Further Parallels between Bilingual Latino and ASL-English bilingual Deaf Students

I have noticed some parallels between the issues faced by bilingual Latino students, and the ones faced by Deaf ASL/English bilingual students.  In Manuel’s situation, did the teachers who marked his written test check his passage for content—that is, did Manuel answer the question posed to him in the test? Did the teachers analyze the passage in its entirety what Manuel said?

No, the teachers focused on the errors in spelling, capitalization and punctuation, which were parts of the whole passage so that they missed whether Manuel actually answered the question!

Manuel answered both parts of the question!  He wanted to be Juan Carlos because the other student was smarter than Manuel was.  Manuel expressed his opinion and feelings of inadequacy in intellectual ability.  He has explained why he was feeling stupid.  Therefore, he has completed what was required of him. What is more, he gave his own opinion and explained his point of view.  Unfortunately, because of those spelling, punctuation and capitalization errors, the content was lost, and the passage labeled UNREADABLE.

This same type of situation has occurred with many Deaf ASL/English bilingual students. If errors in the form of missing articles or misspellings were found, the students’ answers were automatically wrong, regardless of whether they actually answered questions.  ASL Bilingual students were frequently placed in grade 1 programs even though they were Grade 4 students.

[Clarification is needed here: When I mention Deaf ASL/English bilingual students, I am talking about those who have already acquired all the linguistic features in ASL, from birth (i.e. children from ASL Deaf families).   I am not talking about Deaf students who have not acquired full command of either ASL or English (due to language deprivation).  Please keep this in mind.]

Impact of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Legislation in the USA:

What happens when Latino (and other minority) students fail English written tests (i.e., high stakes state tests)?  Schools are required to provide remedial programs, so these students get limited curriculum and learn only reading and math all day in English.

For example, since NCLB (No Child Left Behind) legislation was passed, according to Dr. Escamilla on p. 8, students like Manuel could get schedules that contain:

• more reading and math
• no recess
• for Bilingual Learners (i.e. Manuel)- More English
• Less gym, art and music
• Bilingualism is ignored (Spanish language is no longer taught as a language or study or instruction, and English becomes the ONLY language taught and studied).

Why won’t students like Manuel be able to continue bilingual education, using both English and Spanish as languages of instruction and study?

There are many  teachers and educational professionals who believe that Spanish is interfering with English language development of Latino students, therefore Spanish should NOT be taught or included in the school system. Once Spanish is removed from the program, it would make it easier for these students to develop English writing/reading skills more quickly. This will solve his English problems. Right?

WRONG!

These beliefs held by the educational professionals who work with Latino students are quite similar to those held by many educational professionals working with Deaf students.

Many Deaf ASL bilingual students have been told:

1. that English is more important than ASL
2. that they cannot improve in English because ASL was interfering with English development
3. ASL should be replaced with flawed communicative methods (i.e. Total Communication, Signed Exact English) to help them develop English skills. (This, proved to be a disastrous mistake that made things worse for the students.)

So far, the parallels between the Latino and ASL/English bilingual students in the educational system have been quite similar.

REDUCTIONIST- An attempt to make the complex simple. (p. 5, Escamilla, 2009)

Why is there pressure to remove the languages of Spanish and ASL from the educational system in order to focus on the English language?

This is because the system is of a monolingual bent.  English rules supreme as the official language in the USA.  This is despite the fact that there are not supposed to be any official languages in the country.  English is the ultimate, and the only, language students are expected to acquire and study.

Bilingualism is out. Teachers have been trained in universities under the monolingual system in the USA.  This means that the teachers have been trained to think in monolingual terms. They have not received training in bilingual language development, and do not understand how to look at things from bilingual lens.  bilingualism.  They have not studied the intricacies inherent in bilingual education to date.

So, what happens is that instead of looking at the whole child, with two languages, they focus on the child’s development of ONE language…English.    Rather, they have learned to seek out errors (deficiencies) in the child’s English writing without taking into account the effects of bilingual development.

For instance, Manuel is bilingual.  He speaks Spanish and English.  Wow!  This fact should have be taken into account in a positive way. What should be examined is how the development of two distinct languages (and Manuel’s background) affect the child’s written work.  This did not happen.

The teachers who marked Manuel’s passage focused on errors in English from a monolingual perspective.  They forgot to take into account the Spanish background that may influence how the passage has been written.   Instead of looking at the passage as a whole, including the content—message—and whether it actually answered the question, they focused on nitpicking on the errors in spelling, punctuation.

That is reductionist.

Think of a large complex picture that is amazing—(like a Rembrandt painting for example).  People are awed by that picture, until they spot a small section of the picture that has errors. They focus on that errors and spend all their energies criticizing those errors. The result is that the whole complex picture has been trashed, and reduced to that ONE section.  The whole picture is judged on the basis of that ONE section.

Complexity has been reduced to simplicity.  That is reductionist.

Reductionist Paradigm Leads To Misunderestimation

The reductionist paradigm caused those teachers to focus on the small, deficient, components of Manuel’s passage that rather than the whole content, which answered the question correctly. Unfortunately, the attention to the deficiencies resulted in a “F”, or unreadable mark.

As mentioned before, this focus on the parts rather than the whole has negatively impacted not only bilingual Latino students, but also Deaf ASL/English bilingual students.

This reductionist paradigm has led to the phenomenon of misunderestimation.

Simply put, misunderestimation is a combination of misunderstanding and underestimation.  In other words, professionals in the educational system does not understand the language development of bilingual students.  As a result of that misunderstanding, these professionals underestimate the skills and abilities of those bilingual students.

