Virtual Diorama Assignment

Far From the Tree: Chapter 2

Elizabeth LufranoSPED 854Module 2

Chapter 2: Deaf—Important Ideas

• Critical Period for Language Acquisition

• Sign as a foundational element for developing communication and language skills

• The Oralism Movement

Idea #1: Critical Period for Language Acquisition

• Exposure to language is how every individual on Earth learns and develops language; thus, without exposure an individual will not develop language.

• The Critical Period for Language Acquisition refers to the window of time in which any child can learn any language.• Thus, if an individual is not exposed to

language within a specific window of time (i.e., the critical period than) than they will NOT be able to obtain language.

• This applies to children who are deaf as well…• In fact, to quote Andrew Solomon, “Deaf children

acquire sign exactly as hearing children acquire a first spoken language…” (p. 53)

Idea #2: The Oralism Movement

• During the 1800s we see the development of the Oralism movement, which was lead by Alexander Graham Bell.

• Bell established the American Association to Promote the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf.

• One of the biggest changes seen here came about through the Congress of Milan (1880):• International meeting; representatives from seven countries

(US, Britain, Sweden, Germany, France, Italy, and Belgium)• Put forth an edict, which prohibited deaf individuals from

using manualism (aka Sign) in education; the idea was that manualism stopped deaf individuals from learning to speak.

• The Oralism movement has been compared to the degrading conversion therapies used upon homosexual individuals.

Idea #3: Sign as a foundational Element

for Developing Communication and

Language Skills

• “… making speech and lip reading the prerequisite to commuication may consign deaf children to permanent confusion” (Solomon, A., 2012, p. 53).

• It was not until 1960 when William Stokoe wrote the book Sign Language Structure that ASL was viewed as “full language”, which had both grammar and rules (Solomon, A., 2012, p. 52).

Chapter 2: Deaf—Themes • Is deafness a

disability or an identity?

• Deaf Identity and Deaf culture

• Deaf versus deaf• The Cochlear

Implant Debate• Deaf Pride

Theme #1: Is deafness a disability or identity?

“Most hearing people assume that to be deaf is to lack hearing. Many Deaf people experience deafness not as an absence, but as a presence. Deafness is a culture and a life, a language and an aesthetic, a physicality and an intimacy different from all others” (Solomon, A., 2012, p. 62).According to MJ Bienvenu, “Those who learn forced English while being denied Sign emerge semilingual rather than bilingual, and they are disabled” (as cited in Solomon, A., 2012, p. 69).

There is an underlying issue of whether deafness is an identity or a disability. Many people argue that if deafness is an identity than deaf individuals should not be protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act and, thus, should not be provided with accommodations.

Theme #2: Deaf identity and Deaf culture

Jacob: “Deaf culture teaches me how to see the world, but it would make surviving the world a lot easier if I could hear” (as cited in Solomon, A., 2012, p. 79).

Jackie Roth: “It was almost like I had lived in two very separate worlds all my life, Deaf and hearing” (as cited in Solomon, A., 2012, p. 60).

“To choose Sign for your deaf child is, in some significant ways, to surrender him or her to Deaf culture” (Solomon, A., 2012, p. 93)

Theme #3: Deaf versus deaf• Deaf refers to a culture, and the term deaf has a

pathological connotation, which indicates deafness to be the result of disease.

Theme #4: The Cochlear Implant Debate Part 1

• “…some implanted children, are not exposed to Sign because they are expected to develop speech, may fall into that frightening category of the needlessly impaired who have meager primary language” (Solomon, A., 2012, p. 92).• “One unintended consequence of the rise in cochlear implants is that they can make

the parents of deaf children careless about language acquisition …” (Solomon, A., 2012, p. 92).

• Some people see cochlear implants as a threat to deaf individuals’ disability status because the existence of such a device implies that individuals have chosen to be deaf when a cure exists.

Theme #4: The Cochlear Implant Debate Part 2

• “… many Deaf activists contend that cochlear implants are part of a genocidal attempt to destroy and eliminate the Deaf community” (Solomon, A., 2012, p. 103).

Theme #5: Deaf Pride

Dirksen Bauman said, “The question of what lives are worth living is now answered in doctors’ offices instead of in the Nazis’ T-4 program” (as cited in Solomon, A., 2012, p.61)

Jacob: “… I cherish the Deaf culture, and it’s a place where I am empowered” (as cited in Solomon, A., 2012, p.78).

Deaf Stories Part 1• Jacob

• Son of Megan Williams and Michael Shamberg• “Jacob was considered not deaf enough because he didn’t have

deaf parents” (Solomon, A., 2012, p. 77)• Jacob said, “Before, I’d looked down on deafness; I had a lot of

self-hatred. At Gallaudet, I started meeting a lot of deaf people who had the same interests I do” (as cited in Solomon, A., 2012, p. 78)

• Jacob said, “But there is a point where they’re all chatting, and I’m like, “What’s going on?” I’m lucky that they’re open to being with me, but I’m still left out” (as cited in Solomon, A., 2012, p. 79)

• Jackie Roth• Deaf of Deaf• Her parents were not proud of their deafness• Jackie was not allowed to sign in public• Her parents had no hearing friends• Jackie had good residual hearing and was also great at lip reading• “At Lexington, she found herself picked on for not being deaf

enough. At other schools, she was picked on for being deaf” (Solomon, A., 2012, p. 58)

Deaf Stories Part 2: The Village of Bengkala

• There is a small village in Bali called Bengkala where 2% of the village’s population is deaf.

• The entire village is accustomed to interacting with individuals who are deaf and everyone knows how to sign.

Sukesti (one of the inhabitants of Bengkala) said: “I can communicate with everyone. If I lived in another village, I might want to be hearing …” (as cited in Solomon, A., 2012, p. 86).

Andrew Solomon discovered that even in Bengkala that people referred to deafness as having both advantages and disadvantages, and that deafness still plays an important role in people who live in Bengkala lives.

• “they did not forget whether they were deaf or hearing and did not expect others to forget it either” (Solomon, A., 2012, p. 87).

Other Critical Information• “It is estimated that one in a thousand newborns is profoundly deaf, and that

twice as many have less severe hearing impairments” (Solomon, A., 2012, p. 56)

• Over 90% of deaf children’s parents can hear.• There is not on single type of Sign language that is used across the world.

• Ex: American Sign Language• Ex: French Sign Language• Ex: Persian Sign Language

• Signing varies greatly in terms of the resulting “voices” ASL users have: “some move their hands and faces precisely, some extravagantly, some playfully …” (Solomon, A., 2012, p. 83).

References

Solomon, A. (2012). Far from the tree. NewYork: Scribner, Chapter 2.