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Counter VIEWPOINTS An Examination of Current Issues In the Practice of Medicine Two Philosophies for Teaching Deaf Children |
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The California School for the Deaf
By Bridgetta Bourne-Firl, M.S. |
Jean Weingarten Peninsula Oral School for the Deaf By Kathleen Sussman |
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There are more than 11,000 children in California who are deaf or hard of hearing (HH). Approximately 800 deaf/HH children are born in the state each year. The vast majority of these children are born to hearing parents. When first confronted with concerns of how to raise their newborn, parents and families may receive limited guidance about available options. Parents need a complete spectrum of information regarding how they might provide their child full access to language and thereby develop both cognitively and emotionally into a mature and contributing adult. Development of critical thinking skills is dependent on early language acquisition. Language acquisition in turn requires constant exposure to language stimuli in a mode naturally and readily accessible to the infant. For a deaf child, this is the visual mode. A family’s options should not to be limited to speech therapy, cochlear implanting, mainstream schooling, or other options that block exposure to communication that uses an efficient, easily accessible mode for a highly visually attuned individual. Successful acquisition of language at an early age is predicated on a developing brain’s reception of stimuli at times critical to its formation of language skills.
Critical Importance of Early Language Development American Sign Language (ASL) is a natural language. Studies demonstrate that both hearing and deaf babies exposed to sign language begin to express themselves using sign prior to their ability to use speech. This lets communication between parents and their baby blossom at a time critical to the child’s language and thought processing development. ASL is a powerful tool in the teaching of English to deaf children. Its acquisition as a first language does not preclude teaching of speech reading or voicing skills to a deaf child. Physicians play a pivotal role beginning the second the infant’s hearing loss is identified. They can assure parents that there are many deaf adults who are attorneys, teachers, rabbis, farmers, actors, artists, and psychologists. Parents should be made aware of local deaf adults who can serve as positive role models and language models to the families and the deaf/ HH child.
Use of English and ASL as the Languages of Instruction The California School for the Deaf (CSD) in Fremont offers a complete educational experience, from didactic to social and athletic. This is done through the use of English and American Sign Language (ASL). The California School for the Deaf has been educating deaf children for nearly 150 years, and over those years has tried various educational methods including oralism, simultaneous communication, and signing in exact English word order. In the mid 1980s, after years of trial and error, professionals at the school determined that using American Sign Language best allows students to become fluent in a language that lets them learn how to think abstractly and concretely, be able to master at least one language, to understand English, and to learn academic curricula. The decision was based on academic research and empirical observation. Research on deaf learners indicates that children who learn ASL at home and at school during their formative (age 0-5) years achieve on or near grade level mastery of skills and become proficient at English. Through a solid ASL foundation, students are able to attain the knowledge and skills necessary to function effectively in a changing and diversified world.
Promotion of Communication Skills Students are offered American Sign Language instructional support if they have not developed mastery in ASL. Fluency in ASL allows students to learn English and other languages from a solid base of having fluency in a primary language. They also learn academic concepts just as children do in public schools; develop abstract thinking skills about various subjects; acquire social and emotional competencies; and develop English proficiency. Classes are taught by credentialed teachers, most of whom possess master’s degrees, and who are fluent in both ASL and English. Communication services that include spoken English articulation, auditory training, speech reading, and communication are offered in every grade. A full-time pediatric audiologist is on campus to provide hearing amplification support and hearing tests.
International Reputation CSD has an international reputation for its quality educational program. CSD is a fully accredited, state-funded school for students who are deaf and hard of hearing living in Northern California. School programs include a state model parent-infant program and preschool in the department of Early Childhood Education, an accredited K-21 educational system in a language-rich environment, cutting-edge literacy program and best practices, current technology, credentialed teachers fluent in ASL and English, and career preparation programs. Athletics and leadership opportunities are provided through varsity sport teams that compete against schools of the same size, intramural sports, student organizations, and other after-school activities that promote leadership and organizational skills.
Boarding Program and Related Services For students who live too far from the school, CSD has a boarding program that includes overnight supervision. There is no cost incurred by families. Student cottages are located on a beautiful, spacious campus. Friendly and caring staff provides a nurturing environment that gives children a "home away from home" during the week. All children go home on weekends during the school year. Related services offered by CSD include American Sign Language classes for parents, counseling for students, audiology, a health care center; and deaf role models. Many graduates of CSD matriculate to colleges and universities. Others make post graduate choices through support from the school’s career center and career/technical education programs.
Conclusion The California School for the Deaf offers a complete academic experience from pre-school to grade twelve. Instruction and social communication is through American Sign Language, a natural language that is easily, effectively and efficiently accessed by visually oriented children, i.e., deaf and HH children. Instructors are motivated, bilingual professionals, most of whom possess post-graduate degrees. CSD welcomes visitors to its campus. Pleases contact the Outreach department at either 510-794-3707, bfirl@csdf-cde.ca.gov, Web site: http://www.csdf.k12.ca.us. (Special thanks go to contributors including Pat Moore, retired Director of Instruction; Andrea Neblett, Speech-Language Pathologist; Michele Tompkins, Early Start Teacher; David Eberwein, Deaf Studies Teacher Specialist, and Dr. Hank Klopping, CSD Superintendent).
Bridgetta Bourne-Firl is coordinator of outreach programs, the California School for the Deaf, Fremont.
