Unlocking the Curriculum
Johnson et al.
interpreter as he or she attempts to encode what the teacher is saying. In such
circumstances, an interpreter's signing stands little chance of providing an
adequate model of either sign language or English, and without one-to-one
communication the child stands little chance of learning a language. It is our
view that the mainstreaming of deaf children from hearing families is entirely
inappropriate, and that the appropriate placement for them is in environments
where they will be allowed to come in contact with other deaf people and to
acquire a natural language through interaction.
For deaf children of deaf parents who have already acquired age-level
proficiency in a natural sign language, mainstream placements may be less
inappropriate when there is a highly skilled ASL interpreter present. However,
aside from the widespread problem of unavailability of qualified interpreters,
even these children are likely to encounter both social and academic difficulties
stemming from such factors as stigmatization, social isolation, inability of even
the best interpreters to convey everything that is occurring in a classroom, a
general restriction on the child's ability to independently receive information
from peers, and such practical considerations as having to watch the interpreter
while the hearing students may listen and simultaneously perform important
visual tasks, such as reading, looking at diagrams on the board, and so on
(Winston 1988). In addition, it stands to reason that if interpreters are using
ASL, children are again not receiving a model of English.
Stone-Harris (1988) has observed that, in spite of these difficulties, the current
situation within deaf education programs has caused many deaf parents to seek
mainstream placements for their deaf children in order to provide access to at-
grade-level curricular content. If our proposals were successful in providing at-
grade-level content in special programs, such adaptations would be unnecessary
for deaf children of deaf parents.
Description of Major Components
In this section of the paper we describe the components of a model program for the
education of deaf children. A Family Support Program assists in the adaptation and language
learning of deaf children and their families from the time of their identification. A Family-Infant-
Toddler Program provides organized activities and training with the goal of providing a rich
environment for the acquisition of ASL and socio-emotional development. The goal of the
Preschool-Kindergarten Program is to prepare children linguistically, socially, and academically
for entry to a regular primary school curriculum. A cooperative Child Development Center will
provide day-care and linguistic and developmental experiences for children from early childhood
through the third grade. In grades 1 through 12 the aim is to achieve on-grade-level performance
in academic achievement.
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