Sometimes I will have to explain to some people that being deaf or hard of hearing is not a cognitive issue, that is of course if the deaf or hard of hearing person understands language and has access to fluent and consistent language like everyone else. I don't necessarily think that deaf and hard of hearing people think or learn differently from everyone else. If they are taught in a language that they understand and have equal and full access to, learning should not be a problem. I don't think many deaf and hard of hearing children struggle with reading because of cognitive problems, but because of lack of exposure to sounds and perhaps language (if spoken language is clearly not working or a visual system or sign language is not used with them or used inconsistently). Think about it, how is the average profoundly deaf child supposed to learn language, if their family and teachers are unable to effectively communicate with this child? Then how is a child suppose to learn and do well in school with little understanding of language?
Some of the deaf and hard of hearing students I work with struggle in academics. Some have learning disabilities and intellectual disabilities, some lack motivation, and some have difficult personal lives, making it hard for them to do well in school. Plenty of their hearing peers struggle with academics for a variety of reasons as well. From what I have seen and experienced, the deaf and hard of hearing students usually struggle more than their typically hearing peers due to accommodation issues and lack of understanding from their teachers.
For the deaf and hard of hearing students who are bright, highly motivated, have not been diagnosed as having a learning disorder, or come from stable families, it seems as if the lack of exposure to consistent natural language, during their early years (0-5 years or older), plays a big role in how they do in school or in learning certain academic subjects.
If you do not have the luxury of consistently and naturally picking up ongoing conversations around you from day one, you are going to struggle with learning language later in life. Language is important. If you do not understand language or do not have strong language skills, taking in new information and understanding what is being said or read is going to be a task. For example, if you do not know the names for each season (fall, winter, spring, and summer) and the meaning of each, you will have a difficult time answering reading comprehension questions from a reading passage about the four seasons. If you do not understand how past tense works in the English language, you will have a hard time writing a short essay in English about what you did during summer or what you did last night. If you do not know how past tense works in American Sign Language, you are going to have a hard time understanding someone explaining to you what they did last week in ASL.
I had a student who struggled with understanding how to answer basic questions in English such as "What did you do last night?" She had trouble with language due to her significant hearing loss (which was not properly diagnosed until much later in life) and other reasons (family, background, education, mother does not speak or understand English, etc.). But, it was obvious to me that she was an extremely bright and talented child. She just lacked language skills. I thought that her difficulties with academics was probably not due to problems with cognition. I thought that all she had to do was improve her language skills and catch up with her same aged peers in language. If she understood the language, she was able to answer the questions correctly without any problems. So, I decided to treat her more like an ESL student. The more her language skills improved, the better she became at academics in all areas. In addition, it helped with her self esteem and social skills because she was able to communicate with her friends better.
Another student I worked with did not improve academically until he was exposed to sign language and started learning it in kindergarten. He became more confident and better behaved in class once he finally had a way to communicate his thoughts. He began to understand much of what was being taught to him. And because he did so well with sign language and was finally able to express himself coherently, we learned that he had a clever sense of humor and that he was extremely intelligent.
Of course, I can only speculate that some of my students' problems with academics is a language issue, not cognitive. But, it makes the most sense to me at the moment.
I am always surprised at how some people never consider language being the issue and that being deaf or hard of hearing is not the reason why so many seem to have cognitive issues. I think it makes a tremendous difference with how they are able to effectively access and understand language.
If everyone knew sign language and were fluent in it, I believe we would not be having much of the problems we presently experience in deaf education. If everyone knew sign language along with spoken language, deaf and hard of hearing students would not necessarily have to be referred to special education. If teachers, family members, neighbors, celebrities, and everyone else know and use sign language consistently and fluently, I think many of the problems we face in deaf education would dissipate.
However, I do not think that, given the fact that presently not everyone uses and know sign language, simply asking each family to learn and use sign language and expecting them to do so would solve the problem. Now, if everyone in the entire world uses sign language, this would not be an issue. However, keep in mind, when advocating for families to use ASL or sign language with their deaf child, where these families are located, their socio-economic status, what kind of lives they lead, their commitment to learning sign language and to try to use it consistently, and the resources and support they have access to. I would totally understand why some parents would want to look at other options, other than sign language, particularly if they live in a rural area where no one signs, where there are no schools for the deaf, and no signing deaf people. Other methods can work too. It just depends on the child and his or her situation.
