You often quote Marschark as someone to justify your views. However, in an interview in handsandvoices.org Marschark makes some pretty bold statements and while I may not agree with everything he says, he at least demonstrates an ability to have an open-mind on an issue that is clearly not black and white. I would ask others to go and read the entire interview, its pretty interesting and informative.
Seaver: So what do we really know about the kids who are reading at grade level compared to those above or below?
Marschark: ... I know it's possible for deaf children to read on grade level
I know that it is a fact that deaf children can read at grade or above, my entering 9th grade son is reading at a 10th grade level.
-- I know it's realistic! What makes the kids at or above grade level different from those, let's say, below grade level? The answer to that will make some people crabby. First, in contrast to the mantra that we often hear, there is no evidence that deaf children of deaf parents read significantly better than deaf children of hearing parents simply because of that parental hearing status. Deaf children who are exposed to both sign language early and spoken language (and/or print) read better than deaf children who are exposed to only one or the other.
The key is early language--My son the ninth grader reading at a 10th grade was diagnosis at the age of 3 months, plus he had the add advantage of us already having a deaf child so we knew where to start. My son had a parent-infant teacher by the time he was 5 months old, was in a daily preschool program by the age 18 months.
not early sign language, or early spoken language, or parents who are deaf or parents who can stand on their heads. It's early effective access to language.
The Parent Factor
Marschark: I know of only one study that tried to isolate what's different about the "good readers" from everybody else. It was a study done here at NTID a few years ago. Although it was only a preliminary study, my own observations and the data available convinced me that it is 100% correct. What they did was to take the top 10-20 deaf readers/writers on campus, interview them, throw test batteries at them, and try to answer essentially your question. There were three key variables that distinguished the good reader/writers from everybody else: #1 Parents, #2 Parents, and #3 Parents...
This is what I have been trying to say over and over again, it doesn't matter what type of program a deaf child is in it matters how involved and how much the parents brace the program the child is in.
the point is that parents who are most involved in their children's early education--both formally and informally--are likely to have the children who have the best outcomes...
And this is why my children are so successful not because of us raising them orally but because we braced the program we were in.
Seaver: So it's boiling down to parents doing the right thing for their deaf child based on misunderstood research and a host of complex, unknown factors. Welcome to my world!
Marschark : ...A lot of the data out there are 100% clear, but many people are not willing to accept it. From deaf parents not really having children who read better, to sign language not really interfering with spoken language for children with implants, the facts make a lot of people very nervous.
Seaver: If you became the parent of a deaf child, what would you do?
Marschark: Interestingly, my view on that has changed quite a bit since 1997 when I wrote the first edition of Raising and Educating a Deaf Child...Since the second half of 2000, however, a wealth of evidence has clearly shown that most deaf children will benefit from cochlear implants, even if many of them will not benefit specifically with regard to spoken language (hearing environmental sounds can have important cognitive and social implications that should not be dismissed). So, now that I've seen the evidence, I would seriously consider a cochlear implant for my child, even if, at the same time, I would push for the acquisition of ASL as a first language and use some English-based signing as a bridge to English print. At the same time, I used to be a radical advocate of mainstream education for young deaf children. Having done the research that I have over the past 12 years since I came to NTID, my view on that has changed as well.
Solutions
Marschark : The evidence has convinced me, more than ever, that there is never going to be a "one size fits all" solution for deaf children either educationally or in language...It all starts with parents, and Hands & Voices seems to advocate the kind of flexibility that deaf children (and their families) really need while being willing to tell parents that it really is complicated... that there are not very many simple answers...I have learned a lot in the last 10 years.
