Deafness Education

Deafness, most simply defined as an inability to hear. This definition, however, gives no real impression of how deafness affects function in society for the hearing-impaired person. The condition affects all age groups, and its consequences range from minor to severe. Profoundly deaf people have a hearing loss so severe that they cannot benefit from mechanical amplification, whereas hard-of-hearing people often can benefit, to varying degrees, from the use of such amplification.

Increasingly, the philosophy of total communication is being followed in schools and classes for deaf children. This philosophy encourages the combined use of whatever communication methods are appropriate to the deaf child, including speech, lip-reading, signing, Cued Speech, finger spelling, art, electronic media, mime, gesture, and reading and writing. Finger spelling is a system in which hand shapes and positions correspond to the letters of the written alphabet, so that finger spelling can be called “writing in the air”. Sign language (SL) is a language based on gestures, lip and eyebrow movements, and grammatical rules. Most countries have their own sign language, each as different as the languages spoken by the hearing are, and many with different dialects. Probably the most widely used is American Sign Language (ASL), which has no grammatical similarities with the English language whatsoever and takes a lot of its vocabulary from Old French Sign Language. British Sign Language (BSL) is used in the United Kingdom, Indian Sign Language in India, New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) in New Zealand, and so on (see Sign Language).

The signs in SL are word-like units with both concrete and abstract meanings. Signs are made by either one or both hands, which assume distinctive shapes and movements. Spatial relations, directions, and orientation of the hand movements, as well as facial expressions and body movement, make up the grammar of SL. A number of invented (that is, not native languages) manual communication systems use the sign vocabulary of SL in combination with other hand movements to approximate the syntax and grammar of Standard English (see Paget-Gorman Sign System). Cued Speech is a system in which eight hand movements indicate the pronunciation of every syllable being spoken. It is a speech-based method that supplements lip-reading. Oral communication is the term used by educators to denote the teaching of speech as an expressive skill to deaf children. It means that speech and lip-reading are the only means of communication used for the transmission of thoughts and ideas.