Until everyone learns to sign, educating deaf and hard of hearing children will continue to be a challenging and daunting task.
(e
Some of the deaf and hard of hearing students I work with struggle in academics. Some have learning disabilities and intellectual disabilities, some lack motivation, and some have difficult personal lives, making it hard for them to do well in school. Plenty of their hearing peers struggle with academics for a variety of reasons as well. From what I have seen and experienced, the deaf and hard of hearing students usually struggle more than their typically hearing peers due to accommodation issues and lack of understanding from their teachers.
For the deaf and hard of hearing students who are bright, highly motivated, have not been diagnosed as having a learning disorder, or come from stable families, it seems as if the lack of exposure to consistent natural language, during their early years (0-5 years or older), plays a big role in how they do in school or in learning certain academic subjects.
If you do not have the luxury of consistently and naturally picking up ongoing conversations around you from day one, you are going to struggle with learning language later in life. Language is important. If you do not understand language or do not have strong language skills, taking in new information and understanding what is being said or read is going to be a task. For example, if you do not know the names for each season (fall, winter, spring, and summer) and the meaning of each, you will have a difficult time answering reading comprehension questions from a reading passage about the four seasons. If you do not understand how past tense works in the English language, you will have a hard time writing a short essay in English about what you did during summer or what you did last night. If you do not know how past tense works in American Sign Language, you are going to have a hard time understanding someone explaining to you what they did last week in ASL.
I had a student who struggled with understanding how to answer basic questions in English such as "What did you do last night?" She had trouble with language due to her significant hearing loss (which was not properly diagnosed until much later in life) and other reasons (family, background, education, mother does not speak or understand English, etc.). But, it was obvious to me that she was an extremely bright and talented child. She just lacked language skills. I thought that her difficulties with academics was probably not due to problems with cognition. I thought that all she had to do was improve her language skills and catch up with her same aged peers in language. If she understood the language, she was able to answer the questions correctly without any problems. So, I decided to treat her more like an ESL student. The more her language skills improved, the better she became at academics in all areas. In addition, it helped with her self esteem and social skills because she was able to communicate with her friends better.
Another student I worked with did not improve academically until he was exposed to sign language and started learning it in kindergarten. He became more confident and better behaved in class once he finally had a way to communicate his thoughts. He began to understand much of what was being taught to him. And because he did so well with sign language and was finally able to express himself coherently, we learned that he had a clever sense of humor and that he was extremely intelligent.
Of course, I can only speculate that some of my students' problems with academics is a language issue, not cognitive. But, it makes the most sense to me at the moment.
I am always surprised at how some people never consider language being the issue and that being deaf or hard of hearing is not the reason why so many seem to have cognitive issues. I think it makes a tremendous difference with how they are able to effectively access and understand language.
If everyone knew sign language and were fluent in it, I believe we would not be having much of the problems we presently experience in deaf education. If everyone knew sign language along with spoken language, deaf and hard of hearing students would not necessarily have to be referred to special education. If teachers, family members, neighbors, celebrities, and everyone else know and use sign language consistently and fluently, I think many of the problems we face in deaf education would dissipate.
However, I do not think that, given the fact that presently not everyone uses and know sign language, simply asking each family to learn and use sign language and expecting them to do so would solve the problem. Now, if everyone in the entire world uses sign language, this would not be an issue. However, keep in mind, when advocating for families to use ASL or sign language with their deaf child, where these families are located, their socio-economic status, what kind of lives they lead, their commitment to learning sign language and to try to use it consistently, and the resources and support they have access to. I would totally understand why some parents would want to look at other options, other than sign language, particularly if they live in a rural area where no one signs, where there are no schools for the deaf, and no signing deaf people. Other methods can work too. It just depends on the child and his or her situation.
Until everyone learns to sign, educating deaf and hard of hearing children will continue to be a challenging and daunting task.
(e
Love this blog post. This makes sense to me, and I believe that's what most of us would advocate for.
ReplyDeleteI think one of the troubles with advising families is how we keep talking out of both sides of the mouth.
A good example of doing that is if we look at the last two paragraphs of this wonderful posting.
On one hand, you wrote:
"...Until everyone learns to sign, educating deaf and hard of hearing children will continue to be a challenging and daunting task..."
Yet, in your next-to-last paragraph, you wrote:
"...However, I do not think that, given the fact that presently not everyone uses and know sign language fluently, simply asking each family to learn and use sign language and expecting them to do so would solve the problem. Now, if everyone in the entire world uses sign language, this would not be an issue."
