ASL Damages Children? NOT!

[shel90]

I agree. English should be part of all school systems.

Sadly, there are some deaf institutes that don't take the English program seriously. There are also some mainstream schools with deaf programs that don't take the English program seriously. (The mainstream schools I went to had that problem.)

I dont know about all deaf schools but the ones that I have worked at or interned at take English very seriously. I just cant imagine a deaf school or any schools, whether public or not, not taking literacy seriously. It would be a shame.

 

[deafskeptic]

True AVT forbids the use of any visual cue, be it sign or lip reading. AVT therapists use the practice of covering their mouths or turning their heads away from a young deaf child to "force" them to rely on their aided hearing, be it CI or HA. I find the whole philosophy of AVT to be unbelievably cruel and restrictive.

Exactly. I have serious reservations about the AVT philosophy. While I find being able to make out words words with aided hearing aids or CI a useful tool - not everyone can benefit from this; I certainly wouldn't have benefitted from it before I got my CI. I'd be more supportive of it if it weren't for the stand on ASL or other visual tools.

 

[kipourgos]

No kidding! It is like forcing blind/low vision people to learn how to read without the use of any tactile cues. It is just a screwed up philosophy.

Yes, isn't the whole point learning to communicate as effectively as possible?
After all, even hearing people use so many visual cues they learn themselves. Hand gestures, facial expressions, body position...even involuntary cues such as pupil size! Deaf people use a higher percentage of visuals in communication. Why not?

When one sense is impaired, it's so completely natural that the other senses work overtime and fill in the gap, and enable more complete communication. Why get so hung up on limiting the flow of information to the channels a hearing person uses? It's just more of this "it's not good enough unless it's the way I do it" bullcrap.

We don't force Native American kids to forget their own laugages any more, we see it's cruel. We don't force left-handed kids to write with their right hand; we see that they can write just fine as they are. When will these people start basing their priorities on reality instead of prejudices?