Letters to the Editor

Letters to the Editor incorporated in the Massachusetts block grant, and there is plenty of competition for that grant money. The fiscal problem is not unusual; the service is. COMMENT—Dyslexia, the learning disability affecting millions, may be caused by a disruption of the inner-ear system, theorizes Dr. Harold Levinson of Fresh Meadows, N.Y. Levinson has found that an ear infection in childhood can trigger the genetic tendency to dyslexia. He has also devised a simple test to help diagnose dyslexies before children start school and fall into trouble. COMMENT—A career in Scouting covering 38 years has earned Moran Colburn, Troop 29, Alabama School for the Deaf, national recognition in Civitan Magazine. The Troop has produced 31 Eagle Scouts, built three Trails, and performed their dance routine all over Dixie. Graduates have gone into scout leadership, including two with troops of hearing scouts. COMMENT—Testing newborn babies for hearing impairment is a growing practice today. Its growth has been greatly aided by the Telephone Pioneers and the Infant Hearing Assessment Foundation. The Foundation provides the Peltzman Synap device which monitors brain stem evoked responses from the infant. The device can be administered by trained volunteers, which permits Telephone Pioneer local units to provide the service at low cost. There are other devices and other sponsors , notably Quota International; several service clubs and corporations are aiding IHAF. IHAF reports that in 1981 its 2,000 volunteers screened 22,000 babies, identifying 266 with probable impairment; in 1982,40,000 births and 500 identifications are expected. More than half of the United States and three Canadian provinces have been involved to some degree; 17 states have operating programs. Letters to the Editor To the Editor: This note is to express our appreciation for the very fine work the staff of the Annals accomplished in preparing the November 1981, monograph issue on the EPIC Project. Kathleen Clarke is to be complimented for her work in handling the manuscript, figures, and tables under pressure of deadline. She found some important errors the guest editor had overlooked. Donald R. Calvert, Director Central Institute for the Deaf To the Editor: This is in response to an article published by Patricia R. Bockmiller in the October 1981, issue of the American Annals of the Deaf, "Hearing -Impaired Children: Learning to Read a Second Language." Bockmiller apparently believes that where ASL is accepted as a legitimate language , learning of English for reading will automatically occur along the lines of English acquisition by bilingual children from homes where the language in use is not English. This is a premature and unwarranted supposition which attempts to compare populations with vastly different facilities for learning speechbased language. In research, statistically significant differences are the only ones that should be reported and/or considered important. Bockmiller apparently does not believe this dictum. She reports research on scholastic abilities which compares hearing-impaired children with ASL as their primary language and other hearing-impaired children. The data show no statistically significant differences. Bockmiller insists that the trend was for the ASL children to be better. This type of extrapolation is unacceptable in research. No one disputes the fact that English language competence is necessary for acquisition of fluent reading skills. Trybus and Karchmer (Report T-2, Office of Demographic Studies, Gallaudet College, 1978), for example, present data which support the fact that children who understand and use sign more than speech are poorer readers than those who understand and use speech more in their environment. These conclusions are shown to hold even when the effect of the actual hearing level, preschool programming and socioeconomic status are parceled out. The simplistic view that Bockmiller advocates that acceptance of ASL as the natural language of the deaf will somehow magically, as it were, cause improvement of reading skills and the 316 A.A.O. I June 1982 Letters to the Editor teaching of those skills is simply not supported by the data she presents. I suggest Dr. Bockmiller reexamine her motives for advocating this thesis and that she withhold her personal bias until such time as data support the position she is trying to advocate. Richard G. Stoker Pennsylvania State University To...