HKG, Deaf people have all sorts of opinons on how a dhh child should be raised.
I know, but 90 percent of the parents are the ones who raise deaf children. I wouldn't listen to Deaf Militants. I don't find them right in their mind.
Not all of us are pro-ASL first with English later and no speech therapy. Hey....even TLC(very hard core bi-bi school) offers speech and language therapy for those who want it! In fact, I am not even sure I agree with bi-bi. What I am saying is that 1) there is STILL a VERY high rate of oral failures.
I have no doubt that many oral considered failures did not receive enough therapies. I don't think that oralism is flawed at all. It's what you do with it that's flawed. I have talked to teenagers, read stories talked to CI teenagers, and I know the amount they received are not enough.
Yes, complete failure to learn to speak is pretty rare. Even the majority of children who don't master the English language can at least pick up some useful words. However, even most oral superstars still don't have the meat and potatos of language. They still have trouble with idoims and pragmatic language(social) skills. Actually, most oral superstars still require intensive support in the mainstream. Most of them are served under IEPs instead of 504 Plans and 2) technology is imperfect.
I think that the best thing to do is to focus on the most that they can reach with language. I dont' think it's good to focus on the little things they don't master to pick up because even with sign language it is not going to cut it. I have trouble with idioms, but they are not very useful in my life. They don't affect my everyday living. I have to admit that when I know the meaning of idioms, they are pretty stupid and worthless to even know it. I am not sure what's a 504 plan, but IEP is crap in my experience. They are only a contract to allow these and these people to be in the schools to avoid problems and being sued. That has got to change.
NOBODY can hear 100% with CI or hearing aids. Even those with mild losses still have significent speech and language issues. Hey....even those with one "good" ear and one "deaf" ear may have speech and language issues, and research has indicated that 30% of those kids flunk a grade level! I hear pretty well with my aids...matter of fact I am "almost hearing" with my aids....Yet I still miss stuff...and it was extremely difficult growing up without the tool of Sign.
I think it's best to hear mild than a severe to profound hearing loss. It allows children to develop better speech and hear more things that are meaningful in enriching their lives through hearing themselves and others. You know, I repeated one grade. It wasn't because I flunked. It's another reason, but I won't get into it because it's long. I have missed things growing up in conversations, PA system, words, etc., but sign language was never going to replace any of that. The only people that know sign language is their friends, family and school classmates. As you can see, sign language is not known in the rest of the world. A few people I have come across started to sign to me, but they don't get that they need to repeat what they say not sign to me because that's all I need them to do. Sign language would not make it better for me.
I doubt that kids would be "confused" in being taught different ways. There's no research that says that kids would be confused that way!
Besides if you do it your way....which has been happening for years and years and years....the kids who REALLY need Sign and aren't great at speech are going to be VERY behind by the time they get to learning Sign.
Behind in what? Many of the oralist learn signs later in life because they meet other people that use sign language, so in order for them to communicate with them, they'll need to use signs, but once they are out there with none of their signing friends, then it's not useful anymore.
Unfortunatly, there's still the plain fact of oral failures....most kids who Sign are oral failures. That should give you an idea of the flaws of oral first.
I don't think it's silly that English can be learned by mastering ASL. I don't agree with that school of thought. I think it's best if Sign and English go together hand in hand! I have a TON more to say on this topic...but I'm falling asleep here.
I think the main failure is providing enough speech therapy or adding cued speech or SEE at the right time to supplement what they cannot hear or grasp. It doesn't necessarily mean to abandon oralism because they will still get better with time if you pay attention to oralism continuously.
I know you have your opinions, but I have my own. I have researched to what seems like the entire websites, talked to deaf teenagers, deaf adults, even CI teenagers. I see a lot of them lacking in support and therapies. They were not consistent with it. Therapies does not have to take over your life not to enjoy activities because I had both, and I never felt deprived. I think some parents give up when teenagers or children begin to complain that they don't want to go, but you can't give in to children because children do not know yet the importance of having therapies and how it will affect their lives later on. I know you have a lot to say, but I think it's all in how we all perceive things because I haven't seen any oralist parent be "mean" to their deaf child because they wanted to having oral classes 24/7. Many of the statistics I hear of "failures" usually are very small percentages, so I don't really find any flaws in the communications used. I find flaws in how often parents are involved to help deaf children advance.
if sign language's been probhibited in my home.
