“Sometimes
we find ourselves walking through life blindfolded, and we try to deny that
we're the ones who securely tied the knot.”
We are
aware that our state- and federally-funded programs frequently do not meet the
needs of Deaf babies & toddlers and their families, let alone Deaf adults.
There have had been both national and state advocacy efforts with both state
and federal government agencies to communicate our concerns and needs. In more
recent years, there has been a more concentrated effort to discuss the greater
concern of language deprivation syndrome among Deaf children and students. California
Association of the Deaf (2016) wrote a language policy report illuminating the
problems and issues of dismal K-12 students’ language and math skills.
Hatrak (2016) wrote:
Language acquisition – or the
lack of an acquired language – ultimately affects the child’s life outcomes,
not just in their cognitive and social-emotional developments but also in their
literacy skills, academic achievements, mental health, and employment
opportunities. Research studies now tell us that early childhood is the most
important and pivotal period for language learning and acquisition for all
children. The consequences of delayed or deprived language development are far
more devastating for Deaf children. (para. 1)
How is it that our federal
government agency, Maternal and Child Health Bureau, is not monitoring the
services provided through one of their grantees? The same can be said about
state-level agencies.
Although the Early Hearing Detection & Intervention
(EHDI) Act of 2010 does provide a continuum of “language and communication
options,” the National Center for Hearing Assessment and Management
(NCHAM) is a $46 million federally-funded program that “ensures that all
infants and toddlers with hearing loss are identified as early as possible and
provided with timely and appropriate audiological, educational, and medical
interventions” (National Center on Hearing Assessment and
Management, n.d.).
In NCHAM’s two e-books, there is scant mention of
language acquisition or development in their provision of interventional services
to families with Deaf babies and toddlers ages 0-5. Their first ebook is A Resource Guide for Early Hearing Detection
and Intervention, and the other is Preparing
to Teach, Committing to Learn: An Introduction to Educating Children Who are
Deaf/Hard of Hearing.
To illuminate how one of our
federally-funded programs designed to assist Deaf babies and toddlers receive
audiological, educational, and medical interventions, NCHAM’s A Resource Guide for Early Hearing Detection and Intervention has:
-28
chapters with 43 authors, with only 4 of the 43 authors identified as Deaf.
Through a word search of the frequency of the following words: hearing, speech,
language, and ASL, here’s the sum
of each word in NCHAM’s A Resource Guide for
Early Hearing Detection and Intervention:
hearing speech language ASL
2601 315 719 70
These numbers represent the sum
of times those words appeared in the NCHAM Resource Guide e-book. 74% of the times
ASL came up appeared in only two
chapters. One time it appeared as a communication methodology which is an
incorrect description of American Sign Language.
NCHAM’s newer book is Preparing to Teach, Committing to Learn: An Introduction to
Educating Children Who are Deaf/Hard of Hearing. The editor, Susan
Lenihan, wrote in the preface of the e-book, “Research on practices for developing communication skills,
literacy, and academic achievement has provided evidence-based strategies for
teaching students and coaching caregivers” (p. i).
What
does she not know about the importance of early language acquisition for the
efficacy of literacy and academic achievement? As an educator, she and the authors
ought to know that only through healthy language acquisition and development
will Deaf students achieve literacy. How many times did the words hearing and language appear in the 16 chapters written by 22 authors, five of
who are Deaf?
hearing speech language literacy ASL
1170 257 997 136 58
Who are
the professional experts that monitor interventional programs that are supposed
to ensure that Deaf children acquire a language and ultimately literacy? Do
they have ASL-Deaf expertise? Why would they not work with ASL-Deaf
professionals? Is anyone minding the store? Or is it intentional ignorance?
Please
write to your Congressional delegation and share with them this blog and
California Association of the Deaf’s language policy report (http://www.cad1906.org/2017/10/04/cad-language-policy-for-deaf-children-ages-0-5/).
References
California
Association of the Deaf. (2017). The road
to kindergarten: Language policy for Deaf children ages 0-5. Retrieved from
http://www.cad1906.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/CAD-Language-Policy-for-Deaf-Children-Ages-0-5.pdf
Hatrak,
M. (2016). How we are depriving our Deaf children OR how they can achieve
academically. Think Tank about the lives
of bilingual deaf people. Retrieved from http://hatrakthinktank.blogspot.com/
Lenihan,
S. (2017). Preface. National Center on
Hearing Assessment and Management (NCHAM). Retrieved from http://www.infanthearing.org/ebook-educating-children-dhh/chapters/1a%20CvrPgPreliminary%20Pages%202017.pdf
National
Center on Hearing Assessment and Management (NCHAM). (n.d.) Retrieved from
http://www.infanthearing.org/
National
Center on Hearing Assessment and Management (NCHAM). (2016). A Resource Guide for Early Hearing Detection and Intervention. Retrieved from http://infanthearing.org/ehdi-ebook/
National
Center on Hearing Assessment and Management (NCHAM). (2017). Preparing to Teach, Committing to Learn: An Introduction to
Educating Children Who are Deaf/Hard of Hearing. Retrieved from http://www.infanthearing.org/ebook-educating-children-dhh/index.html
