Technology fuels deaf education debate
Friday, April 2nd, 2010
By: Kerry Grens
kgrens@whyy.org
Hearing implants are an increasingly popular treatment for children born deaf. The technology has dramatically changed the way children learn language — so much so that some traditional school for the deaf has closed. Delaware is bucking the trend by building a new, state-of-the-art school. The school embodies the tension between preserving Deaf language and culture, and a technology that offers the deaf a chance to hear. WHYY's health and science reporter Kerry Grens has more.
Watch the segment featured on 'First:'
Listen to the radio report:
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Radio Transcript:
Kathryn Hall was a few months old when her mother Ellen noticed that something was different about her.
Ellen Hall: It took a little while. She had had hearing tests and we were told that she could hear. And finally at the age of 13 months she was retested and then we were told that she was deaf.
Profoundly deaf. In both ears. Hearing aids could not help her. But there was another option: an implant in the ear that could give Kathryn the ability to hear sound.
Ellen Hall: It was really easy for us. We hear and we wanted her to be able to hear and that technology was available, so we though, why not?
Hall's response is common; 96 percent of children born deaf have hearing parents. Kathryn Hall is now nine years old, and both her ears have tiny coiled transmitters sending sound to her brain.
More info:
National Association of the Deaf: Position Statement on Cochlear Implants
FDA website: Cochlear Implants
About.com: Deaf culture
PBS: Sound and Fury
Kathryn Hall: It's like, hard to hear because it's an implant and you can't hear what the real voice is. But it's useful and everything. I'm glad I have it because I can hear like everyone else.
Seven years ago, Kathryn's parents made a decision not to send her to the old Delaware School for the Deaf. Mom Ellen says she wanted Kathryn to be immersed in spoken language – and the Deaf school focused on sign language. Still, Kathryn struggled.
Ellen Hall: She went to a regular pre-school but didn't understand what was going on for several years. So there really isn't an educational setting previous to kindergarten for kids like Kathryn.
The Delaware School for the Deaf's director, Della Thomas, says that might have been the case years ago, but the school is now a good fit for kids like Kathryn.
Thomas: It's a bilingual approach, balanced bilingual approach. We're not only doing American Sign Language, but we're also supporting oral/aural development for kids depending on what they need.
The school has several speech pathologists, who spend time with kids on spoken language. Thomas says the new, $43 million dollar state school, set to open in 2011 in Newark, will be even more supportive for kids with implants. It will have enhanced sound systems for hearing students and language rooms where parents can observe therapies.
Thomas: The more open we are to supporting the needs of all deaf and hard of hearing kids in whatever situation they're in, the more accessible we are for the state.
But all students will still learn American Sign Language, and they won't spend all day in speaking and hearing classes. Thomas says it's a language safety net for kids who don't adapt to their implants.
Roberta Golinkoff, a language acquisition expert at the University of Delaware, disagrees with that approach. She says children need to be bathed in the language they're going to use most — and not just use it part-time. She recently spoke of concerns about the school to the Delaware State Council for Persons with Disabilities.
Golinkoff: American Sign Language remains an option, but not a necessity anymore for most deaf and hard of hearing children. However, knowing American Sign Lanugauge is a necessity for children who attend the DSD. Therefore, the program at Delaware School for the Deaf does not meet the educational needs of deaf and heard of hearing children who use spoken language.
Yet – as Ellen Hall found out – kids with implants don't always find the right supports in in mainstream schools either. Nick Fina is part of the deaf education group in Delaware called Choices. Fina says that some members of his group are concerned about allocating resources to a new school when mainstreaming is becoming more popular and services in those schools are in need.
Fina: If spending $43 million on the school is going to take away from the opportunities of what if probably going to be a significant majority of people who want their children educated in a different way, then it's not
a good thing.
But Fina, who himself wears a cochlear implant, says the school may be essential to preserving a culture and language that appears to be threatened by implants and mainstream education. Deaf culture rose out of discrimination, and gave people with hearing loss a language, a community, and a fair shot at learning. To lose all that, Fina says, would be a tragedy.
Fina: Those people who are in deaf culture and who fear for the future are not unwise to do so. I feel badly about that. I truly do. I feel in my heart that's it's a bad thing that this is happening, but it's happening and we can't do too much about it.
Unless the school can do what Della Thomas wants it to: be a place for all kids in Delaware born with hearing loss, no matter their situation.
i didn't really pickup on the side the article was trying to take and need more information in the future.
