Right to use sign language in educational programmes

They want what the rest of society and the West take for granted; to live independently; to be educated and have opportunity and choice; to work and contribute to society and to be valued as members- at the end of the day to Sign or not to Sign by choice and to know they live in a community that values their abilities not attempting to cure what seems to be disability.

It is easier to give out implants for free plumping the well meaning medical establishment's pockets than to change the whole infrastructure of a society from interpreters to educational system and media captioning and telecommunication to accommodate hearing loss.

Giving children some degree of hearing will arguably improve the opportunity for speech and for language of native tongue be it Arabic, English, French, Japanese. But why deny the deaf child the natural use of sign? The fear and misinformed argument is the deaf child with a CI will not speak or learn the hearing language of society.

Let us suppose for the sake of argument CI gives the child hearing. The child then hears and is for the sake of argument like hearing peers in that little Sally and Mohamed and Franz are getting direct instruction from teachers without sign, albeit mubmblespkes. Here the argument fails and the veracity of their premise is bogus.
Research is showing children learn sign language and therefor acquire language before speaking. It’s all the rage in USA for hearing parents and daycare and church schools to teach sign. Please see the following links for research and video of demonstration: http://www.mysmarthands.com/Site/Baby_Sign_Language_Research_Paper.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gSZfW4gVhI.

Kids get it and instead of not speaking, the use of sign increases the acquisition of the hearing language. Thus, if a child with a CI is denied the use of sign they are denied the opportunity to acquire more quickly the very language the hearing professional educating community is trying to give the child. When hearing children acquire language earlier by the use of sign - they do not stop speaking. Rather, sign is an augmentation to learning the hearing language faster. Children with CI who are now by definition with more hearing than without the CI, will also benefit from the use of their native sign and use of sign will not subtract from language acquisition but will augment and increase understanding of the world which is the very point of education.


Younger kids with CI getting instruction in mubmblkspke sans Sign will be plopped into an educational system with more instruction in mubmleskep sans Sign. They will join the confusing world where corn and cow and peas and please has to be trudged through. Yet, accepting sign as a natural tool and supplement to language acquisition and tool to educate children and a means to introduce children to the wonderful world of learning and become contributors of society and accessing the fund of knowledge Deaf people are ignorant of, therefore, the argument asks for native signers to be employed as educators and role models for children.

Either CI gives a child more hearing or it does not. If yes then like hearing children sign adds to learning; hearing do not suddenly stop talking because they learn sign; children with CI who now have “hearing” don’t either and learn the written language better because they have two modalities to access it- visual AND semi-auditorily. Learning theory and brain studies support the premise we learn more the more we are engaged. If the child has a proclivity to sign they will sign any way because their little brains are sponges for information.

Instead of denying sign and viewing it as shameful and an ugly thing and threat to spoken/written language; sign is compliment and gem in the human experience. The fear and ignorance of a hearing community that does not know sign is understandable but unjustified. Research, life experience of many families, the educational models of schools that do use Sign with instruction and the employment and integration of Deaf in the community enriches the community, education and culture of a nation.