Teacher of the Deaf programs

Out of the 70 TOD programs, how many emphasize listening and spoken language?

  • 0-15

    Votes: 2 40.0%

  • 16-30

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • 31-45

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • 46-60

    Votes: 3 60.0%

  • 61+

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    5
WeeBeastie said:
I have no idea what they learn in their Masters courses, but it doesn't really matter, does it? Teachers will generally work where they can get a job, especially with all of the staff and budget cuts our lovely economy has lead us to. They may spend their higher education learning how to be a Bi-Bi teacher, only to find that the best job they can get is part time in a mixed TC/speech delay classroom.

Herein lies the problem, IMHO. How is 1 teacher supposed to train to meet the needs of the individual students in a classroom setting? Given the variety of IEP goals, a very small class of 6-8 can be a nightmare.

child 1 - oral, no sign, not deaf
child 2-5 - TC with SEE/PSE mix
child 6 - Bi-Bi, ASL, no speech
child 7-8 - unable to speak, unable to sign (due to other disabilities)

As long as IEPs are being written and LRE is in play, there will be all sorts of interesting combinations... and that's before they mainstream with the hearing kids.

How is a teacher supposed to train for that? The continuing ed would be never ending.
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That is why they are so specialized! I think the issue is that there needs to be a variety of placements for the kids. An oral child and a ASL only child would have such different goals that the same placement could NOT be LRE for both of them.
 
faire_jour said:
That is why they are so specialized! I think the issue is that there needs to be a variety of placements for the kids. An oral child and a ASL only child would have such different goals that the same placement could NOT be LRE for both of them.
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That's what I think too, but until we can afford to move closer to the school for the deaf, we have to deal.

I think LRE is absolutely the worst thing ever for deaf kids. How is being in a class with NO ONE who speaks your language less 'restrictive'?
 
WeeBeastie said:
That's what I think too, but until we can afford to move closer to the school for the deaf, we have to deal.

I think LRE is absolutely the worst thing ever for deaf kids. How is being in a class with NO ONE who speaks your language less 'restrictive'?
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It isn't, that is why it says, right in the law, that for deaf kids you MUST take into account their opportunity for DIRECT communication with peers and teachers in their mode of communication.
 
faire_jour said:
It isn't, that is why it says, right in the law, that for deaf kids you MUST take into account their opportunity for DIRECT communication with peers and teachers in their mode of communication.
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true... but it also says

"to the maximum extent appropriate, children with disabilities, including children in public or private institutions or other care facilities, are educated with children who are not disabled, and that special classes, separate schooling, or other removal of children with disabilities from the regular educational environment occurs only when the nature or severity of the disability is such that education in regular classes with the use of supplementary aids and services cannot be achieved satisfactorily."
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In the end, it is the school who gets to decide what's appropriate. Dropping a single signing deaf child in a kindergarten class of 25 with an interpreter is common, especially when deaf schools (private and public) are few and far between. It's the best option available.

We're very fortunate to live in a district that even has a deaf program. i know several families that are 'onlys' in districts that can't get a teacher of the deaf and/or interpreter for their kid. they usually end up shipping their kid to another district/county (2.5 hour drive! woohoo!) or making do with what they can get 'in the meantime', either until they can manage to move or the school gets a teacher.
 
faire_jour said:
Ah, that is interesting. I only know about my state and the state schools for the Deaf. All of those use ASL.
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I'm not convinced you know the difference between ASL and PSE when you see them so be careful.
 
I don't know the difference between CASE and PSE?
 
Tousi said:
Oh, okay. So what did you mean by "All of those use ASL?"
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She talking about all the schools for the deaf in her state of Utah. They only use ASL... but I am not sure about that unless it is the school's philosophy
 
This may be off-base here since you are asking about deaf schools, but I know that in the public mainstreamed school my children attended for a whole 2 years, had a fantastic speech therapist, BUT, she did not know ASL at all. She knew absolutely no sign language at all and there were 4 children in the elementary school with hearing loss, 2 with HA's, 1 with CI and one with nothing. The school provided help for those students. This school system has all of the grades spaced out in now 4 building that are all on the same road and all basically "together". The same speech therapist works with students from ECSE to 12th grade. In the total school, as of this past school year, there were 97 out of 1167 students who have a hearing loss of some degree and most have HA's, a few with CI's and even less with no aids of any kind. Due to the fact that there are more and more children coming in with hearing loss, they are now hiring more speech therapists, and also hiring teachers who know ASL. All the children involved know ASL already thanks to the Missouri School for the Deaf in Fulton, MO.
 
It's hard to get the schools to make any accommodations. I don't think people realize how many kids are mainstreamed with so many different needs, like dyslexia, hearing loss, psychiatric problems, etc. It makes me worry about these mainstreamed kids. A lot of schools are great for advanced student but only marginal for average "normal" students. The mainstreamed kids may languish in a classroom unnoticed. It's too common in a large classroom, especially at the secondary level.

Shel, I believe that deaf/hoh teachers have a special role in education. Deaf/hoh students need to see a positive role model and teachers are in a special position to be a role model. Hearing people need to see successful deaf people, too.
 
A said:
She talking about all the schools for the deaf in her state of Utah. They only use ASL... but I am not sure about that unless it is the school's philosophy
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It can be in the school's philosophy but that doesn't mean anything.


Souggy, lol, only you can tell....hopefully but I wouldn't want to hazard a guess.
 
I don't know about other schools, but the school I went to had advanced classes for advanced students.
 
By the way, the answer to the poll is 12. There are 12 TOD programs that emphasize spoken language. That means that the other 58 teach signing. Also, as recently as 2007, 64 out of the 572 graduates from teacher of the deaf programs received instruction that emphasizes auditory based learning. So that would translate to 508 that received instruction that emphasized VISUAL based learning.
 
faire_jour said:
By the way, the answer to the poll is 12. There are 12 TOD programs that emphasize spoken language. That means that the other 58 teach signing. Also, as recently as 2007, 64 out of the 572 graduates from teacher of the deaf programs received instruction that emphasizes auditory based learning. So that would translate to 508 that received instruction that emphasized VISUAL based learning.
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So how do the 64 teachers who know how to teach listening and spoken language serve the 90% of children who use spoken language?
 
What's your point for this?
 
faire_jour said:
To have a conversation about the training of Teachers of the Deaf and how they can meet the needs of the deaf students.
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Do u think teachers need formal training to use spoken English with deaf kids? If so, that doesn't make sense because you simply teach using your voice just like hearing teachers of hearing kids do.

Teaching using two languages (blingual) requires more skills than teaching using one language (monolingual). That should be a priority in these programs.

If teachers are required to teach speech and listening skills to deaf children then they they become more like speech therapists than teachers.
 
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