Teachers who are deaf teaching oral-only deaf students?

[shel90]

Shel

I wouldnt worry toooo much. Myself is a Deaf teacher and work in the local deaf school. I have noticed the decreasing number of deaf students on our school roll due to many of our deaf children receiving CI but the irony is that my local deaf school is becoming a dumping ground for the failure of our deaf kids in the mainstream school to be fixed up when it kinda too late cos the damage is done so there always work coming up. For fact I know my future is shaking due to those decreasing numbers but on the other hand we are looking at where the most population of our deaf students are coming from and is building a new school down there and will be called School within a School where the hearing and the deaf will work alongside together so that a plus for me but that wont happen for years. Also there will always be
Deaf children coming as was looking at the history of many things affecting the numbers of children getting deaf and then decreasing then suddenly a booom of them so it quite normal when u look at it.

Maybe if you think of doing something to add to ur career like studying to be a school counsellor??? add new skills to ur teaching degree.

CAn i ask you a question?? ARe u fluent ASL users and not use Oral?? Just want to be clear on what u have to give to the students.

I am both so have a good advantage of being able to work with hearing students but like u said it can be extremely stressful and difficult to try and work out what they want. Maybe have a mixture of CODA and Deaf students would be pretty good to get a proposal going and makes some changes. It not gonna be easy but im sure something will come up for you Shel so dont fret too much but i know we cant predict what will happens in the future.

Hope I helped in a way and feel free to talk to me about this.

I am fluent in both too but I work with deaf students only. I do not want to teach using spoken language. Tried that before..no thanks for me. Even with a terp..it didnt feel natural nor comfortable for me and was just too stressful.

Thanks! My school is debating on the idea of enrolling hearing students who are fluent in ASL. We'ss see what happens.

 

[shel90]

I was referring to children that are profoundly deaf and have no concept of sound at an early age. I believe that putting them in an oral-only program at an early age puts them at a disadvantage. It is critical that the development of reading, writing and language skills in those early formative years be done by the most effective method that will work for that kid. I believe that ASL or sign language is the most effective method for teaching profoundly deaf kids. When they have mastered the basics of reading and writing and are able to express themselves well through sign, then speech can be incorporated into the daily learning routine. A speech/sign combination can be very effective but the foundation has to be laid first.

That is my belief too and I have seen that happening. We have a few older deaf students from deaf families who have showed interest in speech classes and now taking them. The motivation is there so they are doing well to my knowledge.

 

[BearBeauty]

I became deaf at the age of 4 and have very little memory of sounds, to be honest with everyone.. Even after i became deaf, I still struggled with sounds. While I do remember hearing one song before i became deaf, I don't remember much else about hearing sounds.

Just wanted to clear that up. Even today, I still struggle with some words because I can't hear how they are pronouced.. So i have to ask people to write how how they are spoken.. because I say the word the way it is written.. which i've been told can be hard to understand at times..

IE.. appregicate(not sure on spelling)... is spoken like so.. app reg she ate..
This is stuff I learn as I go along, So I'm still learning how to speak words that I can't hear others say..

 

[shel90]

I became deaf at the age of 4 and have very little memory of sounds, to be honest with everyone.. Even after i became deaf, I still struggled with sounds. While I do remember hearing one song before i became deaf, I don't remember much else about hearing sounds.

Just wanted to clear that up. Even today, I still struggle with some words because I can't hear how they are pronouced.. So i have to ask people to write how how they are spoken.. because I say the word the way it is written.. which i've been told can be hard to understand at times..

IE.. appregicate(not sure on spelling)... is spoken like so.. app reg she ate..
This is stuff I learn as I go along, So I'm still learning how to speak words that I can't hear others say..

I am in the same shoes except for the hearing part as a small child b4 going deaf.

Because of that issue with the one hoh teacher at the public school teaching oral-only deaf student, the parents made a big fuss about her not being a good sppech model for their children who have CIs. If that teacher is hoh with a lot more hearing than I do, how do u think they would react having their children 'listening' to my "deaf" voice and constant mispronouncions?

That was the input I am hoping to get from those ADers who have children with CIs in oral-only programs. Wanted to know the honest truth.

 

[BearBeauty]

If I was a hearing parent, of course i'd be worried.. but there are ways for teachers who are HOH or Deaf to teach a child how to pronouce the words the way they're supposed to be pronouced.. I believe there are dictionaries that have the proper pronouncation of certain words, and I'd make flash cards with the written word on one side, and the pronouncation below it.. and teach the child the difference.. but that's just the way I think it would work with HOH or deaf teachers teaching oral.. that's how I learned to pronouce words as a child... so...

 

[jillio]

I became deaf at the age of 4 and have very little memory of sounds, to be honest with everyone.. Even after i became deaf, I still struggled with sounds. While I do remember hearing one song before i became deaf, I don't remember much else about hearing sounds.

Just wanted to clear that up. Even today, I still struggle with some words because I can't hear how they are pronouced.. So i have to ask people to write how how they are spoken.. because I say the word the way it is written.. which i've been told can be hard to understand at times..

IE.. appregicate(not sure on spelling)... is spoken like so.. app reg she ate..
This is stuff I learn as I go along, So I'm still learning how to speak words that I can't hear others say..

I understand exactly what you are saying about not having any memory of sounds, and that it interferes with your pronunication at times.

But also, as you became deaf at the age of 4, you also spent the first 4 years of your life being exposed to oral language as a hearing child would be, and by the age of three, had acquired linguistic information necessary to permit you to understand the basic structure of oral language. I think this is evidenced by your wonderful use of grammar in your writing.

The problem with a child who has been deaf since birth, and cannot be exposed to oral language, and is not exposed to any sign as well, is that they are unable to grasp the fundamental structure of language that becomes an intuitive process as the child develops and grows. Vocabulary is a big part of it, but it is more the grasp of symbols as representative of concepts, and the natural flow of syntax that children from a language deprived environment suffer from. It so much more than just having difficulty with pronunciation becasue they are unable to hear the sound. It is difficulties in grasping how to use language for communication.

I don't mean to lessen the hard work that you have done to improve your oral skills, or to say that you don't continue to make the effort to work on your oral skills. I'm only trying to point out the difference between a child that has acquired L1 language through the process of exposure, and a child who is having to be taught their L1 langauge because of deprivation in the environment.

 

[Defmusicman]

The problem with a child who has been deaf since birth, and cannot be exposed to oral language, and is not exposed to any sign as well, is that they are unable to grasp the fundamental structure of language that becomes an intuitive process as the child develops and grows. Vocabulary is a big part of it, but it is more the grasp of symbols as representative of concepts, and the natural flow of syntax that children from a language deprived environment suffer from. It so much more than just having difficulty with pronunciation becasue they are unable to hear the sound. It is difficulties in grasping how to use language for communication.

I don't mean to lessen the hard work that you have done to improve your oral skills, or to say that you don't continue to make the effort to work on your oral skills. I'm only trying to point out the difference between a child that has acquired L1 language through the process of exposure, and a child who is having to be taught their L1 langauge because of deprivation in the environment.