suzmccarth wrote:

>
> --- In qalam@yahoogroups.com, "Peter T. Daniels"
> <grammatim@...> wrote:
>
> > Do you have any idea what this is about?
> >
> > English is no deaf person's native language.
> >
> > If you take away their native language, you are engaging in child abuse,
> > and if the Canadian authorities do not realize this, then they are far
> > more incompetent that the US education departments.
>
> There are some excellent oral language programs in US. and
> many government funded ASL programs here. It is a personal
> decision in both countries. Please do not speculate.
>
> I believe that any further discussion about language choice for
> he deaf and hard of hearing is OT.
>
> I only wanted to say that without learning the oral language,
> literacy is not likely to progress beyond grade 3. If you are aware
> of statistics which counter this, they would be most welcome.

If the children have no native language to start with, they are unlikely
to learn "English" at all anyway.

Again: Why do you suppose "dummy" is a term of abuse?
--
Peter T. Daniels grammatim@...