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Fulton Sun
When you sit down to watch your favorite television show tonight, Debbie Burnaman wants you to mute the sound and turn off the captions.
The first-grade Missouri School for the Deaf teacher challenged a group of local elementary students to do just that Tuesday morning during a special Deaf Awareness Week program.
“I would like to challenge all those who can hear to wonder what it's like not to be able to hear,” Burnaman said. “I challenge you to see what it is like so that you understand.”
Increasing awareness and understanding about life as a deaf or hard-of-hearing person was one of the main goals during Tuesday's activities, which included a tour of Stark Elementary School.
“It's important that (the students) know what it's like to be deaf,” said MSD assistant superintendent Tom Bastean. “It's important for them to know we are deaf and we can do so many things like them, but we need equal access to communication.”
The highlight of the event was a preview of a special episode of “Maya and Miguel,” a PBS cartoon designed to help children learn about other cultures, traditions and languages.
In the episode, one of the main characters, Tito, meets a new boy named Marco who is deaf. Tito learns ASL in order to communicate with him. Many of the scenes are intended to teach viewers proper etiquette when interacting with the deaf and hard of hearing.
“It doesn't help to speak louder or over-communicate,” the boys' teacher at one point admonishes her students. “It's better to speak normally. It's easier for him to read your lips that way.”
While working with Marco on a project for school, Tito - a native Spanish speaker - also comes to terms with his own communication barrier. With Marco's help, he learns not to give up, and also teaches his classmates some sign language. As Maya says at the end of the episode, “Tito figured out that when someone has trouble communicating, they just have to keep trying.”
MSD educators said that is a valuable lesson for young students.
“(The show) is a wonderful education tool for children and their parents to see how complicated and difficult it is to learn another language,” Bastean said. “Deaf children have to learn two languages: Their native cultural language - ASL - and English.”
Elementary teacher Norma Vickers said the show demonstrates to children that “they can work together” despite the language barrier, and that the episode is important because it recognizes ASL as a foreign language.
“They use Spanish phrases a lot, and ASL is used in an equivalent manner,” Vickers said. “The characters also are involved in a learning experience with ASL.”
Burnaman said the rare appearance of a deaf character on television is inspiring to deaf children because “they can look at that and say, ‘I can do that too.'”
Bastean said he hopes the students came away from Tuesday's program with the idea that it is possible for hearing and deaf or hard of hearing people to communicate and work together.
“Our goal was for them to realize that they can be friends with any of their peers, whether they are hearing or deaf,” Bastean said. “They need to learn how to get along together in society, and how to work at improving communication.”
Burnaman said the special episode of “Maya and Miguel” airs at 4 p.m. every day on PBS this week in honor of Deaf Awareness Week.
When you sit down to watch your favorite television show tonight, Debbie Burnaman wants you to mute the sound and turn off the captions.
The first-grade Missouri School for the Deaf teacher challenged a group of local elementary students to do just that Tuesday morning during a special Deaf Awareness Week program.
“I would like to challenge all those who can hear to wonder what it's like not to be able to hear,” Burnaman said. “I challenge you to see what it is like so that you understand.”
Increasing awareness and understanding about life as a deaf or hard-of-hearing person was one of the main goals during Tuesday's activities, which included a tour of Stark Elementary School.
“It's important that (the students) know what it's like to be deaf,” said MSD assistant superintendent Tom Bastean. “It's important for them to know we are deaf and we can do so many things like them, but we need equal access to communication.”
The highlight of the event was a preview of a special episode of “Maya and Miguel,” a PBS cartoon designed to help children learn about other cultures, traditions and languages.
In the episode, one of the main characters, Tito, meets a new boy named Marco who is deaf. Tito learns ASL in order to communicate with him. Many of the scenes are intended to teach viewers proper etiquette when interacting with the deaf and hard of hearing.
“It doesn't help to speak louder or over-communicate,” the boys' teacher at one point admonishes her students. “It's better to speak normally. It's easier for him to read your lips that way.”
While working with Marco on a project for school, Tito - a native Spanish speaker - also comes to terms with his own communication barrier. With Marco's help, he learns not to give up, and also teaches his classmates some sign language. As Maya says at the end of the episode, “Tito figured out that when someone has trouble communicating, they just have to keep trying.”
MSD educators said that is a valuable lesson for young students.
“(The show) is a wonderful education tool for children and their parents to see how complicated and difficult it is to learn another language,” Bastean said. “Deaf children have to learn two languages: Their native cultural language - ASL - and English.”
Elementary teacher Norma Vickers said the show demonstrates to children that “they can work together” despite the language barrier, and that the episode is important because it recognizes ASL as a foreign language.
“They use Spanish phrases a lot, and ASL is used in an equivalent manner,” Vickers said. “The characters also are involved in a learning experience with ASL.”
Burnaman said the rare appearance of a deaf character on television is inspiring to deaf children because “they can look at that and say, ‘I can do that too.'”
Bastean said he hopes the students came away from Tuesday's program with the idea that it is possible for hearing and deaf or hard of hearing people to communicate and work together.
“Our goal was for them to realize that they can be friends with any of their peers, whether they are hearing or deaf,” Bastean said. “They need to learn how to get along together in society, and how to work at improving communication.”
Burnaman said the special episode of “Maya and Miguel” airs at 4 p.m. every day on PBS this week in honor of Deaf Awareness Week.