How do we expect parents to interpret the last two paragraphs?
I have seen researchers discuss their findings that way, Dr. Marc Marschark most notably.
Is ASL a foreign concept that we find it so difficult to encourage families to learn ASL?
After all, we are always expecting the deaf children to do likewise with a spoken language, never mind their iffy abilities.
We do not allow deaf children off the hook for their lack of abilities for a spoken language, but we excuse parents from learning ASL.
Those double standards are so stacked against deaf children.
Again, to your good posting, ultimately, I say, "amen."
Thanks, Marla. :)
ReplyDeleteI don't know how we expect parents to interpret those last two paragraphs you mentioned.
For most hearing parents, because no one else they know will be using sign language, going the sign language route would seem to be the most unappealing and difficult choice. Maybe they would sign if they move to an area close to a school for the deaf or where a large deaf community resides. But, I have known families who send their deaf children to schools for the deaf where they sign, yet the parents never learn to sign themselves, which baffles me.
If sign language was the norm or used by the majority, it would be no problem. It would just be something you do, because everyone does it.
This entire year, other than some of my deaf friends and actively seeking people who sign in my area, I only ran into one signer I did not know, by chance. An entire year and I only ran into one. Why would anyone want to learn sign language if hardly anyone is using it? I don't buy that ASL is the third most widely used language in America. I find that hard to believe.
I suppose it is easier said than done to expect most parents to use sign language with their deaf child, even when it seems to be the most logical, unless it is something they are familiar with or if their families use sign language.
I think it makes it hard when parents are overwhelmed with the massive amount of information thrown at them once they find out that their child is deaf. In addition, many can get caught up in focusing on cognition skills and speech, that they forget about language acquisition, whether they go the sign language route or not.
it must be where u live. where I live, I seen them once a while. in resturants, churches, malls, i see them working as cashiers. but keep in mind, some deaf don't like dealing people because they can be quite rude about communication.Even I don't like dealing people and I have a CI. they make you feel bad about being deaf, and if not that, it's ignoring you or do everything they can to keep it short (and deaf do the same thing) . I even avoid doctors for the same reason.
ReplyDeleteplus movies don't have caption so u definitely won't find them there either. they rather be with friends and family, I suppose. or deaf events
(e,
ReplyDeleteOn the issue of language, this is why I am an advocate for signing with *every* deaf child. Sign is an accessible language for every deaf child who can see and many who cannot (tactile sign). Hearing aids may or may not provide enough auditory access for language acquisition. Cochlear implants require months to years (occasionally never) to before the brain can decode the input well enough to support language acquisition. Add to that delay the problem of trying to teach an infant how to decode partially accessible spoken language without as existing language base to work from.
Every business will trot out their best product to promote the business. However, I have observed a large number of unselected kids with CI’s. My observation is that, unlike the “stars” you see at workshops and so on, the majority of kids with CI’s struggle with language delays, regardless of how young they were implanted. (however the reasons given are *never* linked to AVT/LSL programs that discourage signing) Signing with deaf kids from birth can prevent most of their language delay. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that *not* signing with a deaf child constitutes language deprivation and almost guarantees language delays.
I agree with you that exposure to fluent native signers is ideal. However, I do not think that this ideal is *required* for sufficient language acquisition to support normal brain development. I believe that all that is required is for the language models (parents) to have language skills above those of the child. There is a fascinating “case study” from the 1990’s in Nicaragua, IIRC. The country had never had a deaf school, the Deaf were isolated from each other, and generally severe language delays. In the 80’s-early 90’s a school was opened in the capitol, bringing the country’s Deaf together for the first time. The adults learned to sign a version of ASL, I believe, however their sign was very limited due to severe language deprivation. Despite less-than-ideal language models, the deaf children took this impoverished sign system and re-molded it into a new signed language. Linguists from several countries recognized the potential to observe the emergence of a new human language and were on hand to study and document.
The point of my story is that these children developed a full, natural language despite having very limited language models because the language was accessible. So I repeat, I am an advocate for signing with *every* deaf child. If the child chooses to transition to spoken language only, that choice I would leave to the individual.
“Signing off”
David
I've seen the same thing happen to APD children - they're run through a gauntlet of hearing tests, dyslexia training, sometimes even diagnosed as mentally retarded before their condition is actually found.
ReplyDelete