Not again with deaf schools being blamed for kids' low literacy skills. :roll:
Pls look at other factors influencing this problem. That's why I get into so many arguments with oralist and those who blame deaf schools when they have never worked in the field of deaf ed cuz because of their philosphy of denying full access to language, many deaf children are deprived of a language therefore they become delayed in language development. Due to being delayed, they struggle in those programs and then get referred to deaf schools at an older age and it is us, teachers, at the deaf schools that have to work our asses off in doing so much remedial work to try to make up for several lost years of academic progress.
Most of our students who have started with us from the beginning, r doing fine with their literacy skills but unfortunately, they r the minority since a large percentage of our student population came from the public schools after failing there. Those r ones whose reading and writing skills r very poor..YES from the public schools!
Maybe the better question would be is..why do the public schools allow numerous deaf children to fall so far behind before deciding to do something about it?
We use the public school' curriculum and we have a great literacy program but what can we do if around 70% of our students come to us at an older age at least 2 years delayed academically especially in the reading and writing area and they all have low self esteems and have given up on learning? If u have an idea to solve this problem, pls let me know.
Remember, many of our students came from oral-only programs not knowing sign and when it was apparent they weren't succeeding with the oral only programs, they get referred to our schools and at the age of 6, 7 or older, they have to learn a new language (ASL) therefore putting learning how to read and write on hold until they master ASL and then have to learn how to read and write in ANOTHER language when they don't have a strong L1 language to begin with. That's many many years wasted...think about it.
People need to stop blaming deaf schools and look at the core of these issues of deaf children and literacy skills.
Until u or others become teachers or professions in this field, pls do not jump on the bandwagon and put all the blame on deaf schools. Many of us, teachers, work really hard in working with an unique population of children coming from all over the state with all different kinds of problems. People need to appreciate us more instead of criticizing us...if the constant balme continues to be put on us teachers, future prospects may not want to become teachers and there will be a severe shortage of teachers. Granted not all teachers are good but a majority of us do work hard and that shoud count for something.
I am trying to end this problem but many people think the oral-only way is the best. My ass....what's so great about being in an eeducational environment where the child gets partial access to information while their hearing counterparts get full access? No wonder deaf children continue to struggle.
I think it is great to develop listening skills, but some people have struggled to write vocabularies and didn't know what the words look like. I also think the internet is one of the great tools for deaf people to develop writing and reading skills. If you think your grammar skills are improved doesn't mean you are done with books. Learning can last a lifetime.