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From: Robin.Chronister@f429.n275.z1.fidonet.org (Robin Chronister)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Re: The first language is?
Message-ID: <18493@bunker.isc-br.com>
Date: 4 Apr 91 04:03:41 GMT
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[This is from the Silent Talk Conference]

Your post concerning languages was terrific - I captured it to take to
school and show the teacher I work with.  You have confirmed what we
have believed all along - through observation and experiment, even
though many of the textbooks would not agree...
   I found your comments on manual representations of a phonetic
language particularly interesting.  We have a student who is profoundly
deaf from birth, whose parents decided that cued speech was the best
choice for communication.  Now, I can actually see some applications for
cueing (don't hit me, please!) with those who have mild to moderate
hearing losses - as a matter of fact I have another student that I would
love to try it with.  For a profoundly deaf individual who has never
heard any voice using any language, I can't see how it could possible
work.  As a matter of fact, it doesn't - he came to us in 3rd grade with
a preschool language level, and simply could not function beyond the
most simple, concrete tasks.  He also has a cochlear implant, and his
parents were VERY opposed to signing.  The teacher managed to convince
them that he would be better able to keep up with the class if he were
allowed to sign and they grudgingly agreed.  The boy fell very naturally
into ASL patterns and is now 4 grade levels above where he started last
year.  As for the implant - well now he recognizes the bell and the fire
alarm, and complains that the room is too loud, but the signing is what
really freed him to learn.
   The main concern I have with many of our students is that they come
to school with no appreciable language whatsoever.  I once read that if
a child does not acquire language within the first five years of life,
that it will never truly be a native language to him, and the delay can
be critical in later acquisition of knowledge.  That makes sense to me,
and what I see tends to support that.  I don't know if there is any
solution to that particular problem.  I guess that hearing parents of
deaf children will always latch on to the solution that is presented
most strongly to them, and aren't really in the emotional condition to
always make a rational decision about language in the early years.
Lord, how I wish the parents of those children could see from the
beginning what deaf people can do if given a means of communication from
the start!

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