This misunderestimation of many bilingual Latino students and Deaf ASL-English bilingual students occur because they do not fit within the system’s reductionist viewpoint of the world.

Reductionist  Monolingualism Paradigm to Holistic Bilingualism Paradigm

Dr. Escamilla recommends a complete overhaul of the educational system.  There needs to be a shift from the reductionist paradigm to the holistic paradigm.  Allow me to explain.

For the sake of  bilingual children of Latino, ASL and other language minority groups, the educational system must be overhauled, and shifted from the current reductionist paradigm to a holistic paradigm, which includes bilingualism.

Shifting from the reductionist paradigm to the holistic paradigm… what does that mean?

Reductionist paradigm is the monolingual one.  This is where the idea is held that having two languages is too complicated and therefore must be reduced to a single language for study in schools.  This entails ignoring any other languages, including the language which a bilingual child has acquired/learned.   This forces the bilingual child to focus only on English at the expense of that child’s native language.

This paradigm does not fit the bilingual child’s learning needs at all.  This is because reductionism focuses on fixing the perceived deficiencies in the child’s development of English (thereby misunderstanding and underestimating that child’s true language ability).  This has proven to be a failure for Spanish-English bilingual children, nor for the ASL-English bilingual children.

Thus, the monolingual reductionist paradigm must be abandoned in order to examine the whole bilingual child’s learning process.  This examination would lead educators to better understand how Latino children’s acquisition of Spanish affects their learning of English, and work with both languages.  Educators would do well to examine how ASL affects the ASL-English bilingual children’s development of English, and work with both languages.  This way, the whole child’s needs would be addressed.  That is what the holistic paradigm is.

There is much research information out there on bilingualism.  For instance, Dr. Escamilla has done much research on this.  So has Dr. Laura Ann Petitto (who specializes on the study of the brain and effects of bilingual learning on the brain.). Research on bilingualism would support the shift from the reductionist paradigm to the holistic one.

It is now time for universities, teacher training programs, and schools to begin shifting from the monolingual reductionist paradigm to the bilingual (multilingual) holistic paradigm. Once educational professionals are trained on bilingual learning processes, they would be able to look at the students’ written test responses from a holistic perspective.  They would be better able to analyze the contents as a whole, with bilingual lens.  Instead of reducing the contents to errors and dismissing the whole written passage without analyzing for bilingual effects, the teachers would then take steps to design a bilingual program to support the students’ bilingual learning process.

It would behoove the educational system to encourage a bilingual education program in which both languages are studied from Kindergarten to Grade 12, rather than drop the minority language during the elementary years.    This would, in the end, benefit ALL bilingual children, regardless of their language backgrounds. This is why the holistic paradigm has to be adopted.

What can be done to ensure that this paradigm shift occurs? People must become advocates and pressure the government and educators to make the necessary reforms to completely overhaul the educational system so that the flawed, reductionist monolingual model is jettisoned in favour of the bilingual holistic model.  That means ensuring that legislations and policies be reformed that will effect paradigm shifts in government, universities, and schools.

We have an enormous job ahead of us, but it MUST be done.  The current status quo in the educational system, and society, is not acceptable.  At present, all bilingual children, including the Latino and ASL children as well as those from other language minority groups are experiencing severe language oppression and marginalization in favour of English only.  This must end now.

Reference:

Escamilla, K. The Misunderestimation of Manuel: Issues in Reductionist Paradigms and Parallel Monolingual Frameworks in the Quest to Improve Policy and Practice for Bilingual Learners. University of Colorado. Boulder, Colorado, 2009

CAVEAT: Ad hominem attacks, derogatory and inflammatory comments will NOT be published. 

APPROXIMATE ENGLISH TRANSLATION:

In America—North America—there are Spanish-English bilingual programs  isn’t there? There are ASL-English bilingual school programs as well, correct?  So, everything is fine and dandy, eh?  Actually, no.

Both the languages of Spanish and ASL are struggling with systemic oppression in education. This means that Latino children who can speak both Spanish and English are quite struggling within the education system.  ASL/English bilinguals (those who use ASL and English) experience similar struggles under the educational system as well.

Where’s the evidence to back up the above statement?

“Manuel”—who is he, anyway? He is a Grade 4 student of Latino family background who speaks Spanish as well as English, and lives in Colorado. He was required to do a written English test in response to this question:

If you could be someone else for a day, who would you be? Why would you want to be that person?

I have put up an excerpt from Dr. Kathy Escamilla’s article, The Misunderestimation of Manuel: Issues in Reductionist Paradigms and Parallel Monolingual Frameworks in the Quest to Improve Policy and Practice for Bilingual Learners (2009).

Dr. Escamilla discussed this student whose name, Manuel, is a pseudonym.  He wrote a passage which was translated by Dr. Kathy Escamilla:

If you could be someone else for a day, who would you be? Why would you want to be that person?

“I would be Juan Carlos. I would like to be him because he is proficient in math.  I was mostly the dumbest kid, but as the year went by I got smarter. Now I’m back where I was all over again.  I really hate that because I’m really stupid, plus I am partially proficient in math and Juan is proficient in math.  And, I am unsatisfactory in writing and reading. Him too but he’s a lot smarter then me. I’m stupidest in the whole entire school.  That’s the truth.  That’s why I want to be him. This is the truth. I’ve never told anybody this, I haven’t told a soul.” (Escamilla, 2009, p. 14)

I am now translating this passage into ASL.  (ASL TRANSLATION IS GIVEN)

This is “Manuel”, a HEARING Grade 4 student of Latino family background, Latino heritage.  He lives in Colorado, like I explained earlier.  It looks like there is nothing wrong with his intellect. He is a bilingual student since he speaks both Spanish (his native language) and English. The problem is, as we can see, Manuel has a low opinion of himself and his intellectual ability.  He actually feels dumb.

