The Seminar

Reaching out...

http://ekansh1.web.officelive.com/PuneSeminar.aspx

A balanced view: Different strokes for different folks

http://www.deaf-culture-online.com/parents-of-deaf-children.html

Giving Deaf Children Permission To Be Who They AreThere is one more critical aspect to making the right choice. This is allowing your children the freedom to be who they are. It doesn't matter if your child is fluent in ASL or an oralist; it doesn't matter if your child attends a deaf school or a mainstream school; it doesn't matter if your child is hard of hearing or totally deaf. The important thing is this: whatever works best for your child, your child needs to know that this is perfectly okay with you.
In an article titled Deafness: An Existential Interpretation by Stanley Krippner and Harry Easton, there was a quote so powerful that I felt compelled to include it in my book, Deaf Again. Here it is in its entirety:
"If parents are not able to accept the fact that their child is deaf and continue to deny the implications of the deafness, the resulting effects on the child are to encourage his own denial and lack of authenticity. Such a child is thus unable to accept himself and his capacity to emerge or become a unique person is blocked. He lives an existential lie and becomes unable to relate to himself and to other deaf individuals and to the world in a genuine manner."
And this, I promise, is the most effective communication method for a deaf child: a parent's assurance that, however they choose to grow up- deaf or hard of hearing, it is okay.

Learning Challenges

Sign is not only for the DEAF. There is this very narrow perception of SIGN as an alternative language ONLY for the deaf. It even helps in problems like Dyslexia and Autism.

http://www.babies-and-sign-language.com/autism.html

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080130142513AAd7dQ2

It is wonderful to read differing opinions expressed with clarity and equanimity.

For those who choose to remain misinformed.

http://www.bccsd.50megs.com/about_1.html

Excerpts from the experts:

3. Informed Information/Decision (i.e. many new parents of deaf children are not aware of potential risks/side effects of Auditory Verbal Therapy(AVT) programs until their children experience mental health and language problems in their later life. There is no checklist for parents of deaf children to identify mismatched communication and acting-out behaviours.)
Fact: No information regarding the harmful effects of AVT and preventative mental health information is available to new parents of deaf children until their children reach their teen years and begin to experience difficulties. Many new parents of deaf children and professionals in the field of the health and education of deaf people are not informed of a full spectrum of information. Many are still not aware of (or avoid learning about) the realities, possibilities and accomplishments of Deaf people. They fear losing their jobs to Deaf people or losing their children to the Deaf community.
4. Misleading Information about implications of sign language (i.e. speech, language and intelligence development are compromised by learning/using sign language)
Fact: Parents of deaf children are often not aware that there is no research or empirical studies to support this perception for those parents of deaf children who choose to pursue to both AVT and ASL services. In fact, research studies show that using sign language greatly benefits deaf children's linguistic, speech, intelligence and academic performance.

Communication is the lock, language is the key. If it fits, it works.

Baby talk 101: Is sign language a good idea for late talkers?

http://www.examiner.com/x-4959-Special-Education-Examiner~y2009m7d17-Commom-sense-advice-on-sign-language-for-late-talkers


ShareThis
While perusing an on-line auditory processing group, I found some important advice by audiologist Laura Polich Ph.D., CCC. A mom was discussing her child's speech delays and was given "advice" that could be destructive. The advice was NOT to use sign language, by not allowing signing, it would "force" the child to talk instead. Luckily Ms Polich was there to give out some great advice. Here it is:
"As a practicing audiologist, and a now-not-practicing speech pathologist, I wanted to comment on the speech therapist who wanted you to stop using sign language so that the children would be "forced" to talk. Hogwash.
Underneath that request is the assumption that children are naturally lazy, and won't do anything they don't have to. Which I find absurd. Children don't talk because of the effort (or lack of effort) it takes. They talk to communicate. Communication is the payoff, and they use whatever they can to get there. Humans inherently want to communicate.
If they aren't talking, it is because they can't. Something isn't clicking. Their language skills and their voices aren't combining to produce intelligible speech. Thank God, you are giving them the alternative of your understanding the language they can produce with their hands.
I think you are doing exactly what is needed by using sign language. I am assuming that you continue to talk to them (so they are getting the linguistic input from a verbal source) and you are treating their signs as communication. That in turn gives them the positive reinforcement we humans get from communicating with other humans. That encourages them to communicate more.
That is far superior to refusing to respond to the communication they are capable of now (signs) and letting them live through a lot of frustration, in the hope that they will find their way to oral language because of desperation.
If you have deaf relatives, you have probably hear some pretty awful stories told by deaf people about how they had long periods of non-communication because well-meaning speech teachers told their parents not to learn sign language so that the deaf children would be "forced to talk". The "being forced" didn't make any deaf child talk faster, it just made the process more unpleasant.
When children have the ability to talk, they will talk. When your children get to the developmental point that they can convert communicative impulses into speech, they will. In the meantime, you are giving them a way now (signs) to experience the very powerful joy we humans get by communicating with each other. That joy of communication is what is going to spur them on to more and more communication, and hopefully, in time, speech.
Don't accept the "children are inherently lazy" argument from any professional. I think you understand your kids well. Just keep on talking to them, and keep on understanding their signs."
Here is the evidence to show that early sign language enhances overall communication skills in children.
For more info: Come and visit the Auditory Processing dicussion group here..

