I’ve been with him since he was three.”
“We’ve been together about 12 years,” Gustafson added.
“David is a great pioneer,” Krause said. “He is brave and stretches everybody.”