Now that you, the Deaf audience, has seen this story, you can relate.  Many would understand how Manuel felt.  I get this, too.  So many Deaf students who are bilingual in both ASL and English have felt stupid and incompetent in the use of English.  Guess what?

Manuel got placed in a Special Education program!  He has been placed at Grade 1 level (and not Grade 4) for English.

That’s exactly what so many Deaf students have gone through (in the educational system) even though they were in Grades 4, 5, or 6.   They still got their English skills placed at Grade 1.  Do you remember that old refrain about Deaf students graduating from high school with only Grade 4^th English skills, and couldn’t “read or write”?

Well, it looks like many Latino children go through similar things, even though there haven’t been research (to my knowledge) that says they graduate with only grade 4 level writing/reading skills.  Latino children have been placed in special education, just like Deaf children have!

How did “Manuel” end up with Grade 1 program for language?  He can speak English! He also speaks Spanish. How???

Take a look at his actual writing from Escamilla’s article, page 4: 

I wub be hwankarlos  i wud like to  be Hem bekuse hes  is pofisint imat I was mosiy the bumist kib but as the yer went biy.I gat smort r naw im the bak wer I was all over ugen. I rilly haytrat bekuse Im rily stupib plus. IM amin parsory pofisit I math and havan is in pofisint in math and. I am unahfktor in ritingandriding.Hem to but hes alat smartr ven my I’M stupibist in the hol intir skul school that’s the truth that’s wy I want to be hem this is the trut. Iv hir r told enydoty This I havit told asol.

Teachers in Colorado, who collected and examined 2,000 student writing samples, rated his passage UNREADABLE and did not analyze his writing further.  Teachers said Manuel did not have any strengths in his English writing.

Dr. Escamilla, a well-known Latino educator/researcher who is bilingual in Spanish and English, argues that Manuel’s writing should not be rated UNREADABLE.  She recognizes that Manuel used strategies to write English.  The “problem” is that Manuel has Spanish language influences.  I do notice Spanish influence in his writing. (I have taken Spanish in university long ago, but right now my command of the language is extremely rusty.)  One example I can give you is this:

hwankarlos – Juan Carlos.  Spanish speakers pronounce Ju as Hw

Escamilla gives further examples of Spanish-influenced “errors”:

• Trut  (truth)
• My (me)
• Enydoty (anybody)
• Wy (why)

Manuel was applying Spanish phonetic rules to his writing. This application of one language’s rules to another language also occurs with ASL and English. So, there are parallel issues for ASL/English and Spanish/English.  For instance:

Food Store me love go-often what? Canadian Superstore.

Does this follow English grammatical structure? No.  But, if it was written thusly, then this sentence would automatically be considered erroneous, without a doubt.

What I have seen frequently while growing up with my classmates and many others: Written English papers would show missing articles (the, a, verbs (is, will, etc).  This is because ASL does not have articles like “the” since that article is used in the English language.

When teachers see the missing articles and verbs, they assume the writers make those mistakes because they do not have the writing English skills.  This is a misassumption.  Rather, this is a language transfer error which impacts and influences how the second language is used.

That is precisely what happened here for, both Spanish and ASL.   So, the issues that face Latino students parallel those that face ASL (Deaf) students. It is clear that the educational system oppresses languages other than English.  Spanish and ASL are both being marginalized, and oppressed in favour of English monolingualism.

In the next post, further parallels between the experiences of Latino students and ASL/English students, respectively, will be examined in the context of the educational system. Issues will be raised, and the questions of whether the education system needs reform, and how to go about it, will be discussed.

CAVEAT: Ad hominem attacks, derogatory and inflammatory comments will NOT be published. 

English translation of the ASL vlog:

This test question is obtained from an article.  This question has two components:

A) if you could be someone else for a day, who would you choose to be?

B) why would you want to be this person? Expand on this in your writing.

This test was given to a group of students in Colorado.   I will not reveal the background of this grade 4 student who answered this question yet. This student’s written passage was taken from Dr. Kathy Escamilla’s article (2009).

This is what I would like you to do: read this passage at my blog.  I will post the link.  Read the passage.  When you are done reading, you will take the role of judge and analyze the passage and determine the rating  for the writing on this scale from lowest to highest:

1. Unreadable

2. Poor

3. Fair

4. Good

5.  Excellent

When you have determined a rating,explain your reason for assigning this rating. You are the judge.

When this is done, I will explain in a later v/blog why I asked you to examine this Grade 4 student’s writing and explain my purpose for this activity.  (this part isn’t mentioned in the vlog: the student’s background will be revealed then.)

If you could be someone else for a day, who would you be? Why would you want to be that person?

I wub be hwankarlos  i wud like to  be

Hem bekuse hes  is pofisint imat I was

mosiy the bumist kib but as the yer went biy.

I gat smort r naw im the bak wer I was all ovr

ugen. I rilly haytrat bekuse Im rily stupib plus.

IM amin parsory pofisit I math and havan is in

pofisint in math and. I am unahfktor in ritingandriding.

Hem to but hes alat smartr ven my im stupibist

In the hol intir skul school that’s the truth that’s wy I

Want to be hem this is the trut. Iv hir r told enydoty

This I havit told asol.

