Kelanie Cuadrado Ms. Duncan English 4/P.2 (March 20th 2013) Deaf Isolation Can you imagine being in a school with kids who are completely different from you? The feeling you would get if you visited another country for the first time. Uncomfortable and nervous, Right? You feel like you don’t belong. When you feel like you do not belong, what do you do? You isolate yourself from the others. This is a feeling that many Deaf children face nowadays. Deaf students tend to do better when they associate with other Deaf students, rather than Deaf students who are isolated in schools. Many People do not realize how much of a struggle a Deaf child can go through when they are put in a public school with no other Deaf students. In many ways, deafness is hardest on children. Talking is not something that you are born with. As the years go by you learn new words by hearing it spoken by parents and peers.” Deaf children struggle with communicating far longer than hearing children, as they must be taught sign language and the ability to read lips.” (Jenkins, RN). A con can be the deaf child will feel very shy. “He/she may not know how to communicate with the hearing children. This can cause emotional side effects. The child may become upset or sad.”(Jenkins, RN). Wouldn’t you feel sad if you couldn’t tell your friends something when you really wanted to? Think about how a toddler acts when you cannot understand them. Frustrated right? There are many cons to a deaf child going to a mainstream school without any deaf children there. One major con is they will face isolation big time. If the teacher does not have any experience or training in working with deaf children, it can create problems with the teacher and student. It will cause both teacher and student to become frustrated. The teacher may show videos without closed captions or go over notes too fast. Yes, the student has an interpreter but sometimes it is very difficult for the Deaf student to look at 3 places at the same time to try to comprehend on what is going on. “This can cause the student to miss out on important lesson, embarrassment and feeling left out.” (Jenkins, RN). When two people are talking, it is hard to switch between them and catch all that is said. Even though the Deaf students know that the hearing friends weren’t trying to leave him / her out, it still can cause a great deal of frustration and anger that would eventually culminate in an outburst. (Britton) This can lead to the student feeling very left out and getting attached to the sign language interpreter. “Relying on the interpreter to do things such as advocate for them or become used to just talking with the interpreter and shutting everyone else out. The deaf student may not feel the need to try anymore.” (Britton) “Another con about being the only deaf student in the whole school is that they will not get the chance to have older Deaf role models.” (Britton) This is needed help the student become more confident in themselves. They see that someone else was able to achieve it and they realize they can do it too. It’s important to allow deaf students to connect with other deaf students. By allowing Deaf students to communicate, it helps the student learn more about the deaf culture and much more. When a school has a deaf program, this is a huge impact on the student’s education. The student will be allowed to mingle with other peers like them. This will raise the self-esteem much higher. They will try harder to impress their peers. The student will not feel the need to hide who they are. Another pro is that schools that have a deaf program have more services for the deaf student and more resources. “Teachers are trained and used to working with a deaf student in the classroom so it creates fewer frustrations.” (Izzo) Also teachers will be required to provide the proper help for the deaf students since there is more than one deaf student. For example showing a movie without closed captions will not be allowed because the teacher has to accommodate five of her other deaf students, versus accommodating one deaf student. Most schools that have a deaf program tend to set up an American Sign Language class (ASL). This is an amazing thing. Many hearing students will want to learn ASL. “Then eventually there will be more hearing students who can communicate with the Deaf students. This will allow both the hearing student and deaf student to learn more about each other and interact.” (Izzo) “The schools will also pay more money for deaf devices that are needed such as hearing aids, Fm systems, interpreters, Vp phones and much more.”(Izzo) These devices are to make sure that the deaf students get equal access as the hearing students. There are multiple solutions to prevent Deaf children from being isolated. One is more schools should be required to have a Deaf program. What this will do is allow Deaf students to hang around with other Deaf or hard of hearing students. If more schools had a deaf program, then Deaf students wouldn’t have to spread out to different schools and become isolated. Having a deaf program will also allow Deaf students to mingle and discuss their issues together. More schools should have ASL classes. This is a great experience for both hearing and Deaf students. The hearing students will have an opportunity to learn a new language and be able to talk to the Deaf students. Neither will have a hard time communicating with each other. Hearing students will learn more about the Deaf culture and Deaf students will learn more about hearing culture. “As you can see, deaf students have a better chance in doing better in education if they go to a school that accommodates deaf children. They also do better when there is a greater amount of deaf students enrolled in a school.” (Izzo) They have no need to impress the hearing children. They simply have their own little group. “Sometimes when there is more than one deaf student in the class, the hearing students will feel the urge to try to communicate with the deaf students instead of bullying one particular student. “ (Gilliam) Teachers will put more effort and get more experience with interacting with the deaf group and maybe even learn sign language. The most important part will be the deaf students get the education they deserve. They will not be left behind or treated different. They will not feel the need to hide under a rock. They will not feel like aliens on another planet. They will simply fit in with their own deaf group. They will feel like they are as normal as any other student. When in reality that is the truth. They are no different.
Posted on: Mon, 10 Jun 2013 00:47:23 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015