Best way to develop oral skills?

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deafskeptic said:
I think the majority wants class lessons to be 100% accessiable be it be in mainstream or deaf school. A lot of the time mainstream won't meet deaf kid's communication need or other needs so they end up getting sent to a school for the deaf. I doubt all the deaf schools will close for good.
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Don't all deaf schools use ASL (or some form of visual communication) as a means for teaching? (other than oral deaf schools?) I assumed that all state schools for the deaf use ASL as a means to teach the curriculum. Am I wrong?
 
Daredevel7 said:
Don't all deaf schools use ASL as a means for teaching? (other than oral deaf schools?) I assumed that all state schools for the deaf use ASL as a means to teach the curriculum. Am I wrong?
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No. Although I don't know of any state school for the deaf that uses the oral method, it's quite possible some do.

While some deaf schools are not oral, some prefer to teach using the SEE, PSE or total comination method.
 
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deafskeptic said:
No. Although I don't know of any state school for the deaf that uses the oral method, it's quite possible some do.
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Oh NOW that's interesting. This is what I assumed: all state schools for the deaf have the same methods of teaching and the same guidelines. I feel like the enemy isn't oralism but rather a lack of good alternatives. Isn't it more effective to "beat oralism" if deaf education was improved?

Or do people think that the state of deaf education is fine?
 
Daredevel7 said:
Oh NOW that's interesting. This is what I assumed: all state schools for the deaf have the same methods of teaching and the same guidelines. I feel like the enemy isn't oralism but rather a lack of good alternatives. Isn't it more effective to "beat oralism" if deaf education was improved?

Or do people think that the state of deaf education is fine?
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Many think state of education could stand some working (myself included) but this isn't always the fault of the school. Quite often the problems started at home. The same can be said for a lot of mainstream schools.
 
Hear Again said:
That's right, Jiro.

I know 2 people were were born profoundly Deaf and are ASL users. Both of them are excellent lipreaders and can voice for themselves extremely well.

I don't know why oralists continue to insist that ASL negatively affects one's ability to speak and/or lipread.
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I don't think that ASL interfers with spoken language skills, BUT being in a voice off enviroment for most of your waking hours, 5 days a week, can. How can a child learn to listen and speak if they are not around it? The best way to learn a language is through exposure and immersion, so if their is no exposure, there is no learning.

Would it be ok if a deaf child got "ASL lessons" for 20 minutes a week? Of course not! That is no way to learn a language.
 
Jiro said:
yes I know you have not denied a visual form of communication for your daughter. We all know about same old L1 and L2 argument but here's what you're doing - you are attempting to use both oral + ASL together as L1 which Kat will most likely exhibit the deficiency later on as she grows up.
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Actually we keep our signing and spoken language seperate. She already has a strong L1 language bases in ASL.
 
faire_jour said:
I don't think that ASL interfers with spoken language skills, BUT being in a voice off enviroment for most of your waking hours, 5 days a week, can. How can a child learn to listen and speak if they are not around it? The best way to learn a language is through exposure and immersion, so if their is no exposure, there is no learning.

Would it be ok if a deaf child got "ASL lessons" for 20 minutes a week? Of course not! That is no way to learn a language.
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You're raising an entirely different issue, faire_jour. I didn't mention anything about the frequency of speech therapy.

I'm strictly referring to the fact that ASL does not impede a Deaf child's ability to speak.
 
Hear Again said:
You're raising an entirely different issue, faire_jour. I didn't mention anything about the frequency of speech therapy.

I'm strictly referring to the fact that ASL does not impede a Deaf child's ability to speak.
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I completely agree. One language does not interfer with another language.

But how one goes about learning those languages might.
 
faire_jour said:
I completely agree. One language does not interfer with another language.

But how one goes about learning those languages might.
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Actually, oral only does interfere with ASL if a D/deaf child cannot hear well enough to benefit from that environment.

If a child starts off with ASL as their L1 language, they have nothing to lose if an oral only approach does not work since they always have sign to fall back on.
 
faire_jour said:
I don't think that ASL interfers with spoken language skills, BUT being in a voice off enviroment for most of your waking hours, 5 days a week, can. How can a child learn to listen and speak if they are not around it? The best way to learn a language is through exposure and immersion, so if their is no exposure, there is no learning.