Judges, post your rating decision and reason behind the rating you gave this student’s writing skills in the comments section.

CAVEAT:  Ad hominem attacks, derogatory and inflammatory comments will NOT be published.  

To the commenters who answered the test question in my previous vlog), thank you!  For those of you who have not seen my question, here it is:

Look at the word with the underlined letter.  The underlined letter stands for a sound.  Decide which of the other three words has the same sound in it.

castle

 

a.                   quart

b.                  manner

c.                   palm

The respondents to this questions come from varying backgrounds.  This group consists of Canadians and Americans who are Deaf, Hearing and Hard of Hearing, and vary in age.  The average age would be 30’s to 40’s.

One incredulous Deaf commenter asked, “Shel, you’re *inviting* hearing people to take this test? Wouldn’t they ace your test?!”  That was also my basic assumption… that they would have an easy time of it.

Surprisingly, that didn’t turn out to be the case.  Some of the Hearing folks struggled in answering that question. Hearing Americans admitted that they had a hard time, but most chose b. Manner, because the a in manner sounded most like the a in castle. To view their rationales for choosing that answer, read the comments section in my last post.

As for the Deaf commenters, answering the question was quite difficult. They had to resort to guessing, and trying to use their prior knowledge that was obtained from childhood memories of speech lessons.  Some attempted to use their phonological knowledge of syllables to answer the questions.  Some Deaf commenters simply didn’t bother to try because of the heavy emphasis on sound.  To try and figure out the answer to a sound-based question was a daunting task!

What is my own answer to that question?  I don’t know.  Honestly, I have no idea what the answer to that question is!  I am not kidding, folks.  If you notice, Hearing Canadians also found that question tough to answer.  Most of them said instinctively, their answer would be none of the above!  I believe them.

The reason that I am not surprised at the Hearing Canadians’ responses has to do with the issue of accents. Canadian accent is distinct from that of the Americans. According my Deaf ASL-using husband, a product of oral upbringing, he noticed the differences in pronounciations by Americans as contrasted from Canadians due to accents.

Examples:

a) HOT 

Canadians put emphasis on the O when pronouncing hot, while Americans appear to say HAT when pronouncing hot.

b) HOCKEY

Canadians say HOCKEY while Americans say HACKEY

No wonder I find lipreading so difficult!

For the Hearing Canadians to examine the question and come up with an answer was tricky since they knew it was an American question. So, when I saw that question, I was stumped, despite the fact that I’m an educated woman, and a teacher at that!  One reason is that I’m Canadian.  The other reason is obvious.  I’m Deaf!

Ok, from where did I obtain this question?  A friend sent me this question from a 1998 article on the Maryland High School exit exam.  (A high school exit exam is required for HS students to take in order to graduate… whew!  Only ONE exam. Wow.)

When it comes to that particular question (mentioned above), I would not be able to answer it correctly with confidence.

While my Hearing Canadian commenters had trouble with that question, their American counterparts were able to answer it by sounding out the words.  The Deaf Americans had to use other strategies such as guessing the answer, as did the Deaf Canadians. Some Hard of Hearing commenters were able to sound out the words as a strategy.

Oh, by the way, one commenters decided to read my lips for clues on the proper pronunciation so that person could choose the best answer.  A dangerous strategy, seeing as my speech skills aren’t the best. I could quite easily lead that person to flunk that question!

The point here is that Deaf people rely on visual cues in order to give correct answers.  Plus, we were trained as Deaf children to guess answers to questions rather than leave any questions unanswered.

Now, was that castle question fair? My husband (who’s a Deaf Canadian, by the way) is of the opinion that it wasn’t fair.

Why isn’t that question fair?  That is because there is a bias…Hearing bias. Hearing people put much stock on sounds while Deaf people don’t.  So, that question really isn’t suitable for Deaf people, and therefore invalid.

Is a test valid (for the Deaf) if a good portion of the contents is based on sound, such as music?  Tests have content that relate to music although I am certain most of the test include contents from Social Studies, Math, and English curriculum.  If much of the test contain questions that has to do with sound such as music, or information that come from sources like radio, or television and such that aren’t always accessible to Deaf children, how could Deaf students answer those questions?  These students would have trouble,.especially if those questions are not related to the curriculum used to teach Deaf students.

Imagine, that one single exit exam is sufficient to limit Deaf students’ future! Remember, those high school exit exams are required for graduation. If those students don’t pass that exit exam, they may be unable to enter university.

Unfortunately, Deaf people are not the only ones affected by the test bias.  People who speak English as a second language are impacted as well, such as  “Non-Americans”, or immigrants from Asia, and non-English-speaking European countries.  Even students from other English-speaking countries like Canada are affected due to accent differences.

Recently, my Hearing Canadian commenters have proven that accents could make it difficult to answer questions that has to do with sounds and phonological awareness. So that means my short test wasn’t fair because it has a bias.

In my next vlog, I will discuss test bias and how that test bias has already impacted another cultural group, and still impacts Deaf people today.

Can you do this very short test?  This is only ONE question.  Easy!   See if you can answer the question in English text, to be found in the very beginning of the video above.  When you have read this question, please feel free to answer it in the comments section below.  Once you have selected your answer, please justify your answer.  Then, tell me whether this question was easy or difficult and explain why.

Thank you for participating.  There will be a follow up post on this test.  In the meantime, enjoy this test!

CORRECTION OF ERROR:  It’s been brought to my attention that I had underlined both AS in the word castle when it should have been A only.  So, it’s actually castle.  My sincere apologies for the confusion.  I owe my thanks to some eagle-eyed commenters!

