Re: IMLD, 2/21/05: Braille & sign languages

--- In qalam@yahoogroups.com, "Peter T. Daniels"
<grammatim@...> wrote:

> suzmccarth wrote:

> > In contrast, one of my special students this year who is

severely

> > hearing impaired, but has hearing aids which are supposed

to

> > approximate normal hearing, can only read at a grade two

level, at

> > 11 years of age. She has a high IQ but is just learnig now the
> > phonological, syntactic and semantic skills which are

prerequisite

> > to reading.

> > Her chances of catching up in a hearing world are

considered quite

> > good now so she hasn't learned sign. She may learn it as a

social

> > skill later.
>
> That's child abuse. Is there no Deaf community in Vancouver?

Maybe you are unaware that the *average* deaf or hard of
hearing child finishes high school, at age 17 or 18, with a grade
3 or 4 reading level. This child is going to do much better than
that.

Being able to process a writing system and use it to create
meaning is entirely dependent on the ability to process the
language which the writing system represents.

Suzanne McCarthy