Many Thanks

Abbie Smith

The remarks by Leen, the assistant director of the Jean Weingarten Oral School for the Deaf should ring bells everywhere. She said, “…they’re just slightly delayed…” If that were true, why would only 60% of her students move onto mainstream classes? That means 40% of the students remain seriously delayed. That should be an unacceptable statistic.

Fact is…only 8% of deaf K-12 students and 15% of hard of hearing students are reading at grade level or below in the State of California. This is a result of such professionals who have ideologically promoted oral training for deaf students.

Granted, they can “talk.” But does this necessarily translate into successful academic achievements? Sadly, no.

This is a great disservice to parents who are not shown the end potential results of their momentous decision to go oral for their deaf children.

If you want to teach a deaf child to talk, that’s fine, but watch out for continued language delays.

As for everyone else, a delay in language is unacceptable. Why would we want to accept that of our deaf children?

Furthermore, did they attempt to interview alumni of this school? I have friends who attended that school and they all told me all about how the school was a complete waste of their time. They all are now adults with their full-time jobs and they now prefer to use ASL.

Also, think about it. All of the time and energy spent on “listening” and “speaking” could have been used on teaching and learning. While kids are learning to speak and listen, they’re not learning academics. This only serve to delay their academic development even further. All of this could have been avoided if parents were willing to learn American Sign Language (ASL) from the beginning when they learned of their child’s deafness.

Here’s a shocking piece of information – there are plenty of ASL-using Deaf persons out there who can also speak and listen. If you were to take time to study Jim Cummins and Stephen Krashen’s work on language learning, you will come to understand that language proficiency in one language (ASL) will lend itself to a second language (English). With many individuals, ASL also have contributed to their oral development.

Oral education is about forcing deaf child to meet the parents’ needs and not the other way around. It is also about focusing on speaking and listening at the expense of academics. Only if those parents were willing to bring ASL into their lives, they will see their child growing up into a well-adjusted bilingual adult.

To put if another way, if we saw the baby first, instead of the deafness, we could see that it would be a crime not to talk to a baby for one or more years while waiting for a medical procedure. Deaf people are like any other people. They want to be treated with equal respect. Johns Hopkins has never studied the success of bilingual Deaf people who have had language from the crib like most babies get. Their success is greater than just earning power.

