Turning the Tide: Making Life Better for Deaf and Hard of Hearing School Children

9: Turning the Tide:Making Life Better

196 9 Turning the Tide: Making Life Better “As other researchers in the deaf education world have observed, placement decisions, unfortunately, have little to do with learning.” (Ramsey, 1997, pp. 115–116) It is so clear to us what needs to be done. We are not saying it will be easy, but we think it is clear. In this final chapter we offer broad recommendations for systemic change and specific recommendations for changes for families and schools that will impact positively on the lives of deaf and hard of hearing children and youth. Our focus, as it has been throughout this book, is on making life better for those who are alone in general education settings. Broad Systemic Recommendations Many individuals (of various professional backgrounds, workplaces , and persuasions) are involved in supporting deaf and hard of hearing children and their families.These individuals often are only aware of their own narrow professional niches, and associate mostly with others from the same professional niche. What would it be like if individuals whose common goal was to improve education and lives for deaf and hard of hearing children and their families actually talked and worked together on Making Life Better 197 a more regular basis? What would it be like if instead of looking for differences in approaches, we looked for commonalities? For the maximum well-being of deaf and hard of hearing children, there must be a gigantic increase in the connectivity of all entities. This collaboration can be undertaken at the state level or federal level, or it can be initiated by an organization. The National Summit on Deaf Education has begun this work, and it needs to be continued. Those with usually minimal knowledge of issues affecting deaf and hard of hearing children, such as federal and state policy makers, public school administrators, special education directors, and those involved in the general audiology-speech professions must partner with those who have specialized training. They must partner with administrators of schools and programs for deaf and hard of hearing children, with faculty and graduates of Deaf Education/Deaf Studies/ Educational Interpreting programs, and with advocacy organizations such as the National Organization of the Deaf (NAD), A. G. Bell, Hands & Voices, and the American Society for Deaf Children (ASDC). People who typically do not talk to each other about their common concerns for deaf and hard of hearing children must start doing so in a significant way to reduce the fragmentation that pervades the system. One of their first efforts can be to take a hard look at the current situation of deaf and hard of hearing children who are widely dispersed throughout the general education system, and identify the activities or functions needed to support them. From these identified needed supports we envision the development of a new profession, the “Educational Specialist–DHH.” The creation of this new profession is our second system-wide recommendation. Gallaudet University, Rochester Institute of Technology, and other universities with existing programs can and should participate in this effort to define, envision, and build this profession. The goal is to give all deaf and hard of hearing children (including those who are the only deaf or hard of hearing student in their schools) a professional within the school system who knows about education, language development, and social development of deaf and hard of hearing children and whose primary role is to follow these children throughout their school careers. There are many 198 Turning the Tide possible roles for this new professional, but we feel a large role must be advocacy, needed for academics, for extracurricular and incidental learning, and for the IEP process. This new profession will include knowledge of issues and skills to support learning (particularly language acquisition issues), interpreting (not how to interpret, but principles and evaluation thereof), assistive technology, social skills, culture, social capital, and educational law. Skills at working with parents, coordinating events, connecting deaf and hard of hearing students with each other, and being aware of community support and resources should all be a part of their responsibilities, as well as advocating for students and the teachers and interpreters who support them. Right now, in public schools all over the country, there are too many professionals providing deaf and hard of hearing children with 15 minutes of service here, 15 minutes of service there, and often none of them knows much about the whole picture. Services are much...