Interesting.  I just viewed the three-part blog series “The Right to Be…Deaf” at Patti Durr’s People of the Eye.  This series reminded me of the v/blog posts I created last May on the subject of neutrality. The question raised in my two posts was whether the information being given to parents of newly-diagnosed Deaf babies and children was neutral or not.  Here are the titles which you can click to view (Neutrality: Does It Exist? and Got Neutrality? )

In Patti’s blog series, she raises the question on whether parents were given choices without undue pressure to go for a specific option.   Part II of Durr’s series describes what ensues at hospitals soon after babies are born (with infant hearing screenings).  That particular post brought a flashback of  my experience at an audiology clinic with my second eldest infant son.

Before I go into details about that experience, I must let you know that I am a Deaf mother of 5 Hearing boys.  Despite the fact that my babies were found to be hearing, I still encountered audism during one of my boys’ testings.  My eldest was born in a hospital.  Two weeks later, I brought him to an audiology clinic to find out if he was hearing or deaf.  My suspicion that he was Hearing was confirmed.

My third son, who was born at home rather than at a hospital, never took an official hearing screen test.   My husband and I decided to skip the infant hearing screen because it was so obvious that the baby was Hearing.  Our home-made hearing test came in the form of our two older sons, aged 1 1/2 and 2 1/2 or 3 years old.  The noise they produced kept startling the baby.  That cheap home-made hearing test sure saved the government oodles of dollars that time!

My youngest, the twins, were born in the hospital rather than in the home due to the fact that twin pregnancies are automatically considered high risk.   The morning after the boys were born, they each received an on-site hearing screening test.  The results were that they were hearing.  Technology have clearly improved to the point that there was no need for drugs to sedate them (unlike the situations described in the comments section of Patti’s Part III blog).

My experience with my second eldest son was different from that of my other boys.  He was born at home, so that meant I had to take him to the audiology clinic a couple or so weeks later.  It was eleven and a half years ago, but the memory is still fresh in my mind.  I had to nurse him to sleep so the ABR test could be performed.  Halfway through the test, I had to switch him to the other breast so his other ear could be tested.  While nursing him to sleep, I inadvertently fell asleep as well.  I must have been tired that day!

After a few minutes, I woke up just as the test was completed.  The audiologist was looking at her computer and machines when suddenly she seemed disturbed. I could perceive a look of alarm on her face. That caused me to think that something was up.  She looked back at us then at the screen and back with anxiety in her body language and on her face.   I looked down at my sleeping infant and noticed that one of the wires fell off his scalp.  I brought the audiologist’s attention to that fact.  She administered the test on that ear once more.  Once the results were in, there was an obvious look of relief on her face.

“He is hearing.”

Supposing the results were like this: One ear was Hearing, but the other ear was deaf.  She would likely still have that look of alarm on her face and tension in her body.  That would give me a clear message right there.  Supposing my boy were hard of hearing, what kind of message would her body and words impart?  I don’t know, but her alarm and body language were indelibly marked in my memory.  I will never forget that.

Patti Durr’s description of the type of pressures American parents face in hospitals, regardless of whether these parents were Deaf or Hearing.  When babies are diagnosed Deaf, audism run rampant in hospitals.  Buzz phrases like ” your baby failed the hearing test” are used and impart negative messages to the parents.   Pamphlets on cochlear implants are given out to parents soon after the Deaf babies are diagnosed.   Deaf parents of Deaf babies experience and react to audism in the approaches used by medical professionals in dealing with them. (See comments section here.)

The combination of  infant hearing screening tests, cochlear implant pamphlets and “neutral” websites cause me to question whether parents were given true choices.

Are parents given TRUE choices?

Remember: I am a Deaf parent.  I have witnessed the negative facial and body language of that audiologist.  I cannot help but conclude that if my child were diagnosed to hard of hearing, I would have received a negative message.   Of that, I have no doubt.

Supposing that I were a Hearing mother with a newly diagnosed Deaf baby, and saw that alarmed facial expression and body language, what would my reaction be?  I would have been taken aback, confused and upset .  To make matters worse, I would be regretfully told, “Your child has failed the hearing test.”  Shock, dismay and grief would follow that statement, especially when combined with the negative message given with that type of body language.

The audiologist would follow up with a reassuring “Don’t worry.  There are cochlear implants and speech therapy available to help your child become more like us.  The Infant Hearing Program will help you with this. “  Pamphlets are given to the beleaguered mother who is overwhelmed with what has to be done to rehabilitate her child.

Supposing that parent is told: “Don’t worry. I have a Deaf mentor available to support you.  Your Deaf child is fortunate to be able to develop two languages–English and ASL–and grow up in two cultures. This will be a wonderful experience for you”?  That would be great, but that has not happened.  To date, I have not heard of any audiologists or other medical professional say that, ever.  It’s usually ”Sorry, your baby failed the hearing screening test.”

