Letter to the Editor

Letter to the Editor ASL to English Literacy My name is Max. I am the hearing parent of a son rendered profoundly deaf at 11 months after a bout with pneumococcal meningitis. My wife and I started sign class two months later. Our parent /infant advisor measured a one-year language gain using the Ski Hi LDS for our son during the summer of 1991; giving us all the evidence we needed to continue signing with our son. In the summer of 1992 I heard Margaret Finnegan present a lecture on ASL and Bi-Bi education. My postconference correspondence with her included a question about how ASL fluency translated into English literacy. Later that summer, at a different conference , I asked a group of deaf and hearing people how ASL would help my son in college when he studied Organic Medicinal Chemistry. (My point being, what is the sign for "organic," "medicinal ," or for "chemistry"?) My answer came in the form of a demonstration of the beauty of ASL by a deaf man. In the fall of 1993, I asked a panel of deaf adults how they learned words like "plethora," "minuscule," "oblivious," and "tenuous." I told that I was frustrated with sign because of my own limitations in using it, not because of the limitations of the language. That fall my son was due for his 3 year assessment. English language delays were apparent. He was deficient in verb conjugation, pronouns, naming body parts, articles, "to be" verbs, and contractions. None of these exist in ASL. How does ASL fluency translate into English literacy? At this point I am developing a case of "Hearing Signing Neurosis" (HSN); a hearing person committed to sign yet frustrated by its limitations. ASL won't allow me to label the names of cars on my street, the food in my refrigerator, or the names of trees in my yard. ASL won't allow my son to differentiate between old and elderly (an assessment question designed to elicit a more advanced vocabulary). I am not alone in this "HSN." Look at all the codes and invented systems that have appeared since PL 94-142. More and more hearing teachers, parents, and administrators are using sign and we have all followed the number one language rule—when the language doesn't meet the needs of the user, the user changes the language. (Pinker, 1994). In the summer of 19961 heard Mark Bernstein discuss children storytelling and their developing schemata. I gathered that the schema encompasses various literacy skills like sequence, cause and effect, setting, and characters. The child storyteller used ASL. But as the hearing parent of a deaf child I am also keenly aware that a story rendered in ASL is devoid of English articles, typical conjunctions, pronouns, and vocabulary like "cottage," "porridge," and "Goldilocks." I am stuck wondering how ASL fluency translates into English literacy. This past summer, I attended a workshop outlining a wonderful Bi-Bi program here in Texas. It has expanded from preschool through 2ndgrade and school officials expect to add another grade each year. Communication is paramount in the classroom. Team-teaching with regular education and deaf education occurs in reverse mainstream classrooms. A wonderful situation. They are doing even more wonderful stuff in the parent/infant program. A deaf adult is the parent advisor and makes weekly home visits. A level 5 interpreter also makes weekly home visits teaching the family ASL. A model program, no doubt. My only concern is that Jean Andrews at Lamar University is doing a lot of Bi-Bi research with this program. How do you attribute the successes of the kids to ASL fluency when so much of the data are contaminated with the emphasis on fluent communication (regardless of mode), and a strong early parent education program that is the single most important factor for the success of any deaf kid. My bias is obvious. These kids could be using flag semaphore as the communication vehicle and still be achieving. This past summer I also heard Robert Hoffmeister present some of his research . He is trying to compare MCE with ASL and which students do better. He is finding a lot...