#adventstuides

[learningcherryblossoms]

A Norwegian class and napanese textbooks. Yea I'm not taking too many languages on this year lol

[learningcherryblossoms]

Lesson 36:  Education of Deaf Children

Oralism - Manualism Controversy

At the time Abbe de l'Epee was using French Sign Language (FSL) to educate deaf in France, educators in England were exclusively using "oral methods" (only speech; no signing or fingerspelling) to teach deaf children.  Ever since, there has been a controversy about the "best" method for educating the deaf.  Should deaf children be educated through their "natural language" based on signing or should they be taught through spoken language only?

Some deaf children, with hearing aids and intensive speech and auditory training, can develop highly intelligible speech and function well in a school that uses only speech.    However, many deaf children would find it difficult to learn exclusively through speech because even powerful hearing aids do not allow them to discriminate speech well enough to understand all or most of what is said to them.  

Moreover, they do not hear their own speech well enough to correct errors in pronunciation.  Many deaf children educated through oral methods fail to develop intelligible speech.  As these children grow up, they may find themselves without a viable means of communication.   They cannot communicate through sign language because they have not learned it.   They cannot communicate effectively through speech because they do not know it well enough to understand others speech or develop clear speech themselves.

On the other hand, exclusive reliance on signing and the failure to develop any speech at all puts the child at risk for being isolated from the dominant hearing society.    They can only communicate with other deaf signers and with hearing people with the help of interpreters.  This may cause difficulty in realizing their full potential in social relationships, education, and employment.  Moreover, regardless of whether a deaf child learns to speak or not, he/she must learn to read and write in a spoken language.  

ASL and other sign languages around the world do not have a script and, therefore, written materials like books are not available in these languages.   There have been numerous attempts to develop a script for ASL, but there is not yet a useful, widely accepted script for it.  Teaching how to read and write in a script based on a spoken language such as English using a sign language such as ASL has proven to be very difficult.  Many deaf children educated using the manual methods (sign language and fingerspelling) fail to develop adequate knowledge of reading and writing to succeed in education.

In US, Thomas Gallaudet championed the use of signing to educate deaf. Alexander G. Bell, a contemporary of Gallaudet (and the inventor of the telephone), advocated oralism.    The Gallaudet University in Washington, DC and the National Association of the Deaf (an advocacy organization of Deaf people in the U.S.) are in favor of the use of ASL with and among deaf. They do not oppose the use of speech but strongly argue for the use of ASL with all deaf people in this country. 

They do not approve of Manual English and only support the use of SPE when interacting with hearing people who do not know ASL.     They regard manual English as a corruption of their language (ASL) and, therefore, offensive.  On the other hand, the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf, a large and influential organization of teachers and parents of deaf children in the U. S. and Canada, among other organizations, favors the exclusive use of speech with and among deaf.  Thus the oralism-manualism controversy that started in the 18th century continues to this day!

Deaf Education Institutions

Until the early part of the 19th century, there had been no systematic attempts to educate the deaf. In the U.S.wealthy Americans sent their deaf children to England for education.  The American School for the Deaf (1817), formerly the American Asylum for the Deaf, in Hartford, CT is an example of a school in the US using manual approaches to the education of the deaf.  The Clark School for the Deaf (1867), Northampton, MA is an example of a school that uses oral methods to educate the deaf.  Today nearly all states have one or more state-sponsored special residential schools for the deaf that use an eclectic approach (a combination of oral and manual approaches) to educate deaf children.

The Gallaudet University founded in 1849 by Edward Gallaudet is the only liberal arts college for deaf in the world.  National Technical Institute for the Deaf (a part of the Rochester Institute of Technology) in Rochester, NY is an engineering school for the deaf.  Most colleges in the U. S. now have support services for deaf including note-taking, tutoring, assistive listening devices, interpreting, and counseling.

Methods of Educating the Deaf

   AURAL METHOD: Use of the residual sense of hearing in the deaf with the help of hearing aids, assistive listening devices, and/or cochlear implants. This is a natural way of learning to speak and, if successful, it results in natural-sounding speech.

    AURAL-ORAL METHOD: The residual sense of hearing as described above and speech reading (lip reading) are used for communication and education. Cued speech, a gestural system to help deaf read speech better, may be used to develop speech reading.  The addition of speech reading distinguishes this method from the previous method.

  THE ROCHESTER METHOD: All of the techniques of the aural-oral method along with fingerspelling are used to educate the deaf.  The addition of the fingerspelling distinguishes this method from the previous method.

  SIMULTANEOUS (TOTAL COMMUNICATION) METHOD: In addition to all of the techniques above, signing is also emphasized. As the name suggests, the total communication method employs all available means of communication - e.g. pictures, pantomime, reading, writing, signing, speaking, etc.  The addition of signing distinguishes this method from the previous method.

The first three methods are oral methods because they emphasize the development of speech and rely on hearing for the most part.  The last method -- simultaneous or total communication method -- is a manual approach.  Although it does include the development of speech, it is heavily dependent on the use of signing.

About 50 years ago, most deaf children were educated in special residential schools for the deaf.  Today, however, most deaf children live at home and receive education in neighborhood schools. 

 MAINSTREAMING is the term used to refer to the process of educating children with special needs such as hearing-impaired children along typically developing children in regular schools instead of being segregated in special schools.  SELF-CONTAINED CLASSROOMS are specially-equipped and staffed classrooms in a regular school for the education of children with special needs.

  A self-contained classroom for hearing-impaired children will have assistive listening devices discussed earlier and will be staffed by teachers certified to teach hearing-impaired children.  

Mainstreamed children spend a part of the school day in these classrooms and the rest of the time in regular classrooms.  ITINERANT PROGRAMS are for children who are mainstreamed into regular classrooms. 

An "itinerant" teacher of the hearing-impaired (a teacher who goes to different schools on different days) provides specialized educational services to a child in a neighborhood school.  The amount of time and number of days that a child receives such support varies according to the student's needs.  Because hearing impairment is a low incidence disorder and a neighborhood school may have only a few (often just one) hearing-impaired children, this model is cost effective.