Deaf, Five Years Old, and Deprived of Language in Russia
Sunday August 12, 2007
Russia's newspaper, the Kommersant, has an article on a deaf five year old girl (Aug. 11, 2007) who is unable to communicate although she can write her name. The paper is trying to help raise funds to get her a cochlear implant. Two important statements from the same paragraph: "They don't want her to know sign language because children who learn to express themselves in sign do not understand why they should express themselves with sound, even if they begin to hear. " and "...the state accepts only children under two in its waiting list for cochlear implants. Then the children remain on the waiting list for years and they never get implants."
Only children under two accepted? Long waiting lists? Does this mean that Russia has a generation of deaf children growing up who are being denied language while waiting to get a state-funded cochlear implant that they never get? How many Vikas are there in Russia?
Comments
Perhaps you would like to send a copy of
your blog to Sociologist Yerker Adnersson (see his email address in
Gallaudet Alumni Directory) as well
as to WFD (World Federation of the
Deaf). Deprivation of a deaf child’s
birthright sign language is morally
and ethically WRONG. Period.
most deaf kids uses russian sign language this is a rare case, russian federation of the deaf should be aware of it.
I would be prepared to go and teach sign language to deaf children