Our doctors are people we trust in. When they
tell us something our first instinct is to
believe them. However, for many Deaf children
this can be what leads their parents astray.
There are three myths almost all doctors will tell their patient when it comes to deafness.
1. Using ASL will damage the auditory tissue
in your brain.
Tawny Holmes works for the National Association of the Deaf.
Tawny: "Hey everyone, good morning!"
She says that most people think audio and visual languages are processed in different parts of
the brain, however research says otherwise.
Tawny: "That means that one part of your brain
is used to understand language and that portion
doesn’t care that it’s signed or visual.
It only matters that the brain actually be
given language."
That would make myth one: BUSTED. The second
says that learning ASL will hurt the child’s
ability to learn to speak.
Beth Benedict works at Gallaudet University and says that ASL does not hurt your ability to learn speech.
Beth: "In fact, research has shown that signing helps with speech development."
Tawny: "One group had cochlear implants and signed while another group had CI’s but
didn't sign. Do you know which group had
the most proficiency when it came to speaking?
The group that signed."
Beth: "It was not just speaking, but the kids
are also reading and writing better than them."
And that decision to wait to give children language while they learn to hear
with their cochlear implants can be detrimental to their development.
Tawny: "Just wait to teach the child? No! Teach
them sign, add in speaking
then you’ll see them flourish."
Beth: "You need language and then you can learn to speak."
This means that when doctors advise against signing, it’s just a preconceived fear that
isn’t actually factual. The most notorious
myth that doctors tell parents are that Deaf children will
graduate from high school reading at a 4th grade level.
Beth: "But not everyone is graduating at a
4th grade reading level. It’s all the from, well
maybe some are from 3rd or 4th grade, but really
it all ranges, all the way up to college."
This statistic was based off of a study done
in 2000 on high school student's SAT scores.
Tawny: "First look at whether the SAT is a
good form of measurement. It would appear
not as less schools are using it. Secondly,
with the 2000 study remember that most of
the high school students at that time would
have been born in 1988. This means they weren’t
being scanned at birth. The average age of detection was two and a half to three years old.
And that meant years of missed language acquisition and time when parents didn’t realize they
needed to be involved. You can’t apply it
to today’s children. Now 95% of Deaf children
are identified at birth."
Beth: "Really there's many factors.
It's because people keep telling kids that,
“Oh, you read at 4th grade reading level? It’s because you’re Deaf.”
But even after a multitude of studies have proven these myths wrong,
Beth: "We're still seeing doctors and audiologists, and medical professionals telling families not to sign.
Many students tell me how they were
raised only speaking because their parents
had no idea ASL was an option."
Gallaudet University houses a renowned research facility that's working to disprove these myths
and the NAD is working to spread that message.
Tawny: "I am going to get in touch with the education advocates."
Those advocates work with the NAD’s Education
Advocates Program.
Tawny: "When it comes to Deaf education or
early intervention they are ready to serve
the community and work with them, together."
Both women agreed that the decision to NOT use American Sign Language is due to myths like these.
There are teams at the NAD and Gallaudet University working to advocate and research how these myths are
actually false. This is the final story in our language
equality series. The goal: to show parents
of Deaf children why a bilingual approach
is most important. You’ll be able to find
these stories and more on our website.