Now, that’s BIAS for you! Usually, information about ASL is not shared (or at least mentioned briefly).  Pamphlets on CIs are available to be given out, with alacrity. ”

“and we get the news – it is delivered to us with concerned looks, wringing of hands, and glossy pamphlets, DVDs, and display models of what CAN be DONE to overcome what IS

yes, instead of another basket of goodies and words of congratulations on your wee things Deafhood, we are whacked on the head with ….. the A word folks.  And no it is not spelled with a “v” (ask the NAD they know how to spell it correctly)

we see the news and we sigh – just what we wanted “A healthy baby and we knew s/he was healthy all along” – healthy for us means Deaf or Hearing -  y nada mas importa

but wait despite our joy and relief – they “the specialists” are still frowning – they is VERY worried now

they start selling their wares – they start tooting the scope of their practice ”

(Durr. People of the Eye blog. March 5)

Is that giving out neutral information?  Can you say websites like this give out neutral and balanced information? Can you say that parents are given complete unbiased information with which to make their decisions? No, you cannot. (That particular website doesn’t even mention ASL. You have to make an effort to look for it in a link there somewhere.) There is CLEAR BIAS here in favour of making Deaf children hear rather than allow them to be Deaf bilinguals, exposed to ASL and ASL Deaf culture as well as English.

Back to my question…

Are parents of newly diagnosed babies given true choice in raising their Deaf children?  Are they being given the chance to make a  true choice without undue influence or pressure from audistic medical professionals and biased pamphlets and websites? Without subtle and subliminal messages that it is not a good thing for a child to be Deaf?

QUESTION OF THE DAY:

Have parents of  Deaf babies able to exercise TRUE choice in the first place?  Or is “True Choice” an illusion?

ADDENDUM: Here is another vlog (captioned) by Dr. Donald Grushkin for your viewing pleasure on the same issue.

Having watched ABC’s What Would You Do? (hosted by John Quinones) last night, my initial reaction was disbelief, then jubiliance.  “BUSTED!” was my first joyful thought when the segment on discrimination against Deaf people seeking employment at a coffee shop ended with the scene of the three seasoned Human Resources specialists advising that phony barista manager on the finer techniques of discrimination.

Can we say AUDISM here?  YES, we can!

Ladies and gentlemen, what we have here is clear proof of discriminatory behaviour and strategies rooted in audism on national TV!  For the first time… EVER… ordinary Americans and Canadians learned how to get away with systemic discrimination behind the scenes.   From white-collar Hearing professionals, at that!  TSK TSK.

I’m celebrating now because the Deaf community has new ammunition with which to fight audism-based discriminatory practices.  More Deaf people now know what they MUST do…educate the public for one thing, and denounce these audist practices. They can pursue various channels to combat audism, particularly in the job market.

However, my celebratory mood is bitter-sweet for the reason stated by one of my commenters in FaceBook:

“It was sad to see more so much more support in the other skits with the immigration and thieves than the deaf. Unless they just didn’t show all the clips…

And the person who did “help” HELPED the manager!!”

This commenter echoed the anger expressed by many Deaf people because they have experienced barriers in obtaining gainful employment due to systemic barriers set into place due to audism.

THAT is precisely why more people, especially the Deaf, MUST speak out.  Remember:

“Evil flourishes when good men do (and say*) nothing.” (Edmund Burke)

Discrimination for ANY reason, including the status of hearing, MUST be denounced in the strongest terms possible.   I predict that in the future audistic practices will eventually be weeded out, but only if  they are denounced.  And, mark my words, audistic practices WILL be denounced.

How about joining us in this denunciation?

V/BLOGGER NOTE: (and say*) is my own insertion in Burke’s quote.

Here’s the excerpt in case you have trouble accessing the link:

The Department of Education will continue to provide a sound education and opportunities for networking within the larger community by supplying iPhones to the Deaf and Hard of Hearing students, their teachers and parents to create better access for communication. We are working in liaison with Canadian Hard of Hearing Association – NL (CHHA-NL) to keep abreast of the latest technology and advice for setting up classrooms that are conducive for learning.

King delivered on his promise to supply iPhones to the students, parents and teachers last October… sort of.   The recipients received iPhone 3G which does NOT have video capability.  Goes to show what he knows about Deaf children and their needs. ZIP. NADA. ZERO.

OH. OOPS. I digress. Back to the subject at hand…

I was asked to give my opinion on the iASL app as a tool for the classroom since I am a Deaf ASL-bilingual teacher.   I have an iPhone 3GS (which has video capability).  This is my opinion:

I downloaded and then put the  iASL app to the acid test… it failed miserably.

1. For English sentences to be translated into ASL, you have to type only  5 words at a time.

I wanted to type: The Persians defeated the Spartans at the Battle of Thermoplyae.  (This is because  I had taught a high school World History class at a Deaf school several years ago.)  I was limited to this:

Persians defeated Spartans at Thermoplyae.

The ASL TRANSLATION was in English words (gloss) but in ASL order (or close enough).  The text looked like this:
Spartans
Thermoplyae
Persians
ARREST
Then I clicked VIEW.  What happened next had me slapping myself in the forehead and groaning.
For Spartans, Thermoplyae and Persians… I got a black background with white text “S” then a woman appeared onscreen and produced S and fades to black, then the letter P appears and the woman appears and produces P.   and so on until EVERY letter was spelled.
No lexicalized fingerspelling.  It took forever, then finally, when we arrived at ARREST, she signed ARREST.
Unfortunately, that’s not the sign I’d have chosen.  I’d have used an entirely different ASL word to properly explain the defeat term. Also, there’s no nonmanual grammar signals/markers. No lexicalized fingerspelling was use.  It wasn’t possible with the type of technology available!

You may wish to view my ASL description of the Battle of Thermoplyae in my ASL vlog above (2:49-6:09).  (Remember that movie, The 300? That was based on the Battle of Thermoplyae!)  You will see me give an abridged version of the epic battle, and then show the book, Gates of Fire, which is one of my sources of information for that historical event.

2. iASL doesn’t have ASL words for the English words like province, Ontario, Newfoundland, etc, because iASL is an American innovation, and designed only to develop ASL signs that is standard, and ignores ASL regional differences.

