The Education of Deaf Children: Issues, Theory and Practice (review)

Reviews During a span of 10 years Mrs. Cooper, a deaf housewife living in rural Kansas, has produced 16 books of prose and poetry, most of which she wrote herself. Directed primarily to those who have problems with hearing loss, these two books offer a variety of observations, from everyday rural life to professional articles on medical aspects of hearing loss. Mrs. Cooper expresses in her writings an optimistic viewpoint about handicaps of aU kinds, as well as that of loss of hearing. These books, lavishly provided with photographs of her life and activities, as well as of VIPs around the nation, should be made available to hearing-impaired children, for they provide not only information but encouragement and hope from one who has more than her share of the problems. Howard Quigley 4201 Massachusetts Ave., N. W. Washington, DC 20016 The Education of Deaf Children: Issues, Theory and Practice, Stephen P. Quigley and Robert E. Kretschmer , 127 pp., $12.95, University Park Press, 300 North Charles St., Baltimore, MD 21201. The publisher chaUenged the authors to put the major issues and research activity into one compact book short enough to be read in a single sitting. The reader may not feel the authors have effectively responded to that charge, but he or she must admire their courage for trying. The principal topics they cover are language development; manual communication; educational setting; cognitive development; educational achievement; and personal, social, and occupational adjustments. They cite 265 references to support their contentions that they have chosen the enduring issues in the education of deaf children and have sampled representative research. Aside from making occasional errors (e.g., confusing incidence with prevalence data and not distinguishing between retrospective and prospective research designs), the authors write lucidly. They define many troublesome terms, and the conclusions they have drawn from their reviews of the literature are modest. Teachers of deaf children assessing the text will be unhappy that, despite the subtitle's promise, the text gives almost no attention to educational practices. Teachers might argue that multiple handicaps, speech development, and self-image development should not be completely ignored or given so little attention. These same teachers, however , would probably recommend this book to those for whom educating deaf children has only tangential interest and for whom an introduction to this difficult field is sufficient. Jerome D. Schein, Ph.D. New York University New York, NY10003 A Curriculum for Multiply Disabled Hearing-Impaired Students, Phase 1, Doris Naiman, Ph.D., 179 pp., $13.95, National Association of the Deaf, 814 Thayer Avenue, Silver Spring, MD 20910, 1983. I was very pleased with Phase 1 of this curriculum . Of particular interest to me was the breakdown of the lesson plan. Not being a trained teacher myself, I still found the lesson easy to follow and logical in its steps. It gave me a sense of direction and a starting point on how to teach specific concepts to a challenging population. The plan was also general enough so that teachers could modify it to meet their particular needs and to expand it to other concept areas. The goals of the curriculum are excellent as they are consistent with skills needed by all individuals for virtually every task. With our older students, we have begun to focus more directly on remediating cognitive skills and focusing less on contact. The developmental approach proposed in this curriculum can only help strengthen these cognitive skills. John Snavlin, M.S.W. Maryland School for the Deaf Columbia, MD 21044 A.A.D. I August 1983 443 ...