Eliminating Ableism in Education by Thomas Hehir was a very informative article covering three different disabilities. I am familiar with the dual sensory impairment (Hearing impairment and Visual impairment) issues. However, I haven’t come across people with Dyslexia.
Massachusetts is one of the most progressive states in the nation when it comes to special education. Personally, I was involved with deaf blind educator’s community for sometime. I was extremely touched by the amount of effort these teachers put in their students. I took American Sign Language (ASL) classes, level 1 and level 2. I couldn’t complete level 3 which ultimately leads to becoming sign language interpreter. My teacher was Mr. Keohane who is an excellent teacher of ASL and he has been involved with SPED for several years. I took these courses at Perkin’s School for the Blind, located in Watertown, MA. Perkins School of Blind has a history of 183 years. It started out as a home setting in the year 1829 and went on to become a formal school in the year 1832. Check this out: http://www.perkins.org/ Helen Keller was one of the famous students who studied at Perkins along with Laura Bridgeman.
I agree with some of the things Hehir has mentioned in his article. As an ASL student at Perkins, I got to understand how important it is for deaf or hearing impaired people to use signs. Since hearing impaired (HI) people have one of their senses compromised they rely a lot on their vision. They learn sign language immediately and use it efficiently. Some of the deaf people are very proud of their signing skills and their overall ability to live in a hearing world that they refuse to wear hearing aids. It is disheartening to see that ASL is not being used and the entire communication is becoming oral. The HI students in school are forced to lip read and some of them also get cochlear implants. Cochlear implants (CI) are sophisticated hearing aids where the CIs are implanted surgically inside a person’s inner ear (Cochlea). While the new technology has its benefit the older deaf population continues to enjoy their communication through ASL within their community.
I also wanted to share this story I heard on NPR about Dyslexia and recent research on it. Dyslexia is a learning disability, but new research suggests there might also be benefits
Thank you for the post on dyslexia. These are only anecdotal stories, but here you go...
ReplyDeleteI have no idea if dyslexia was involved, but my father did not read until quite late n his schooling (3rd/4th grade) yet in only 6 years of college, he earned his DVM (Dr of Veterenary medicine) degree.
My brother had a lot of problems with written language and was diagnosed with the classic dyslexic symptoms (b, p, q, d - all the same letter type of issue). On the plus side, though his high school english teacher recommended that he not even bother taking the english AP test, he did (incidently he got the highest you can get on it, a 5.) I am glad the english AP had progressed to the point of getting past "sloppy" writing and scored it based on content.
There is a big difference between teaching coping strategies and making assumptions on ability based on a disability. While I absolutely recommend encouraging coping strategies (reading lips, signing, braille, audio books, etc) be sure that you are using them as a strategy, not as a crutch in place of content.