MY RATING: I give the iASL app THUMBS DOWN for use in the classroom.

3. The use of iASL for networking within the larger (Hearing) community will only serve as a hindrance rather than an asset.

Can you imagine trying as a  high school student to gossip via iASL app with peers about someone cheating on his/her sweetheart, especially given the cumbersome translation process as demonstrated in the vlog?  Worse yet, that iPhone 3G doesn’t even have the video capacity to capture ASL comments of the Deaf student, let alone translate them into English text!  The iASL app doesn’t even have the capability to translate ASL into English text to facilitate a two-way conversation!  Wow! That’s a sure-fire way to destroy networking efforts among students.

The best place for opportunities for natural barrier-free social interactions with peers in ASL and development of strong social skills are actually in a Deaf school.  Oh yeah. That’s right. (*Smacking my forehead*) I forgot. The NL minister of education closed the ONLY remaining school for the Deaf in the Maritimes.

4. iASL app will NEVER replace QUALIFIED, LIVE, ASL (or LSQ) interpreters in parent/teacher meetings.

What about Deaf parents of mainstreamed Deaf/Hard of Hearing children who need to meet with monolingual Hearing teachers? Could they have used iASL app/iPhone technology to bypass the need for a real live ASL interpreter? Again, given what was demonstrated in this post, the answer would have to be a resounding  NO!

How could we forget LSQ?  There is NO app for LSQ.  So, Francophones and LSQ users are flat out of luck.  Sorry.

To use an over-used buzz word of today… EPIC FAIL!

My grade for the iASL app and iPhone 3G technology…BIG FAT F!

So much for ASL and technological support in the classroom and networking with the larger community as promised by the all-knowing Minister of Education King!

Had Minister King consulted with any of the Deaf educators at NSD or outside the province as well as Deaf technies rather than with CHHA-NL, he would have known all this before wasting thousands, or even millions,  of dollars on  iPhone technology that would NEVER ever do an adequate job of translating information, let alone capture ASL signing.  So much for keeping abreast with the latest technology.

Guess this proves that King is really a CFA to the Deaf community and Deaf Education. (CFA is a Maritime term ”Come From Away” applied to those who are newcomers or visitors to the Maritimes provinces and know NOTHING about the area.  There are times when Maritimers complain that CFAs tell them what is best for them while knowing nothing about them.) Sounds familiar, doesn’t it, Newfoundlanders and Labradorans?

STOP!  Before you read this further, be sure to read my post on the not-so-quiet death of Newfoundland School for the Deaf first.  This is so you would understand why a former Deaf politician felt compelled to write a letter to Newfoundland’s Minister of Education Darin King urging him to reconsider his decision to close the school.

I was fortunate enough to obtain this open letter directly from Gary Malkowski.  This letter was dated August 7, 2010.  Read on below, please.

Hon. Darin King

Minister of Education

Department of Education

3rd Floor, West Block
Confederation Building
100 Prince Philip Drive

St. John’s, NL A1B 4J6

education@gov.nl.ca

DarinKing@gov.nl.ca

Dear Hon. Dr. Darin King, Minister of Education

Re: Newfoundland and Labrador’s Provincial School for the Deaf Closure

As former Ontario Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for York East and Parliamentary Assistant to Minister of Education, 1990-1995, I am taking this moral duty to write this letter of concerns and recommendations to reserve the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador’s decision regarding Provincial School for the Deaf in St. John’s in the light of the Government of Canada’s ratification of United Nations Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities (March 11, 2010), 21st International Congress on The Education of the Deaf 2010 Vancouver New Era Accord, (July 19, 2010) and Charter of Rights and Freedom (i.e., Supreme Court of Canada’s Eaton decision regarding the need of continuum of educational placements, including provincial school).  See details at http://www.queensu.ca/humanrights/hreb/disabilities/mainpages/Grismer_opp.htm for your background information.

I wish to express grave concerns of the decision of Newfoundland and Labrador’s Provincial School for the Deaf closure and its serious implications without having proper consultation with Deaf community, parents of deaf and hard of hearing children in the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador, and external experts on Deaf Education issues. Furthermore, you may not get full accurate and professional information provided by your own civil servants, Minister’s office,  Premier Office, and groups who may engage in the practices of ideology of Education of the Deaf (i.e., downsizing, discouraging, eliminating or depriving sign language and Deaf school without knowing its serious implications; many new parents of deaf children are not aware of potential risks/side effects of Auditory Verbal Therapy (AVT) educational programs in school boards until their children experience mental health and language problems in their later life. There is no checklist for teachers of deaf and parents of deaf children to identify mismatched communication and acting-out behaviours).

Provincial Court of Saskatchewan (August 19, 2005) Judge Orr recognized that physicians and medical personnel, audiologists, educators, child protection workers and others are undoubtedly caring and capable professionals. It was clear that, throughout, as they should, these people acted in strict accordance with the policies, directives and mandates of the governmental or other bodies for which they work.  Unfortunately, the best efforts of these fine people failed to avert a terrible disaster in the life of a little deaf boy.

The judge ruled that American Sign Language (ASL) must be offered to Deaf children as a communication option in the early years. This the clear message contained in a landmark Saskatchewan court decision. At issue in this court is the philosophy of Saskatchewan Pediatric Auditory Rehabilitation Centre (SPARC), the publicly funded pre-school program offered to deaf children in the province. SPARC follows the the restrictive “auditory-verbal” approach which focuses only on restoration and remediation of hearing and speech.