First, I’m very glad that you have chosen to write an article on Deaf/Hard of Hearing children. As a Teacher of the D/HH, it’s always exciting and, at times, nerve wracking when I see an article written on my chosen field of work. So it was with baited breathe that I read yoru article.
Unfortunatley, I was disapointed to several errors and misrespresentations in your article. As a professional journalist you should have investigated further before printing several of the statements in your article. I too, like Ms.Leen, am a certified Teacher of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing with a Masters degree and a certificate in Parent-Infant Mental Health. I have been working for the past 25 years as an Early Start Teacher for D/HH ifants (birth -three) and their families. At the risk of revealing my age, I also worked for 7 years with both middle school and high school deaf children. I have worked in the mainstream, self-contained classes and at schools for the Deaf. I had no connection with the Deaf community when I entered the field as a naive graduate. My graduate program was small and had three deaf teachers enrolled. All three dropped out – all three were bright young women but the professors reused to sign and no interpreter was provided. I remember being somewhat shocked and would sit in class trying to imagine how these profoundly deaf women were expected to learn as I was. Were they super human lip readers? I can not lip read for the life of me – I’m sure I occassionally fill in words unconsciously when in a noisy environment. The technical level of the work we were required to do was above and beyond the skills of any individual. We did not receive instruction in sign language but when severla of us requested it, we were told to buy a book and had 1/2 hour session one timea week with the speech therapist. What we learned looked far different than what my three deaf classmates were using. At that time, it was professed that even profoundly deaf children could hear with hearign aids. they just needed practice and training in listening. We learned to use music and nursery rhymes. We spent hours making cards with ideas to incorporate the LING sounds (now widely used for CI children) into our classroom work with Deaf children. I was required to observe at the Rochester Schoolf for the Deaf and tutored two little elelmentary school girls who signed under the table in order not to get in trouble. They certainly did not understand me nor did I understand them. It seemed like they had this magical secret langauge that I was not privy to, and would tease, laugh and share their thought and dreams with each other – it looke so easy for them but I knew it was not easy for me. My path took many turns but I must credit much of my understanding of deaf children,language development and successful teaching strategies to my Deaf colleauges. As a professional and on a personal level I am very saddened to hear the Halberts impression of the school for the Deaf. I am shocked and agrieved to hear that anyone from our school program would have suggested that a ‘cochlear implant is circumsizing the brain.’ I am not questioning the Halberts voracity, but I do know one person does not a community or school make – so I would like to personally apologize for whoever made that comment to the Halbert family. CSD prides itself on the professionalism of its staff and provides on-going training and in-service on the best, evidence- based and research supported practices. The school serves many children with CI’s but unfortunately they are often the children for whom the device has failed and not met the promised expectations. Please note, I said the DEVICE has failed – not the child and NOT the family. We also serve infants and toddlers newly implanted in our Early Start Program – we too sing, practice listening, provide auditory training, as well as speech and encourage full-time use of amplification for those who it may benefit. Being in the field as long as I have, has allowed me to experience a variety of practices, strategies and technology that have come and gone then come back again ‘re-packaged’ as new and ‘unique’- since when has singing with childrn and parents NOT been part of a preschool program for Deaf/HH children? Signing helps children with inflection, prosity and provide repetition and ease of expressions because the words can be memorized and always stay the same. Sounds are drawn out so provide the child with more time to ‘hear’ the sounds being produced. Every Deaf adult I know or have met -and are my age (over 50) remember music and singing as part of their education. They are just sorry theydidn’t have more math and science – for we have to remember speech, auditory training and music often take the place of other subjects due to the reality of time!
One truth was very evident in your article – no matter what path a family chooses – it’s hard work. Not using ASL with your child because your family won’t learn it is not the most thought out plan. I know if my sister or brother came to me and said “I need your help in raising my child. She needs you – I need you to join me in learning this new langauge.” I’d be on board in an instant – just being a cheerleader helps and develops a beautiful relationship with a Deaf child – knowing that their family at least tried to meet them and communicate with them is a gift to not only the Deaf child but the whole family relationship and dynamic. As a mental health professional I would be remiss in not making this point – a healthy family works hard together and knows the work is hard – but the feeling you get from the working is worth more than what you have given one hundred times over.
Deaf children, like all other children have the capacity, if provided complete access, to learn more than one language and research is now showing us that chidlren who have a strong foundation in one language (ASL for example) are better able to develop a strong foundation in their second language (spoken English). And we must remember speaking does not guarantee the ability to read and write. You and I never had to ‘learn’ our language – we acquired it naturally through daily interactions with full access to the spoken word around us. Hearing aids and CI’s are only a small part of the solution. Learning ASL is hard work for parents, learning to speak/hear is hard work for D/HH children. Who has the ability and responsibility to work the hardest when a new baby is born? We all know the answer – adults have a lot more resources and coping mechanisms than a tiny new born or a two year old. 99.99% of the families I work with love their children and want the best for them. When a baby is born parents are excited and looking forward to experiences they will have with their child. When a baby is identified as being Deaf/HH, parents are often filled with fear of the unknown – will my child be able to get a job, learn to read, make friends, drive a car, get married, have children, play sports, become independent and on and on it goes. Fortunately, we know all of these things are possible with all the hard work that comes along with raising any child. We can not rely on the child’s weakest link/sense to get them through and provide a foundation for learning. Linguists all agree that in order to succeed, children need to have a language that is natural,accessible, complete and EASY to acquire. Then they will have the opportunity to learn about themselves and the world. We can not allow their cognitive and social emotional development to wait for their spoken language to catch up (if it does at all). To me it seems unwise. Just a few years ago, a teacher was cleaning out an old storage closet it was obvious the closet had not been touched for years. She came to me later that day with a poster she had found and showed it to me covering the bottom half. “It’s a Miracle – She can HEAR!” were the bold words I saw. I became confused because the picture seemed out of date. “Is that a CI advertisement?” I asked – “no” she said as she unrolled the poster. “It’s an advertisement for hearing aids from the early 1960′s” My point being, promises can be made but not always fullfilled. Many Deaf adults carry the scars from those earlier years when the promises made to their parents were not fulfilled and of being labelled ‘failures’ for not being able to learn the spoken word – or being praised for their speech skills in school but when they entered the real world – no one could understand them. They are angry at the ‘bill of goods’ their parents were sold and never saw the promises come true. Fear that new parents,children and families will experience the same frustrations they have experienced may cause them to over-react or respond negatively about CI’s or maybe they did not have ACCESS to the most up to date and accurate information about the CI. Having to learn ASL later in life does not repair the academic and languge gaps and delays many deaf have suffered.
I’m a bit wordy tonight but on another note – the Californai School for the Deaf DOES follow their students academic progress over the years and are proud to say that 90% of the students that started in the Early Childhood Edcuation Program at CSD before age 5 and cont. through High School passed the California High School Exit Exam. The California School for the Deaf also has the highest percentage of students passing the exam of all programs for the deaf and hard of hearing in California – mainstreamed and oral.
Having a Deaf/HH child is difficult when you don’t have the support and knowledge to understand the complexity of the brain, language development, the speech and hearing systems, audiology etc. etc.
having a child that is different than yourself or what you had envisioned can be a shock to new parents. And yes – the journey ahead can be tough and filled with strong emotions and struggles – but the tiny child in the parents arms is not hurting – they know nothing different than who they are. It is the parents hearts that need to heal and dreams that need to be re-designed – but that is every parents experience wether they have a deaf child or a hearing child – I am not the ballerina my mother envisioned when she was pregnant. Paretns and children need to build new dreams together. and if life was easy, we wouldn’t have much to live for- the human spirit needs challenge. Asking families who are just getting to know and fall in love with their baby to make a decision about what language to use is ludicrous. We act as if there are real ‘choices’ – there are not – LANGUAGE is the most critical piece for any child. Giving your child as much support as possible and as the adult, assuming a majority of the burden to do so is a parents job. The more we give to them, the more they will be able to give back. I am not opposed to hearing aids or CI’s and have seen the benefits of both for spoken language development bu technology is not the secret to success – as a TEACHER, as an EDUCATOR as an ADVOCATE for both the child and the family, my priority and responsibility lies in establishing a strong foundation for learning, academics, social emotional development and hopefully success in all areas of life not just the ability to speak and hear.
I wish the families in your article all the best on their individual journeys. I hope they take advantage of all the resources (including ASL) available for their children. I also hope and maybe wish I could DEMAND journalistic integrity when reporting on and sharing information that is crucial to a child’s overall development and can impact a family’s path. Get the facts straight – go to the source and be wary of reporting one or two family’s perspective only. You have power and influence – use it wisely.

Regards,
Michele Tompkins
Parent-Infant Educator Deaf/HH
ECE Teacher Specialist