Right to empathy

The deaf, like any of us, have the right to choose what languages they would like to learn. If they are more comfortable in sign, they must be taught to sign. If they are more comfortable with speech and hearing aids/cochlear implants, that must be made available to them. From what I have seen personally in my interactions or observations of the deaf [this is a strong personal opinion, not to be confused with a professional or authoritative one] , they have always switched back to sign the moment they're left alone with their deaf friends.

I grew up in Mumbai and every evening outside our local park, there used to be this group of men...around 6 of them if I remember right who'd be laughing loudly...making sounds that I couldn't understand and happily signing away to glory. That is my earliest memory of a whole group communicating beautifully without speech.

Ofcourse, I would be very foolish to suggest that parents must not expect a 'normal' life and choose a 'normal' language for their children. That would be insensitive too. But if speech comes naturally and without too much trauma, it is welcome. In other cases, it is more sensitive to allow the child to communicate using a language he/she is most comfortable in.

I was invited to a felicitation ceremony for the disabled in Pune last year. A well known [in his social and work circles], well educated, well placed deaf gentleman, Arun ( name changed), who had also participated in our first workshop, was being given an award for his courage and progress despite his disabilities. He sat on the podium and the speaker introduced him to the audience over the microphone. Arun does not use hearing aids and he sat facing the speaker's back so he couldn't read his lips. There was no interpreter and Arun had no way of knowing what was being said about him. He sat there till the person next to him nudged him when it was his turn to accept his award. He took the microphone. He was raised to be 'oral' ...to speak. He also signs fluently, but for some reason, that evening, he decided not to sign. So he spoke. None of us understood a word he said. Not one word. He still stood there and talked...and I rose to leave because I could not take the overwhleming irony anymore. There were representatives of Helen Keller Inst. in the first row. There were people from various established NGOs in attendance. Nobody reacted. As I walked out of the hall, Arun was still 'talking'.

I visited Sibaji Panda in Lancashire University. We had lunch together. He talked to me and I talked too, trying to sign and succeeding sometimes. He read my lips without any problems. He was not born deaf but lost his hearing in his childhood. He lip reads and speaks many languages fluently. He also signs and is very active with the ISHARA foundation in Mumbai. That is him, signing in the first video.

Our choices for our children, I think, must not be based on our biases but on unconditional love and acceptance. That would perhaps take our world forward. But for that sensitivity and acceptance to come, we must educate our future generations and sensitise them to the limitations nature has endowed each of us with.

I believe in angels!

http://miraklecouriers.wordpress.com/

Miss communication?

I wonder when the hearing impaired in India will have any use for something like this. I have no idea why a country with so many languages and dialects will not adopt the ASL and just let our deaf use a language people will understand internationally. Why the resistance? If we can all learn to communicate in English...adding our own peculiar nuances to it, why not ASL?

Watch this space

Avanti!! has been in hibernation for a long time now but it is waking up from its slumber. We do not intend to give up hope that we will indeed find the necessary help to set up classes in Pune sooner than later. We need an instructor who resides in Pune and will be able to devote a couple of hours every week regularly for classes. As you already know, there are NO CERTIFIED teachers of ISL in our city and we've had to 'import' them from Mumbai for our two workshops and it isn't a feasible option if we're planning a course spanning a few months.

There are discussions and brainstorming sessions underway and we hope to be able to come up with some sort of concrete plan by the next academic year.

Please don't give up on us!