Resources for Parents of Deaf Children

For those who are researching bilingualism for your child, or for those who are on that journey already and would like some tips, here are some resources.

Deaf Mentors:

Deaf mentors are an invaluable resource for hearing parents with Deaf children. Deaf mentors are trained Deaf individuals who can come do home visits as well as go places with you and your child, answer questions, help you develop skills to interact with your child, help foster your signing skills, and provide a Deaf role model for your child. Deaf mentors are often offered through early intervention programs or schools for the Deaf.

Parent Infant Programs:

Often called PIP for short, schools for the Deaf offer these programs where parents and their children come together with an early childhood team for stories, crafts, playtime, and so on. Typically these programs are for infants through age 2. After age 2, many Deaf schools offer half day or full day preschool programs.

ASL Classes:

Deaf schools as well as community colleges offer ASL classes. Look around your area and see what is offered.

Websites of interest:

Info to Go from the Laurent Clerc Deaf Education Center:

http://clerccenter.gallaudet.edu/Clerc_Center/Information_and_Resources/Info_to_Go.html

Raising Deaf Kids:

http://www.raisingdeafkids.org/

Hands and Voices:

http://www.handsandvoices.org/index.htm

American Society for Deaf Children:

http://www.deafchildren.org/default.aspx

Principles for Reading to Deaf Children:

http://www.paec.org/david/reading/deafread.pdf

ASL

http://www.aslpro.com/

While some regional signs and dialects in ASL are different, this is a good resource for learning some individual signs and phrases.

If anyone else has other resources and links (or even experiences) to share - feel free.

What is Bilingual-Bicultural Deaf Education?

Bilingual-bicultural education is based on the idea that if Deaf students are exposed to ASL (or any other sign language as opposed to a sign system such as SEE) they will develop that language as their first language and they will then learn English as a second language and use both languages in the school environment. Research shows that Deaf children develop sign language by going through the same steps and development of hearing children who develop spoken language. Once a child has a firm foundation in a first language, it sets the foundation for developing additional languages as well as literacy and success in school.

Bilingual-Biculturalism differs from the Total Communication (TC) method in that instead of mixing the two languages, it employs language separation and teaches methods for bridging one language to the next. This prevents confusion of the two languages and children receiving mixed input - often TC methods involve half sign and half English rather then fully using one language or the other for specific tasks.

The Swedish Model in the 1980s studied three groups of children: oral deaf children, bilingual signing Deaf children, and hearing children and followed their progress for several years. The results showed that the signing Deaf children performed as well or better then their hearing peers.

This area in Deaf education in the US is relatively new, and is surrounded by many misconceptions. Some think that if a Deaf child uses ASL, their speech will be delayed or their literacy will be negatively affected. Or that children who have a good amount of residual hearing and who use hearing aids or cochlear implants don't "need" sign language and shouldn't be bilingual and the focus should be on them learning spoken language. Research shows this is not so - I will try to expand on this in later posts.

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