- "I am a deaf student who has attended both public schools and deaf schools throughout my school life. I have benefited from both. Not only did I learn to sign ASL fluently but I have made friends from hearing world as well as the deaf world. I remember observing a bulletin at the Deaf school. The display case showed students' written work for the world to see. I don't remember the exact phrase only that it was loaded with grammatical errors. How embarassing for the deaf community. No wonder the hearing community views the hearing-impaired as "deaf and dumb."
All too often the deaf community debates on whether English Sign is better than ASL or vise-versa. They are both important. It does not have to be one or the other!! When I was little I was enrolled in a day care program that used Pure English Signs. PSE. Later I picked up ASL. I can barely remember any of the signs I learned from those years in the day care program. Yet, it doesn't matter, learning PSE early on, helped me learn how to write well. Writting is something that alot of deaf children have a problem with. I bet that all of my former classmates of the deaf program can write at a level even with their hearing peers or better.
ASL is a great and beautiful language, yet is it more important than the ability to write?? I am sure that there are grammatical errors in this posting. Yet, PSE will teach the basic structure and placement of nouns, verbs, and objects that deaf students are so slow to comprehend. This education must start in kindergarden, not in 12th the grade. "
— JUGGLEMAN
—FREEINCHRIS1
"Yes I agree with you completely. I am currently a sign languageinterpreter and I have deaf parents. My family always used ASL along with a little bit of SEE, but not much. Anyway I freelance and I interpret at a city college. The skills of these deaf students are just devestating. Most of them dont even have a sixth grade reading level. This makes it hard for the students to even follow the interpreter, much less keep up in class. I also have deaf friends that have grown up using SEE and it benefits. However most ASL teachers will disagree."
—SABLYNN81
"My daughter's first sign language is SEE. She reads and writes beautifuly. She is in the 5th grade and in a public school for her second year. She reads at the 8th grade level. "
—JEFFRO580
"If you look at the statistics, you will find that the majority of deaf people come from hearing families which made no attempt to provide there deaf child with any form of language (ASL, SEE, English, even Spanish) prior to the child entering school. You will also deaf children from deaf families tend to have higher language skills including higher reading skills. It is not SEE or ASL that really matters. It is providing the child with a basic way to communicate, a primary language during those early formative years that is crucial.
I see many Hispanic deaf kids who pick up English reading and writing skills faster than the deaf children born here to hearing parents. Although they have never signed before coming to the US they do good basic skills in Spanish and speech read Spanish well so have a language to communicate with and base their learning of English language on.
—LISA_POOH
"I am deaf and I attended both hearing and deaf schools. I am now an English and math tutor for the deaf at a major hearing university. My native language is English, though my primary means of communication today is ASL, I didn't learn to sign until I was 14 years of age. I first signed using the PSE (Pidgin Signed English) mode, but then I switched over to ASL when I started attending Gallaudet.
I have to agree with your suggestion that ASL is not exactly a boon to English, however, I have to disagree with your insinuation (my assumption) that signed English is ALWAYS the ONLY way to go when teaching deaf children. From my experience with tutoring deaf college students I have noticed mostly very poor English skills among those who graduated from a deaf school and poor to excellent English skills among those who graduated from a deaf oral school or a hearing school. However, I have also noticed that many deaf students are high level visual learners and these particular deaf students are those who seem to struggle with English the most,
