Deaf education

Identifying deaf students

Children may be identified as candidates for deaf education from their audiogram or medical history. Hearing loss is generally described as slight, mild, moderate, severe, or profound, depending upon how well a person can hear the intensities of frequencies. Of the children identified as deaf, only 10% are born to deaf parents. This percent of deaf students may have a linguistic advantage when entering the education system due to more extensive exposure to a first language.

Individual needs

Deaf education programs must be customized to each student's needs, and deaf educators provide a continuum of services to deaf students based on individual needs. In the United States, Canada and the UK, education professionals use the acronym IEP when referring to a student’s individualized education plan.

Methods

Schools use a number of approaches to provide deaf-educational services to identified students. These may be grouped into four categories, according to whether (and how much) the deaf student has contact with non-deaf students (using North American terminology):

The difference between mainstreaming and inclusion is not made explicit in the law, and use may vary from district to district. Further, within the Deaf community, the term 'mainstreaming' often refers to any educational setting outside of a residential school.

Bilingual-bicultural education

In this method, deafness is approached as a cultural, not a medical, issue. In a bilingual-bicultural program, deaf children are recommended to learn American Sign Language (ASL) as a first language, followed by written or spoken English as a second language. Bilingual-bicultural programs consider English and ASL equal languages, helping children develop age-appropriate fluency in both. The bilingual-bicultural approach believes that since deaf children learn visually, rather than by ear, classes should be conducted in a visual language. To avoid harming the students' accuracy and fluency in either language, American Sign Language and spoken English are not used simultaneously, since they use different grammar, syntax, and vocabulary; ASL is usually used as the language of instruction, though some bilingual-bicultural schools use spoken English in some contexts with some students. Many bilingual-bicultural schools have dormitories; students may either commute to school or stay in a dormitory as part of a residential program, visiting their families on weekends, holidays and school vacations.

Auditory-oral and auditory-verbal education

The auditory-oral and auditory-verbal methods, known collectively as listening and spoken language, are forms of oral education. These methods are based on the belief that a deaf child can learn to listen and speak so that their family does not need to learn sign language or cued speech. These methods, presented as communication options, rely on parental involvement. Children using this option may be placed in a continuum of educational placement, including oral schools (such as the Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech), classrooms for deaf students in public schools or mainstream classrooms with hearing students.

Simultaneous or Total Communication

There is great variety in programs that label themselves as using simultaneous communication or total communication. Some programs consist of teachers and children speaking and signing at the same time, known as simultaneous communication. In these programs, grammatically-correct English is available when speech is paired with Signing Exact English. This method is used in many programs in Texas and in the state of Washington at Northwest School for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children. In total communication programs, however, teachers emphasize learning language and utilizing all means of communication. Most often these programs do not use a grammatically correct form of either English or American Sign Language. Rather, professionals use a mixture of oral languages and signed languages or systems, including natural gestures, fingerspelling, body language, and lip-reading—most often paired with some degree of listening and speaking practice.

Mainstreaming and inclusion

Using this educational method, a deaf child attends public school in regular classes for at least part of the school day. Students may receive accommodation, such as itinerant teachers, interpreters, assistive technology, note-takers and aides. The benefits of inclusion include daily interaction with hearing students and the opportunity to live at home; drawbacks include isolation and limited support.

History

John Bulwer, an English physician, wrote five works on bodily human communication (particularly gestures). He was the first person in England to propose educating deaf people, outlining plans for an academy in Philocophus and The Dumbe mans academie.

France

Charles-Michel de l'Épée pioneered deaf education in France. He did charitable work for the poor, and on one trip into the Paris slums saw two young, deaf sisters who communicated with a sign language. Épée then decided to dedicate himself to the education of the deaf, and founded a school in 1760. In line with the philosophy of the time, Épée believed that deaf people were capable of language and developed a system of teaching French and religion. During the early 1760s his shelter became the Institut National de Jeunes Sourds de Paris, the world's first public school for deaf children.

Great Britain

The first school for teaching the deaf to speak and read in Britain was Thomas Braidwood's Academy for the Deaf and Dumb in Edinburgh, established during the 1760s. The school moved to London in 1783, and was known as the Asylum for the Support and Education of the Deaf and Dumb Children of the Poor. Braidwood used an early form of sign language: the combined system, forerunner of British Sign Language (recognized as a language in 2003). Under the management of Braidwood's nephew the school expanded, encouraging the establishment of an Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb in Edgbaston in 1814 and others in Liverpool, Edinburgh, Exeter, Manchester and Doncaster.

United States

Deaf education in the United States began during the early 1800s, when the Cobbs School (an oral school) was established by William Bolling and John Braidwood and the Connecticut Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb (a manual school) was established by Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc. When the Cobbs School closed in 1816, the manual method (which used American Sign Language) became common in deaf schools for most of the rest of the century. During the late 1800s schools began using the oral method, which only allowed the use of speech (in contrast to the manual method previously in place). The oral method was used for many years, until sign-language instruction gradually returned to deaf education.

Issues

Two general methods of deaf education are manualism and oralism. Manualism is instruction using sign language, and oralism uses spoken language. Although controversy has existed since the early eighteenth century about which method is more effective, many deaf-educational facilities attempt to integrate both approaches. The National Association of the Deaf advocates a bilingual approach, to best support deaf students in their education.

United States

All deaf students receive an individualized education program (IEP) outlining how the school will meet the student's individual needs. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires that students with special needs be provided with Free Appropriate Public Education in the least restrictive environment appropriate to the student's needs. Government-run schools provide deaf education in varying degrees, from the least-restrictive setting (full inclusion) to the most restrictive (segregation in a deaf school). Education offered by the school must be appropriate to the student's individual needs; however, schools are not required to maximize the student's potential or provide the best possible services. Like most developed countries, American schools are required to provide medical services (such as speech therapy) if the student needs those services.

Nepal

Deaf children in Nepal have the right to free, qualified education in line with provisions of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD). However, education in a school for the deaf is limited to 13 dedicated schools for the deaf and a slightly-higher number of deaf resource classes in regular schools. All schools and classes are bilingual, with Nepali Sign Language and written Nepali the media of instruction.

Teacher training

Deaf education majors and degree programs offer training and certification in the education of students with a variety of hearing abilities, addressing students' individual differences and needs. Deaf education also includes the study of special education, Deaf studies, education, sign language and Deaf culture (not all programs include the latter two).

United States

United Kingdom

New Zealand

The Netherlands

Deaf education associations