Deaf Community Responds To Reading Level Comment

Miss-Delectable

Miss-Delectable

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Deaf Community Responds To Reading Level Comment - Jackson News Story - WAPT Jackson

WAPT News was flooded with feedback after airing a story on sign language interpreter Greg Goldman.

Goldman was highly visible during Gov. Haley Barbour’s news conferences on Hurricane Gustav.

However, some members of the deaf community said they were upset about a statistic he quoted about their average reading level.

Goldman told WAPT that his job is extremely important because many deaf people have a fourth-or fifth-grade reading level.

The comment sparked outrage among the deaf community who said that many deaf people have higher reading levels.

Experts said that reading can be a difficult challenge for deaf students.

A teacher with the Mississippi School for the Deaf, Amanda Parker, said that it’s a struggle that each of her students tackles.

"Being bilingual, knowing how to sign and speak is the best thing for that child. I didn't grow up using sign language. I struggled and my confidence was not the same as it is today," Parker said.

Parker said that too often, deaf students are placed in public schools and fall behind.

"By the time they arrive to MSD, they may be 10, 11-years-old, so it's our responsibility to catch them up. For all these years, they've been sitting in a classroom not being served," parker said.

Gallaudet University is the world's only university where all programs and services are designed to accommodate deaf and hard-of-hearing students.

According to a Gallaudet study, 17 and 18-year-old deaf students read at an average fourth-grade level.

To combat those statistics, Parker said parents of deaf children should focus on early stimulation and one-on-one attention to make up for what they can't hear.

"When that baby is born, and the doctor tells you your baby is deaf, the first thing you do, learn to sign. Communicate with that child," Parker said.

Close to 20,000 people in Mississippi are deaf. The MSD serves 130 students and provides an individual education plan for each child.

I wish all doctor would tell parents to learn sign language so they can communicate with the baby.
 
Miss-Delectable said:
I wish all doctor would tell parents to learn sign language so they can communicate with the baby.
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Amen! and they should hire deaf teachers or hearing teachers that are really good at ASL. They should hire good deaf teachers as they are the role models the deaf kids can look up to. (I have heard of a kid thinking that he/she will die once he/she finished high school because he/she had never seen a deaf adult.)
 
Use of ASL does not mean one would learn to read. You learn to read by reading, with or without instruction.
 
Use of ASL does not mean one would learn to read. You learn to read by reading, with or without instruction.
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True that learning ASL does not mean one would learn to read, but a prerequisite for reading is an understanding of the idea of language, that words have meaning. If a child has no access to spoken languge because he is deaf and is not given access to a visual language he can access(ASL), then there is nothing to base reading (or even pre-reading) skills on. I attended a very interesting lecture by Mark Marshark that discussed this very subject. It really changed the way I thought about things. One interesting point was that often deaf children, even if they are exposed to ASL, it is on a much different level of exposure and fluency than a child that is born hearing and surrounded by spoken language.
 
fhjmom said:
True that learning ASL does not mean one would learn to read, but a prerequisite for reading is an understanding of the idea of language, that words have meaning. If a child has no access to spoken languge because he is deaf and is not given access to a visual language he can access(ASL), then there is nothing to base reading (or even pre-reading) skills on. I attended a very interesting lecture by Mark Marshark that discussed this very subject. It really changed the way I thought about things. One interesting point was that often deaf children, even if they are exposed to ASL, it is on a much different level of exposure and fluency than a child that is born hearing and surrounded by spoken language.
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That is actually where reading helps you become more fluent. I read constantly.
 
That is what I have been saying for the last 2 years!!!

Having a strong first language in ASL does lead to higher literacy skills. Without it, many deaf kids struggle with reading because they dont have full access to spoken English since it is an auditory language.
 
Almyra said:
Use of ASL does not mean one would learn to read. You learn to read by reading, with or without instruction.
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One MUST have a strong language foundation before being able to read and for deaf children the language that is fully accessible to them is ASL.
 
shel90 said:
That is what I have been saying for the last 2 years!!!

Having a strong first language in ASL does lead to higher literacy skills. Without it, many deaf kids struggle with reading because they dont have full access to spoken English since it is an auditory language.
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You hit the nail on the head ... that's perfectly said! :)
 
fhjmom said:
True that learning ASL does not mean one would learn to read, but a prerequisite for reading is an understanding of the idea of language, that words have meaning. If a child has no access to spoken languge because he is deaf and is not given access to a visual language he can access(ASL), then there is nothing to base reading (or even pre-reading) skills on. I attended a very interesting lecture by Mark Marshark that discussed this very subject. It really changed the way I thought about things. One interesting point was that often deaf children, even if they are exposed to ASL, it is on a much different level of exposure and fluency than a child that is born hearing and surrounded by spoken language.
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Great post! Marschark is a well learned and wise man. Educators would do well to pay more attention to his findings.
 
shel90 said:
That is what I have been saying for the last 2 years!!!

Having a strong first language in ASL does lead to higher literacy skills. Without it, many deaf kids struggle with reading because they dont have full access to spoken English since it is an auditory language.
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You and me both, Shel! And yet they keep asking us to prove it, despite the wealth of literature and research that supports what we have to say.:roll:
 
shel90 said:
One MUST have a strong language foundation before being able to read and for deaf children the language that is fully accessible to them is ASL.
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Exactly! Pre-reading skills require that a child understand the symbolic nature of language. ASL allows them to grasp that concept in the same way that hearing children grasp that concept through spoken language.
 
Yes!! Last time I was told that ISD superintendent DG recognized the most problematic situation with the deaf school kids who were so behind with READING! So he is working on it underway to stress more reading.

Although it is quite a surprise to me because those days those deaf kids have many more tv shows/movies with c.c. and computers/pagers than our old timers who lacked them in our past time yet they fail with the reading nowadays. Quite ironic! huh
 
web730 said:
Yes!! Last time I was told that ISD superintendent DG recognized the most problematic situation with the deaf school kids who were so behind with READING! So he is working on it underway to stress more reading.

Although it is quite a surprise to me because those days those deaf kids have many more tv shows/movies with c.c. and computers/pagers than our old timers who lacked them in our past time yet they fail with the reading nowadays. Quite ironic! huh
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Not only just being able to read is very important but to understand how English is phrased in different ways is also critical to developing higher literacy skills.

This year, I am learning that my students, despite being able to read on or close to their age appropriate levels, lack in skills of being able to identify or understand different kinds of English phrases/idioms/figurative speech so I am now adding that part of my reading lesson plans to work on those skills.

Today, I introducted the phrase "get off my back" by showing pictures of people or animals with other people and animals literally on their back on my Smartboard and had a good discussion on what it really meant and how they cant take it literally. The kids looked like at me like they were wondering why people write using figurative speech. Boy, there are soooo many skills and concepts involved with reading, not just reading word for word. Many teachers who do not have the knowledge nor training of teaching Deaf Ed seriously overlook teaching these skills with many deaf children. Too often, many teachers in mainstreamed programs dont even think about things like that because they are not trained to spot them. The reason for this, they are trained to work with hearing children and it is already assumed that hearing kids pick up those skills with the English language in their environment through socializing. That's a perfect example why so many deaf children do not achieve high literacy skills in mainstreamed programs. Heck, I struggled with figurative speech and idioms despite being a good reader.

Anyways, It is overwhelming for me to even think about it but I just take it one day at a time. Last week, I taught them the idiom "It is raining cats and dogs." They really loved that one. :)
 
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