You may not realize or may not be aware of that your Ministry of Education is promoting a one-sided system – auditory-verbal supports and education that do not make ASL resources and services available to Deaf children available in School Boards across the province of Newfoundland and Labrador while Provincial School for the Deaf in St. John’s is only ASL resources and services available to Deaf children in the province.

In Ontario, Akamatsu, Musselman and Zweibel, 2000*, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto research studies have showed that there were 93% of Deaf children are initially enrolled in auditory oral programs. By preschool, down to 67% are educated orally; by elementary, down to 58% are educated orally;

By adolescence only 31% are educated orally; and 62% shift from oral to signing programs for Deaf children between the early preschool years and adolescence.

(*BLOGGER’S NOTE: The Akamatsu et al link leads to a bar graph I made as a visual representation of the statistics Malkowski used from the OISE research.)

The Canadian Hearing Society (CHS), a social service agency, serving deaf and hard of hearing consumers reported that there is growing higher number of demands of that deaf and hard of hearing students and youth received CONNECT Mental Health Services, General Support Services, Employment Services and Literacy Programs as a result of inappropriate educational placements (i.e., without appropriate sign language supports in school boards and lacking of “first” language mastery has life-long negative effects). This translates into the high cost of inappropriate educational placement including the educational costs, employability costs, emotional costs and financial costs for social support services (i.e., prison, mental health services, underemployment, unemployment, and social assistance).

CHS documented information that many parents of deaf and hard of hearing children, deaf and hard of hearing youth and teachers of deaf reported their experiences of reported inaccessible communications and attitudinal barriers in the classroom in school boards in several provinces across Canada. The examples of students’ experiences include mismatch communications between student and his/her parents and family, inaccessible communications between student and his/her teachers, low expectations, mislabeling, social isolation, cyber bulling, bullying, harassment and discrimination (i.e., denial of communication access services such as sign language interpreters, captioning services, lack of captioning in any media format).

Deaf school and natural sign language are clearly a human right and educational right of Deaf children. See the World Federation of the Deaf’s Policy Statement on Education Rights for Deaf Children at http://www.wfdeaf.org/pdf/policy_child_ed.pdf

For your latest background information, please refer to read International Congress on the Education of the Deaf (ICED)’s press release at http://www.iced2010.com/pdf/Press%20Release.pdf** and ICED Vancouver 2010 Accord on New Era: Deaf Participation and Collaboration and its Statement of Principle at http://www.deafcanadian.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/NewEraBCcopy0001.pdf **

(**BLOGGER’S  NOTE: These are not the original links Malkowski used, but www.ICED2010.com is closed.  I replaced the link with ones that will lead you to the PDF copies of the documents. )

In response to the Government of Canada and Newfoundland’s ratification of United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, ICED Vancouver 2010 Accord and Charter of Rights and Freedoms, may I make a recommendation for Newfoundland and Labrador Ministry of Education to reserve the decision of Provincial School for the Deaf  closure and establish Advisory Committee to Minister of Education on Future Direction of Provincial School for the Deaf, including appropriate representatives of Newfoundland and Labrador’s Deaf Community, external experts on Deaf Education issues, and Parents of Deaf Children group who wish to send their children to Provincial School for the Deaf to ensure that the continuum of educational placements including Provincial School for the Deaf are available to meet the actual needs of all Deaf and hard of hearing children and students in the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador ?

I look forward to receiving a prompt response from you soon. Thank you for your time and serious consideration to reconsider your decision,

Sincerely

Gary Malkowski

Canada’s only Former Elected Deaf Parliamentarian

gary.malkowski@sympatico.ca

cc: Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General, United Nations

Markku Jokinen, President, World Federation of the Deaf

Rt. Hon, Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada

Hon. Michael Ignatieff, Federal Liberal Leader of Official Opposition

Jack Layton, Federal Leader of Canada’s NDP and M.P. Toronto-Danforth

Premier Danny Williams, Newfoundland and Labrador

Yvonne Jones, Liberal Leader of Official Opposition, Newfoundland and Labrador

Lorraine Michael, NDP Leader, Newfoundland and Labrador

Hon. Diane McGifford, The Council of Ministers of Education, Canada

Dr. Andrew Parkin, Director General, The Council of Ministers of Education, Canada

Jim Roots, Executive Director, Canadian Association of the Deaf

Chris Kenopic, President  & CEO, The Canadian Hearing Society

Jennifer Sooley, President, Newfoundland and Labrador Association of the Deaf

As I stated earlier, this letter was written August 2010, so this is hardly current event news anymore.  However, this letter is essential so that you can better understand the issues involved in the closure of NSD. This is only the most recent chapter in the long history of systemic audism against the Deaf. In my next post, you will read Hon. King’s response to Malkowski’s letter and learn why that offensive and ignorant response ignited my ire as an educated Deaf Canadian citizen.

I thank Mr. Wayne Sinclair for sending me this PDF copy of the New Era Document, complete with signatures.  To read the PDF copy of the document that was signed by the ICED 2010 Vancouver organizing committee, BC Deaf community, Canadian Association of the Deaf and the World Federation of the Deaf, please click on the link directly below.

The ICED 2010 New Era Document

I  also offer my gratitude to Dr. Joseph McLaughlin for his willingness to send me PDF copies of the press releases that were made by the ICED 2010 Vancouver organizing committee.

Press_Release_Opening_Ceremony

Press_Release__Closing_Ceremony ICED 2010 VANCOUVER

Opening & Closing ceremony remarks on New Era_Dr. McLaughlin