Sign language for All Deaf Learners – Wednesday 22nd September
“Acquisition of sign language from birth from fluent sign language models is critical to the cognitive and social development of deaf children. A strong foundational language is necessary to learn other languages. As many deaf children are born into families who are not yet sign language users, services must be in place to provide sign language learning and support to families so that they can become fluent sign language users.”
Refresh from the previous blog dated 20th September 2021. There was a paragraph that mentioned language deprivation in Deaf children to youths. The loss of the health services, Deaf Services Trust, Deaf clubs and sports, Deaf Education for the Deaf Children and the list were partially due to the financial need to continue running, promoting, and high cost of the technology. What about the Deaf Church Ministry and the Outreach Services?
Before the 1880s, D/deaf children and people used sign language to communicate with their family members and staff in their community, including the church. A few other people who never met D/deaf people/children before learned to sign language to allow each other to understand the conversation in the markets, church, and home. In many books, Jean read through and came across that the communication was mainly a blackboard and chalk, gestures, audism and sign language. After the 1880s, everything changed as the banned of sign language in education forced many Deaf children to use oralism. D/deaf and D/deaf with disabilities people sign language to continue between the D/deaf person and family members, friends and the parishioners in their homes and the churches. Keeping the sign language is fortunate to continue to use sign language alive as part of the D/deaf and D/deaf with disabilities people lives.
What about other countries like Nicaragua, Africa or the Pacific Islands? The D/deaf children in Nicaragua never saw any sign language because their parents and the local doctor never mentioned sign language or to heard about the Deaf people. The sign languages were not exposed in public or by the family members of the D/deaf child before discovering one group of D/deaf children in the isolated villages and never met any other Deaf children in the different regions. These D/deaf children developed their own ‘home signs’ in broad concepts to communicate with their family members until a small group of linguists team including Kegl. Yes, the Nicaragua School for the Deaf used the teaching method were oralism until the 19th century. This teaching method changed to sign language because many D/deaf children could sign freely to their family members and D/deaf friends. Today the Nicaraguan children continue to sign language in their unique language to carry on to the next generation.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/what-is-nicaraguan-sign-language
https://nicaraguansignlanguageprojects.org/Home_Page.php
All D/deaf learners must continue to sign language to everyone. Other people should learn from the D/deaf children and youths what we need to encourage the services and the Government, like the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education, to hear our need for the Deaf community. We, D/deaf and D/deaf with disabilities people do not want the services for all D/deaf people to stop running or lose the value of using the best services and Deaf Education in the next generation. Jean knows several places have cut back or closed down, making many D/deaf and D/deaf with disabilities people’s lives harder and finding it difficult to get help in the UK, in the USA, in Europe and here in New Zealand. For example, there were two Deaf Education for the Deaf, and now it has merged into one Deaf Education for the Deaf in here. In the Māori Deaf community, D/deaf Māori is learning to use te Reo sign language concepts like the one Jean mentions about the Nicaraguan children.
