Is there a such thing as "true bilingualism"?

Oh and the reason why Miss Kat wasn't getting good spoken language support at her Deaf School is simple. They did not have the resources!
They had limited funds so they could only attract certain types of speech therapists.
Most of the speech therapists who are skilled in oral methods are attracted to either the PRIVATE oral programs or the wealthy school districts! (where the money is)
Your program was a new unestablished program with limited resources and funds!
 
I thought about this...being "fluent in spoken language" doesn't mean one has to be able to speak it. It means one has to be able to comprehend and express it. Being able to speak it is definined as having good speech skills.

So having said that..many deaf people here on AD are fluent in spoken language whether they have the speech skiils for it or not.

We ARE echanging thoughts and opinions here...so therefore true bilingualism is happening as many of us are fluent in ASL and other languages.

Speech is the ability to speak it but what goes on in the brain in regards to fleuncy in languages has nothing to do with one's speech skills.
 
I am not talking about deaf kids who "struggle to hear everything". I am talking about deaf children who utilize technology and are able to hear, understand, and discriminate all speech sounds.
Click to expand...
Yes, but what percentage of dhh kids is that? Yes, we've moved past the era where most dhh kids could only access a small percentage of speech with HAs/CIs.
Most deaf kids CAN access quite a bit of speech with their CIs now.
But they are STILL hoh. They don't hear like hearing people, many of them have difficulty in group situtions, many of them (including MANY superstars) may have pragmatic/social use of language issues. and they may be hard to understand (due to deaf speech) or they may have difficulty understanding people who aren't used to speaking with a deaf person.(for example I have pretty decent speech, but when I would return to camp or college, people would have to readjust their speech patterns.....and I'm "only" hoh....with very decent hearing AND speech) Yes, there are some superstars who are basicly " almost hearing" but using those people to represent what can happen with CI, is like pointing at the kids who get into MIT or other Name Brand College from a very poor background, as "proof" that if most poor kids just applied themselves,(even with the little educational resources they have) they could get to Name Brand College.
A CI very rarely if ever totally overcomes the inequalities of being hoh. That's like saying that if you're a good driver when there are no cars around, and driving conditions are perfect, you'll be a good driver in horrible conditions (say driving in a traffic jam through the Rocky Mountains when it's snowing)
 
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