Program Corrects Problems Deaf Students Have Reading, Writing
Some students graduate from high school reading at a third grade level. But they aren't who you might think. These students are not less intelligent than their classmates, nor are they poor students. They are deaf.
Connie Schimmel, associate professor at Millsaps College, Jackson, Mississippi, and Sandra Edwards, adjunct professor at Millsaps, have developed an innovative program -- the first of its kind -- to correct problems deaf children have with reading and writing English.
And it's working. After as little as six hours of instruction, some students have jumped whole grade levels.
The program allows hearing people access to American Sign Language (ASL) and deaf children access to the English language. Its successful results will be published in the October issue of the American Annals of the Deaf.
"The whole program is very easy for hearing people and easy for the deaf. It really is a bridge. It's fun. The kids beg for us to read to them. Their faces light up and things start to make sense when people think about both languages and how they connect," explains Edwards. The program's success has now spread to public as well as residential schools in New York, California, Texas, Louisiana, Missouri, Florida and Arkansas.
"One of the most appealing positives about our program is its accountability. The program measures everything it teaches," says Schimmel. "Teachers like to know when they make a difference in a child's life. And the kids like to know that their hard work is paying off. Administrators like the program because they can see results and show people they are helping children."
The program, which was administered to 48 elementary school students at the Mississippi residential school for the deaf, utilizes five components: phonemic awareness, Adapted Dolch word lists, Bridge lists, reading comprehension and ASL development/language experience stories.
Phonemic awareness refers to understanding how to "sound out" written English. Many educators do not even expect deaf children to utilize phonemes when reading English, since they suppose deaf children cannot hear vowels or consonants.
"On the other hand," says Schimmel, "most educators would also conclude that learning to read English by sight only is impossible for any child."
Schimmel and Edwards adapted Dolch word lists to link words with different English meanings with appropriate ASL signs. For example, "can" is a Dolch word with more than one connotation: "Can I go with you?" or "May I have a can of Coke?" While hearing children learn these differences upon hearing them, deaf children must see each different meaning in context in order to acquire it.
"It's exciting. Even the teachers benefit. By the time the classroom gets through those two lists, the teacher is signing differently and is more accommodating to the student's needs," says Schimmel.
Bridge lists are new signs created to "bridge" English and ASL. "Sign codes were developed by hearing people to teach kids English," says Schimmel, "Since they generally favor English, it's not as easy on the visual system for a deaf child to process." Bridging allows a person to sign phrases conceptually rather than word for word. For example, if a parent signed "put out the fire" word for word as the sign code would require, they would literally be signing, "pick up the fire and put it outside."
"Bridge lists are exciting because hearing people begin to understand when their signing doesn't make sense, and the lists provide guidance on how to sign more conceptually. It allows teachers to make more of an effort to make a better attempt at translating English for a deaf child," adds Edwards.
The other program components evaluate the students as they improve, using interactive exercises and written stories.
"We're taking the best of both worlds," says Schimmel. "We take the best of the visual processing system and match it with access to English. It's truly a bicultural, bilingual attempt to teach reading."
For more information, please contact Schimmel by phone at (601) 974-1353 or by email at [email protected].
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