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From: Lawrence.Brick@f210.n273.z1.fidonet.org (Lawrence Brick)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: ASL
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Date: 20 Nov 90 04:18:11 GMT
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Index Number: 11899

[This is from the Silent Talk Conference]

Since ASL has never been officially recognized and used for communication 
in schools for the deaf, it can't be blamed for failure.  The children 
used ASL when they weren't being watched by the adults who advocated 
Signed English, oral, or anything but ASL.  When TC was first used in 
schools for the deaf, the teachers really used sim com(simultaneous 
communication) and if one watched them carefully, one would observe that 
when they used both voice and signs that often many words were omitted in 
the signing of what they voiced.  This resulted in the deaf children not 
getting the full exposure to the English language.  I have asked signing 
hearing people to "turn off" their voice and it's amazing to watch how 
much clearer their signs are and if they keep signing without voice, they 
unconsciously begin to sign less in English and more towards ASL by 
leaving out the articles, prepositions, etc.  In fact they begin to act 
like deaf people.  I know of only two schools for the deaf in the USA 
that officially and publicly say that the teachers use ASL in the 
education program with deaf children and that's the PA School for the 
Deaf in Philadelphia and the Learning Center in Framingham, Mass. 
They've been using ASL for less than ten years.  So until ASl has been 
tried and used with children in educational programs from birth to 
adulthood, it is not appropriate to blame ASL for the poor acheivement of 
deaf children.  The best way to teach English is through writing and 
reading and ASL is a form of in the air communication  (it can't be 
written or read in print) and can be used to explain and discuss concepts 
and ideas from the books the children read and to discuss with the 
children what they're writing about.  ASL can be used to explain English. 
 For example, in ASL, I might sign, "Japan finished touch" and explain 
that "I've been to Japan" is the English equivalent.  In any case I'm 
enjoying the various thoughts expressed by various people on total 
communication and the like.

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