Implants, Signing Let Deaf Kids Be Bilingual

Deaf News: Implants, signing let Deaf kids be bilingual: Research experts.

Parents of Deaf children face a critical responsibility to learn and use sign language, according to a majority of hearing experts quoted in the journal Pediatrics, although the question of whether or not to sign has grown increasingly controversial.

Ten thousand infants are born yearly in the U.S. with sensorineural deafness, and data suggest that half receive cochlear implants, small devices that help provide a sense of sound to profoundly Deaf individuals.

While some specialists advise that all Deaf children, with or without cochlear implants, learn sign language, others fear that learning sign language will interfere with the demanding rehabilitation needed to maximize the cochlear device. Still others worry that asking parents to learn a new language quickly is too burdensome.

In an “Ethics Rounds” feature in Pediatrics, nine experts from hearing and language-associated fields share their perspectives and conclude, “The benefits of learning sign language clearly outweigh the risks. For parents and families who are willing and able, this approach seems clearly preferable to an approach that focuses solely on oral communication," in which the child would depend only on the cochlear device or other auditory-verbal approaches.

John Lantos, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, writes in the journal, “The more languages they learn, the better these children will be able to communicate.”

Lantos told Reuters Health that too many children who receive cochlear implants fail to achieve full functionality in the hearing world. “If the idea is to give kids the most potential to communicate in the most ways that they can, it seems like learning both is the best approach.”

Linguist Donna Jo Napoli contributed one of the most urgent arguments for full adoption of sign language. “Children should be surrounded by sign language as much as possible as soon as the audiological status is determined," she told Reuters Health. "If the child gets a cochlear implant and does well with it, fantastic. Then the child is bi-lingual...Read The Full Story.

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American Sign Language Effects On The Brain

Deaf children need adequate communication to develop a healthy brain, experts say.

DHN's coverage story of the education and communication skills for Deaf children in the United States of America. Experts tell us how the brain works when it doesn't develop properly and when it does.

Their solution? Giving Deaf children access to both American Sign Language and English leads to healthy development and should be part of every child's learning process from day one. Next week we meet two women who did just that.

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DHN is a place where everyone can get the news in the language that suits them best, whether they are Deaf or Hearing. DHN is a news agency and incorporate American Sign Language, spoken English and captions into each broadcast.

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The Truth About Illinois School For The Deaf

Under Fire: ASL and Cued Speech at the Illinois School for the Deaf.

JACKSONVILLE, IL -- A few months ago, Michele Westfall tagged me and a few other people about the Illinois School for the Deaf's website on "Cued Speech Myths." What I saw there was heartbreaking. This is my response to the situation, sharing observations on their video series. Please support the Illinois Deaf Community's efforts to improve conditions at the school.

An Illinois Deaf Community member has stated that the superintendent is leaving in June 2015 and the pro-Cued Speech principal, Angela Kuhn, is a candidate for the position. The community does not want her to take the job.

Description of Adrean Clark, a Deaf white woman wearing a black and silver ASL Bat t-shirt appears against a dark blue background. Her narrative is interspersed with footage from the Illinois School for the Deaf's video series featuring the superintendent and classroom situations.

RELATED - Free Illinois School For The Deaf From Audism

Summary: The Illinois School for the Deaf released a series of videos intended to dispel doubts about their "bilingual" program. I was heartbroken by what I saw in the footage and would like to show you what I noticed.

- The school's mission is to provide a bilingual ASL - English environment. The actual practice is far from bilingual. The example footage shown takes place during an English composition class. The teacher asks (with Cued Speech) what "to conclude" means. Two students respond - one with ASL/fingerspelling and another by oral English only. The teacher winks at the speaking students. This is common to oral environments that try to "share space" with ASL. Speaking English tends to come first. The student that spoke got special treatment while not signing at all.

- The superintendent claims that the thousands of words in science and social studies have no ASL equivalent, therefore must be fingerspelled. That is a false claim, since ASL has built-in systems for developing new words. The choice to depend on fingerspelling actually robs students of full access to ASL - as an example a video from the ASL THAT! group is posted. In the video Joseph Wheeler differentiates between deer, moose, and elk by following ASL handshapes and structures. The result is a rich natural sciences education that all Deaf students should have access to.

- The superintendent states that Cued Speech provides an alternative for long-term retention of English information that doesn't involve English print alone. That statement shows that speaking is considered superior at the Illinois School for the Deaf.

- In a mathematics classroom, the teacher interrupts teaching to show students how to speak the word "proper." An assistant is called in to display proper mouthing and cueing for the students. When she tries to fingerspell the word, she gets a slap on the hand. It is disconcerting that so much time was spent on that one word - and on top of that, even daring to use English fingerspelling was considered "bad." That is not an ASL-English bilingual environment at all!

The Illinois School for the Deaf is an oral program that uses manually-coded English as the primary mode of instruction. It is not a bilingual program. Footage Sources: Myth 1, 2, and 5 at http://illinoisdeaf.org/FactOrMythASL.html.

Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/video.

SOURCE

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