First, I need captions and was disappointed that this video was not captioned! I clicked on cc- and captions did not come on!!! It would have been nice to have a sign language interpreter signing in the lower right hand corner of the screen too.
I am a person with a severe hearing loss and wear hearing aids. I am not a deaf educator but have studied deaf education and have talked with people who have children that wear cochlear implants.
The key point from this story seems to be the earlier the child is implanted the better. The advantages for a child's future to be able to work and also not be as socially isolated is the key to their success. How many people really can use sign language fluently? If culturally deaf (mostly only those who become deaf from birth to 3 years) people represent only about 1-2% of people with hearing loss, then why it is wrong to make the assumption that most people with hearing loss will have implants or wear hearing aids which are now far more technologically advanced. I am surprised that Della Thomas, the Director of the school for the deaf says that if an implant fails, they will need DSD. That may be true, but the failure rate for implants is less than 1% now! If a child is implanted early and it fails, they can still learn sign language. Putting children who do not live close to the school, as young as 4 years old "away" from their parents to live in a new larger dormitory for more kids is not the national trend and is wrong. Della Thomas' National Agenda for the Deaf is only for the culturally deaf who use signs, it is not for the 98-99% of kids born now or in the future who will use either hearing aids, cochlear implants and be verbal just like hearing kids. The more we can help kids be part of mainstream society, the better. Besides, new research recently published in the Journal of Otolaryngology has proven that kids implanted early will be equal or almost on grade level to their peers in math and english! Kids who learn sign language on average graduate at 21 years of age with an average of a 4th grade education or somewhat higher. Common sense says the business of educating kids is all about outcomes and how a kid is trained to be in the workforce. The unemployment rate of 70+% for people who use sign language speaks for itself! We still need to educate kids via sign language for the very few kids whose parents will choose it. Most parents will choose a cochlear implant and/or hearing aids. Hey Delaware, we are still working with these kids like we did in the 20th century! Can we not use technology to help deaf kids hear, change their life and success rate for the better in the 21st century?
hmmm, kinda agree
Well, not totally sure about it btw…
Hey, wonderful blog you got here! Keep up the excellent work
Where's the subtitled? Come on people, get on with the program!!! PUT ON THE SUBTITLED!!!!!
George,
I feel sorry for you! SG is happy!
That's a sad story. That young man made sure he stayed what he was, DEAF! He decided to limit his educational professional and personal life to less than the fuller life he could have had with hearing. I have been implanted for 2 years and my life has changed. Who I am never changed, I just made my life and those around me better. What I feel this young man was saying is he lacked the guts to face change in his life. It was easier to stay deaf than to put in the effort to hear well with a CI. I function normally now in the hearing world, no special devices, no ASL, no special telephone. In short I have now joined the other 99% of the people in the world who hear. Everything in my life is better. The beauty of sound, music, birds, too many things to list. I am sad he chickened out and deprived himself of so much.
George's comment against the Deaf's wise decision is sickening. It is obvious that he has no experience in real deafness and the Deaf world. He is competley WRONG! I know he was not born DEAF!. His philosphy reminds me of Evolutionistic teachings of " weak shall perish" and "fittest of the survival" should not a part of the realistic facts of the Deaf Community.
That Evolution with scientic tools is too dangerous for hundreds of deaf children with CI. They are facing some risks like a Deaf child with CI can not undergo MR, or his life can not be saved through CPRI when he has cancer or severe injuries.
God who made us, Deaf people and ASL is a gift from God. Exodus 4:11 . Do not curse the Deaf Levititcus 19:14a Audism is sin.
Once I read a comment by The Nation about 10 years ago. "Impassioned and daring.. a strong polemic criticizin gevery aspect of the way the Deaf Community is treated by the hearing world…
Oliver Sacks says "Readers of When the Mind Hears know the vivid, almost novelistic powr which Dr. Harlan Lane brings to his writing . It is this, and a deep assion, and a frightning truch, which infuse every page of the Mask of Benevolence."
Spedning most of the childhood in speech therapy , they still do lag behind in picking up new vocabularies and language development.
If a Deaf child or adult says no to the CI, please repect the Deaf people. If they are forced "to be hearing", then a soul would be raped against their wish and also against God.
Few successful cases do not mean other many cases will be successful and that is what fooled so many of you, hearing people . That is a false miracle.
It is too bad that you would include a video, even if from TV, that was not captioned.
Um, whether you agree with sign language or not, don't you think this video should have been closed captioned… defeats part of the point, no ?