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Helen Keller once said, "Life is either a daring ad- venture or it’s nothing." Ironically her words reflect the daring adventure that a small group of parents engaged in when they agreed to second mortgage their homes on the Peninsula to start an oral school so that their deaf children could learn to listen and speak. Now, 40 years later, the Jean Weingarten Peninsula Oral School stands as a model of excellence in the field of oral deaf education and is recognized nationally and internationally for its innovative use of the latest hearing technology in combination with a cognitive-based curriculum, which has resulted in hundreds of profoundly deaf children being able to develop spoken language and achieve remarkable success in the mainstream. The founding director, Leahea Grammatico, was a pioneer in the field of oral deaf education in her pursuit of maximizing amplification on children at the earliest age possible, and in those very early years she worked tirelessly with hearing aid manufacturers to provide stronger and better hearing aids for her youngest students. The school was unique in its focus on how important it was to bring sound to deaf children as soon as they were diagnosed and to begin to teach them to listen and develop language through cognitive strategies that were based on the early child development work of Piaget and Vygotsky. The underlying belief system was that deaf children were just as capable of learning how to listen and speak as hearing children if they could access sound through good amplification, and if they were given the same opportunities as hearing children to be exposed to language within normal discourse, not in an abbreviated form. This was done through intensive therapy that included the parents and the child so that the parent became empowered as the deaf child’s primary teacher of language. Forty years later we have national legislation that demands that every newborn baby in the United States must be screened for hearing loss at birth because we know that hearing loss is the most common congenital anomaly for newborns and occurs in approximately three of 1,000 births. Once a baby is identified as having a hearing loss, the baby is referred for an audiological evaluation and subsequent fitting of the appropriate hearing devices, and the parents are provided with the opportunity for immediate participation in an Early Intervention Program. Because 95 percent of parents of deaf children are hearing, many parents prefer the option of developing spoken language for their deaf child, if they are given a choice.
Successful History of Early Intervention With a successful history of "early intervention," the Jean Weingarten Peninsula Oral School was prepared to offer the special services to parents of newly diagnosed deaf babies and toddlers in the Family Center, named to honor the founding director. The Leahea Grammatico Family Center is a welcoming house on the school campus that provides individual therapy to children and their families from birth to three years of age in a home environment. The services also include speech and language, audiological management, occupational therapy screening, parent support groups, and intensive parent education by a staff of Master teachers and therapists. We now see babies as young as three months being fitted with hearing aids and beginning their therapy with their parents or caregivers.
Digital Hearing Aids, Coclear Implants With the continued development of digital hearing aids, FM equipment, and cochlear implants, we see profoundly deaf wee ones able to access sound and begin to develop spoken language by age three at levels that are equal to their hearing peers. The impact of the availability of cochlear implants has been a significant medical advance that has impacted deaf education across the world. In the United States there are more than 3,000 cochlear implant surgeries performed annually and at younger and younger ages. The majority of all of the students at JWPOSD have received their cochlear implants by 11 months of age, and many of these children are receiving their second cochlear implant. Insurance companies now regard the cochlear implant as "the treatment of choice" in profound deafness and will provide full coverage for the procedure. Most recently, bilateral cochlear implants also are being covered by insurance carriers, since research shows the efficacy in having two cochlear implants, especially when listening in noise. Currently, JWPOSD has the largest number of deaf children using bilateral cochlear implants in the country.
Daily Intensive Therapy One reason for the success of students at JWPOSD is the amount of daily intensive therapy that each child receives from the time of enrollment in the Family Center, and this continues throughout the educational experience at the school. About 98 percent of its students leave JWPOSD and enter their mainstream schools by first grade and are prepared at grade level to access the regular curriculum. JWPOSD’s students continue to receive support services once they are in the mainstream through a combination of services from their public school therapist and the JWPOSD Mainstream Support Staff. The enrollment of more than 70 children reflects the current trends in oral deaf education in that the largest number of children being served is in the Family Center birth to three program; the next group is students in the school program from three to six, and the last group of students is out in the mainstream with only support services being provided in collaboration with the public schools. JWPOSD has built collaborative relationships with approximately 30 public school districts that send their oral deaf students for early educational services. They have recognized JWPOSD as a program of excellence that is dedicated to getting the children back to their home schools, ready to learn along side their hearing peers as soon as possible. JWPOSD students have demonstrated strong academic skills, and 99 percent go on to earn their college degrees, and many have acquired postgraduate degrees. The current mission is to expand the school’s ability to provide training to professionals and pre-professionals on strategies that enhance the development of spoken language through technology and cognitive strategies. The Jean Weingarten School is a training site for university teacher training programs across California and the United States and also for many public school systems including the Los Angeles Unified School District. Last year JWPOSD was chosen as a regional training site by Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia for the development of cochlear implant specialists across the country. With the new video conferencing equipment available on campus, JWPOSD is poised to expand its training opportunities to many other universities and school systems. Today, when new parents call the school after hearing the diagnosis that their baby has a profound hearing loss, they are greeted with a message of hope for a very different future than they might have envisioned. Many people are unaware of the advances in technology and the impact of a strong early-intervention program that can change the prognosis for a deaf child in 2007. These new parents have the same dream for their deaf child to learn to listen and speak that the school’s founding parents had who mortgaged their homes 40 years ago. Those dreams of having a child with a profound hearing loss enter first grade and access their academic life at the same level as their hearing peers are a reality. We see it happen every day at the Jean Weingarten Peninsula Oral School for the Deaf.
Kathleen Sussman is executive director of the Jean Weingarten Peninsula Oral School for the Deaf, Redwood City.
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