- "He has no deaf friends." Taken in the content of the article, a hearing reader would get the impression, that not having any deaf friends is something to be proud of. It is important for deaf kids' social development to associate with other deaf kids, e.g. signers with signers, oral with oral.
- They cite that often-trotted-out "4th grade reading level" statement, throwing a scare into parents who are reading this article. We've got to get the media to stop focusing on that because very soon it will no longer be true and as of now it is probably not true anymore.
- It says the students at the oral school are "prohibited" from learning sign language, without explaining why the students are not being permitted to learn sign language. A paper has an obligation to present all the facts so that people can form their own opinions. The paper should have added the statement that sign language was being prohibited in order not to hinder oral language development, not because sign language is bad. Instead, when I read the article, it gave me the impression that it was saying that sign language is bad.
- The paper pushes the fact that not everyone does well with implants, to the very end of the article where it is likely to be overlooked or ignored.
While I am getting to know deaf adults with implants, I have not had much exposure to deaf kids with implants and only know what others tell me. Yesterday a teacher of the deaf, told me that in San Diego, the parents who implant their kids must sign a paper promising not to use sign language (sound familiar?) . This teacher described an experience at a school for deaf kids. The teacher found that of the implanted kids, some did very well, while others could barely communicate.
Last, at the very end of the article, they call it all an "oral deaf experiment." Some of those kids will do great... but what happens to the ones who don't do so great? How are they going to feel when they are finally exposed to sign language and the deaf community?
I want to see the media send the message that sign language is not a bad thing. Even for oral deaf people, minimal sign language can fill in the communication gaps when something to write on is not handy.
5 comments:
Jamie,
Would you consider sending this post to the Editor of the Chicago Tribune in response to their article? They may print it and it would be a good rebuttle and follow up.
~ LaRonda
It's not being negative to state that a child has no deaf friends. It helps readers to understand that, unlike previous generations, kids are not sequestered in groups of those with the exact same disabilities. They can be mainstreamed.
The 4th grad reading level stat still stands for deaf adults without cochlear implants. So it is a good comparison for parents.
Lastly, the cochlear implant WHEN implanted in appropriate candidates is extremely successful. Unfortunately, supposed cases of them "not working" are more linked to inappropriate expectations in older implanted kids, or simply problems with parents not wholeheartedly supporting the cochlear implant with their maintaintance and usage. I have known hundreds, literally hundreds of kids with CIs and they are uniformly successful. It's really too bad that you haven't attended a CI camp for kids or something, because you really do need to see how successful they are.
WWWWHHHHHOOOOOOOAAAAAAA WAIT IN MIN PARENT SIGN PAPER AND TELL KIDS DO NOT USE SIGN LANGAUGE NO NO WAY IT IS WRONG WAY CAUSE IF AMERICA DISABITY ACTION LAWS FIND OUT ABOUT WHAT YOU SAID YOU GET IN BIG TROUBLE LET ME SAID SOMETHING FOR MY EXAMPLE " DEAF WORLD SWITCH HEARING WORLD " IF THEY MAKE SOMETHING WRONG SIGN PAPER SAID DEAF PARENT SIGN PAPER THAT "HEARING KIDS CANNOT TALK " HOW WILL YOU FEEL ABOUT IT ??? I BET YOU WILL SAID NO WAY THAT IS POINT IS FOR SIGN PAPER IS WRONG PATH WAY THERE IS LAWS MUST BE 50 PECENT HEARING AND 50 PERCENT DEAF IS A BALANCE EQUAL HUMANS THAT WRONG SIGN PAPER IS NOT ANIMALS TO ORDER WE ARE SAME HUMANS 100 PERCENT NO MATTER WHO YOU ARE I LOOK UP CHICAGO WHERE I BORN IN NAVAL GREAT LAKES ,ILL DONT TELL ME IF WE CAN'T OR EVERYONE AGAINST HUMANS LET KIDS DECIDE "NOT BE SELFFISH TELL WHAT CAN DO " I AM NAVAL WHO I WORK FOR NAVY I USE SIGN LANGAUGE NO MATTER IS SAME AS WE LEARN COUNTIRES LANGAUGE TO SHARE IN LANGAUGE CULTURE DONT TELL ME IF WRONG WAY CANNOT MEAN YOU ARE LOSER "DONT KNOW HOW " WE CAN KNOW HOW TO WORK TOGETHER IN OUR LEARN HUMANS WAY WE ARE NOT ANIMAL &SLAVE SOUND LIKE ONE PERSON IS A ANIMALS ORDER IS BROKE THE LAWS BY ADA LAWS
It might be a good idea for the Deaf Community to put on their black shirts on Sept 28th/29th and walk around the Chicago Tribune block and hand out flyers about the real truth of Deaf people's natural language.
Also demand to have an equal amount of information of the Deaf children that are doing great with ASL.
Lena,
Don't confuse basic interpersonal communication skills (BICS) with cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP).
You might want to read the Mahshie article. Go over to http://deafbilingual.blogspot.com and click on the link to a section of Mahshie's article: "Different Paths to Bilingualism"
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