Would it be ok if a deaf child got "ASL lessons" for 20 minutes a week? Of course not! That is no way to learn a language.
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I highly doubt I would be able to communicate with hearing people as comfortably as I do now if I had only 10 minutes of exposure a day. However, I must admit that if you do try to do too much exposure, it can easily backfire on you. It IS a risk. ASL (or whatever other signing method) is 100% accessible and I do recommend it for all deaf kids.

Off to see Cirque du Soleil!
 
faire_jour said:
Actually we keep our signing and spoken language seperate. She already has a strong L1 language bases in ASL.
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How do you keep the 2 languages separate? Do you mean that you sign with Miss Kat at home and then use speech at school?
 
Hear Again said:
Actually, oral only does interfere with ASL if a D/deaf child cannot hear well enough to benefit from that environment.

If a child starts off with ASL as their L1 language, they have nothing to lose if an oral only approach does not work since they always have sign to fall back on.
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I was just saying that spoken English does not interfer with the ability to learn ASL and ASL does not interfer with ability to learn spoken English. I think we agree! :D
 
Hear Again said:
How do you keep the 2 languages separate? Do you mean that you sign with Miss Kat at home and then use speech at school?
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No, we have spoken language times at home, but for general communication we use ASL. She is in an ASL school enviroment as well.
 
faire_jour said:
No, we have spoken language times at home, but for general communication we use ASL. She is in an ASL school enviroment as well.
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Were you planning on placing Miss Kat in an oral only environment this year? I thought you mentioned that in an earlier post.
 
Hear Again said:
Were you planning on placing Miss Kat in an oral only environment this year? I thought you mentioned that in an earlier post.
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We have considered in for next year, but the more I visit the school, the less I like the idea. We really have no idea what we will do in the fall. This summer she will be attending an oral summer school that also has parent workshops and audiological evaluations worked in. It will be an interesting experience I'm sure! I think it will also help us figure out what we want to do next year.

If we switch her to the oral class, we will continue to use ASL at home, and continue to attend a Deaf church and be involved in the Deaf community. The only reason we are even considering it is because the reasearch I have read says that you have about 3 years to get the benefit out of a CI. If you are not a "level 1 users" at the end of three years, you never will be. And since you can not learn to understand spoken language in a voice off enviroment, we would be losing time. We just feel like we need to give her the best opportunity to learn both, and for a CI, the first 3 years is when you need to be surrounded by sound and language. If we don't give her the opportunity to learn, we are holding her back, in that area.

It is a hard situation to be in. We want her to have both, and we are unable to find a good way to get support for both. If we want oral only, there are clear, easy ways to get that. If we want ASL/written English bilingualism with minimal "old school speech" services (puh/buh/luh, look in the mirror and put your tongue like mine- style speech) there is a clear way to do that too. But if you have a child who can benefit from spoken language AND you want fluency in ASL.....I don't know where to get that.
 
faire_jour,

Thank you for answering my question. :)

What is a level 1 user? I'm not familiar with that term.
 
faire_jour said:
We have considered in for next year, but the more I visit the school, the less I like the idea. We really have no idea what we will do in the fall. This summer she will be attending an oral summer school that also has parent workshops and audiological evaluations worked in. It will be an interesting experience I'm sure! I think it will also help us figure out what we want to do next year.

If we switch her to the oral class, we will continue to use ASL at home, and continue to attend a Deaf church and be involved in the Deaf community. The only reason we are even considering it is because the reasearch I have read says that you have about 3 years to get the benefit out of a CI. If you are not a "level 1 users" at the end of three years, you never will be. And since you can not learn to understand spoken language in a voice off enviroment, we would be losing time. We just feel like we need to give her the best opportunity to earn both, and for a CI, the first 3 years is when you need to be surrounded by sound and language. If we don't give her the opportunity to learn, we are holding her back, in that area.

It is a hard situation to be in. We want her to have both, and we are unable to find a good way to get support for both. If we want oral only, there are clear, easy ways to get that. If we want ASL/written English bilingualism with minimal "old school speech" services (puh/buh/luh, look in the mirror and put your tongue like mine- style speech) there is a clear way to do that too. But if you have a child who can benefit from spoken language AND you want fluency in ASL.....I don't know where to get that.
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I wish you the best of luck! :cool2: but can you share with us what research you have read?
 
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