Wednesday, April 16, 2008

ASL students educate a hospital about Bilingualism

This is a great video created by ASL students at the University of Penn. There are quotes about the benefit of bilingualism incorporated with different video clips (from movies, TV, and YouTube). These ASL students will be using this film to educate staff members at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, a leading hospital for cochlear implants.
Hooray! *hand waving*

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am a little confused about your vlog presenting deaf with CI and sign language. It sounds to me like cochlear implants keep running and add to sign language for Deaf babies and children.

Not all Deaf with CI or hearing aids have a hard time picking up spoken words through their auditory. How do they access to communicate in English words?

I do support Deaf with CI or hearing aids who should have to right to access in ASL communication for the reason they don’t understand how to catch words in their minds.

Floridagirl

Anonymous said...

Not all Deaf with CI or hearing aids have a hard time picking up spoken words through their auditory. (missed typing) I consider if they stay training speech and aural without ASL as language.

Floridagirl

K.L. said...

That was a beautiful video.

Shel90 said...

I agree with this video. All deaf children should have the same rights to full access to language just like hearing children do. I was able to pick up on spoken language just fine as an oral deaf child but I did NOT have equal access to communication and information as my hearing peers did. That, itself, took a toll on my linguistic and socio-emotional well-being. Since learning ASL, I was able to make up for those lost years and finally develop into this confident woman that I deserve to be.

Anonymous said...

I fully support a bilingual approach in ASL and spoken English for deaf children with CI. I can see that it does help my child pick up spoken English quickly using ASL as a bridge since her CI was activated. She already knew a few hundreds of words in ASL as a toddler when her CI was activated. Her therapists including AVT were amazed at her fast progress in spoken language and thought that she has been progressing more quickly than most other children who received a CI at the same age and who don't use ASL.

My child is taking advantage of both auditory and visual languages. Why limit to only one language?

However, most of hearing parents aren't native ASL users and would rather stick to their own spoken language that they know best at home. So, they train their CI child in the spoken language as much as possible and some of them would keep signing until their children catch up with the spoken language. Those children would not be left out in their hearing family using the spoken language. So I can't blame the parents but it s still a good idea to keep encouraging them to learn at least some ASL as a backup in case the CI gets broken, lost, or fails!

A CICDA Member

Abbie said...

This is a great video for a great hospital! I had my CI surgery done right next door at the Hospital of the University of PA and they are fantastic team over there as well.

Deaf children, whether they wear a CI or a HA, should have equal access of to both languages. They deserve to be challenged just as hearing children are.