In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Bilingual vs. Oral Education Academic Achievement Levels in Deaf Eighth-Graders from Two Decades Kerstin Heiling 12 DURING THE first two-thirds of this century oral methods prevailed in the education and upbringing of deaf children in Sweden. The children were expected to rely on lipreading, use of residual hearing, and speech for communication . During this period most deaf children had virtually no functionallanguage , spoken or signed, when they started school. In the late 1960s, however, attitudes toward sign language began to change, and in 1973 the preschool and audiological staff of the schools in the southernmost county of Sweden introduced a systematic use of signs in special preschools for deaf children. A supplement to the nation's Curriculum for Compulsory Education (LGR 80 1980, 1983) documented the decade 's attitude shift by resolving that education in schools for the deaf should be bilingual-sign language and Swedish. The implementation of the 1980 resolution enabled researchers, for the first time, to study the language development of a fairly large group of deaf children who had had access to sign communication as early as the preschool period, or even before. Since most children in this group have hearing parents, the group represented the general population of deaf children better than deaf children of deaf parents who had been studied before. The effects of early access to sign communication, therefore, could be better generalized . METHOD The research reported here was carried out within the framework of a number of longitudinal investigations in which the development of prelingually deaf children who were exposed to sign language at preschool age was studied and documented (Norden, Preisler, and Heiling 1979). These researchers collected data by videotaping and observing the children four to ten times a year in natural situations in preschool and school. They also assessed the children through a series of more formal observations and tests, ending with a comprehensive testing program in grade eight at the age of fifteen. The program, comprised mainly of Swedish-language, mathematical, and 141 142 KERSTIN HElLING Table 12.1. Average Hearing Losses (dB HL 2S0-4000Hz) --60 dB -70 dB -80 dB 6 -90 dB 7 -100 dB 7 >100 dB 18 N 40 numerical ability tests, had been used before in a nationwide study of deaf pupils in the 1960s (Norden 1975). From 1985 to 1989, Heiling tested all J?Upils in the eighth grade at the School for the Deaf in Lund. This chapter reports a study that compares these test results (1985-89) with results from similar testing of deaf eighth-graders during the 1960s. This comparison study sought to answer a most essential question: Did the level of academic achievement in deaf pupils improve after sign communication was introduced in school and preschool education? Subjects The 1985 to 1989 testing assessed twenty-one boys and nineteen girls, each born between 1970 and 1974. The majority of the children had average hearing losses greater than 93 dB HL (see Table 12.1). Two pupils with moderate hearing losses had specific language disorders, as well, and had attended the School for the Deaf since starting school. The cause of hearing loss was hereditary in four subjects; eight were cleaf due to maternal rubella; three were deaf due to CMV infection and six as a result of prematurity often in combination with asphyxia at birth; one child was born with hydrocephalus; and three had suffered from meningitis in their early years. The cause was unknown or uncertain for the remaining fifteen. A total of eleven pupils (25 percent) had additional physical problems (e.g., motor disturbances, visual problems, or specific language disorders), which influenced their learning ability and behavior to a greater or lesser degree. Psychosocial problems did exist but are not reported in this study Subjects' Introduction to Sign Language When the systematic use of sign communication was introduced in the special kindergarten groups for deaf and hard of hearing children, preschool staff as well as hearing parents used so-called simultaneous communication, that is, signs and speech at the same time. The children-with a few exceptions -had had no access to sign communication before joining a special preschool group, or even until they began at the School for the Deaf. In other words, the children had access to signs at rather varying ages (see Table 12.2). Some started preschool relatively late; others moved in from areas where sign language was not equally accepted. A few had residual hearing, [18.218.127.141...

Share