Miss-Delectable
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Belfast Telegraph
There are 7m deaf and hard of hearing people in the UK, according to information provided by the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID), and about 840 babies are born deaf each year.
This means that one or two babies in every 1,000 is born with hearing problems and until a few years ago it was not uncommon for the hearing loss to lie unidentified until the child was over three years of age.
A new procedure called the Newborn Hearing Screening Programme (NHSP), as now practised in many hospitals, can screen the hearing of newborn babies within the first few days of birth.
Educational experts believe that speedy diagnosis of deafness is crucial to the early development of language skills when the brain is at its most alert and receptive. As most deaf children are born into hearing families, this means the parents need help from professionals in developing pre-school language skills.
We are all agreed on the necessity of this ? but there is almost universal disagreement on how it should be carried out.
Nine out of 10 deaf babies are born into hearing families with no previous experience of deafness and the advice they receive comes from professionals such as doctors, teachers and social workers.
Whatever their skill and experience, such well-meaning people lack the insight that only deafness itself can bring. So why are sensible and educated role models from the deaf community not included in the advisory teams meeting such new parents?
After 100 years of argument the answer simply remains that educational authorities overwhelmingly favour the oral method of education and frown on manual methods of education, whereas the great majority of the born-deaf community insist that communication is easier and faster when sign language is used from a very early age.
Deaf adults feel angry that new parents seldom hear their side of the argument.
Good teachers of whatever persuasion agree that the most important element in the education of deaf children is two-way communication. We have to face up to the fact that the word DEAF has many different meanings and the method of communication must be adapted to the deaf child and not the other way round.
In Northern Ireland, the great majority of deaf schoolchildren attend special classes in hearing impaired units in local mainline schools and only a few such schools allow sign language in the classroom.
Modern hearing aids allied to lip-reading facilitate communication for those children able to benefit from them and pupils participate in the majority of daily school activities with special help available if required.
Lots of such children do very well academically and have no trouble keeping up with their hearing peers. Parents like this arrangement because the schools can be near their homes and travel times are kept to a minimum.
But a good number of deaf babies have no hearing whatever, or reception is so limited to be of no practical use. Such children need communication of a high order to thrive both emotionally and intellectually, and it is this group deaf adults are concerned about.
Parents need to be made aware of the great benefits of manual communication in such situations.
Expatriate friends
In spite of the turmoil at our airports, deaf people are determined to fly out and see the world. Bertie and Barbara Humphrey, from Bangor, faxed to tell me about their upcoming trip to Canada with other deaf friends, to stay with expatriates Harry and Ella who emigrated 40 years ago.
Several other Ulster deaf folk have moved to Canada and Bertie tells me Belfast man Wilson Craig celebrates his 90th birthday on September 3 at his new home near Vancouver with his wife Lila.
There are 7m deaf and hard of hearing people in the UK, according to information provided by the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID), and about 840 babies are born deaf each year.
This means that one or two babies in every 1,000 is born with hearing problems and until a few years ago it was not uncommon for the hearing loss to lie unidentified until the child was over three years of age.
A new procedure called the Newborn Hearing Screening Programme (NHSP), as now practised in many hospitals, can screen the hearing of newborn babies within the first few days of birth.
Educational experts believe that speedy diagnosis of deafness is crucial to the early development of language skills when the brain is at its most alert and receptive. As most deaf children are born into hearing families, this means the parents need help from professionals in developing pre-school language skills.
We are all agreed on the necessity of this ? but there is almost universal disagreement on how it should be carried out.
Nine out of 10 deaf babies are born into hearing families with no previous experience of deafness and the advice they receive comes from professionals such as doctors, teachers and social workers.
Whatever their skill and experience, such well-meaning people lack the insight that only deafness itself can bring. So why are sensible and educated role models from the deaf community not included in the advisory teams meeting such new parents?
After 100 years of argument the answer simply remains that educational authorities overwhelmingly favour the oral method of education and frown on manual methods of education, whereas the great majority of the born-deaf community insist that communication is easier and faster when sign language is used from a very early age.
Deaf adults feel angry that new parents seldom hear their side of the argument.
Good teachers of whatever persuasion agree that the most important element in the education of deaf children is two-way communication. We have to face up to the fact that the word DEAF has many different meanings and the method of communication must be adapted to the deaf child and not the other way round.
In Northern Ireland, the great majority of deaf schoolchildren attend special classes in hearing impaired units in local mainline schools and only a few such schools allow sign language in the classroom.
Modern hearing aids allied to lip-reading facilitate communication for those children able to benefit from them and pupils participate in the majority of daily school activities with special help available if required.
Lots of such children do very well academically and have no trouble keeping up with their hearing peers. Parents like this arrangement because the schools can be near their homes and travel times are kept to a minimum.
But a good number of deaf babies have no hearing whatever, or reception is so limited to be of no practical use. Such children need communication of a high order to thrive both emotionally and intellectually, and it is this group deaf adults are concerned about.
Parents need to be made aware of the great benefits of manual communication in such situations.
Expatriate friends
In spite of the turmoil at our airports, deaf people are determined to fly out and see the world. Bertie and Barbara Humphrey, from Bangor, faxed to tell me about their upcoming trip to Canada with other deaf friends, to stay with expatriates Harry and Ella who emigrated 40 years ago.
Several other Ulster deaf folk have moved to Canada and Bertie tells me Belfast man Wilson Craig celebrates his 90th birthday on September 3 at his new home near Vancouver with his wife Lila.