Reading Methodology for Deaf Children
Supalla
deaf children . Knowing French through the signed medium was thought to help deaf children with learning to read in French ( see Mayer & Wells , 1996 for a similar assumption concerning signed English as used in the United States and Canada ). However , through the test of time educators came to the conclusion that Natural Sign ( the name they gave to the communication system that deaf children used among themselves ) was the better choice ( see S . Supalla & McKee , 2002 for a psycholinguistic explanation on why a sign system modeling the structure of a spoken language is ill-advised and problematic ). Although Natural Sign was not French , the idea of deaf children using a language that worked for them superseded the educators ’ intention of confining deaf education to the French language .
French educator , Roch-Ambroise Bébian initiated the signed language reading movement . The logic was that if Natural Sign is deaf children ’ s language , reading must then be taught in that language ( see Grushkin , 2017 for a similar argument for ASL and deaf children ). Bébian found himself involved in the creation of a writing system called Mimography ( Lane , 1984a ). The term was apparently chosen to reflect Natural Sign ’ s ‘ mimetic ’ characterization involving hand movements . Bébian published work on Mimography in 1817 and 1820 ( Lane , 1984b ; alternatively 1825 as reported in Rée , 1999 ). Bébian can be described as belonging to a new generation of educators that were ready to pursue the concept of signed language reading . While the Paris school for the deaf was established in the 1760s , several decades passed before Bébian came into the picture and the signed language movement began .
In all of the ideas and actions that followed , Bébian did not consider how deaf children could best learn and master written French . There is no report in the literature about French educators recognizing the need for an intermediary system , for example . Although deaf children might learn to read in Natural Sign , they would still need to move towards learning and mastering written French . The idea of a conventional writing system for Natural Sign is feasible , but then deaf children would learn to read in their own language only . They could not repeat the reading process with French due to its status as a spoken language . For French educators , signed language literacy was new at the time . They wanted to focus on the basic idea that deaf children have the opportunity to read in Natural Sign . Any consideration of instructional design for crosslinguistic reading was lacking at the time .
In the United States , any form of contemporaneous signed language reading was curiously absent . There are a few reasons for this . Bébian ’ s publications with Mimography took place after the deaf Frenchman , Laurent Clerc emigrated to the United States to work with the American collaborator , Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet to found the first permanent school for the deaf in Hartford , Connecticut in 1817 . It can be said that American deaf education continued the direction that had taken place in France prior to Bébian ’ s work ( e . g ., by favoring signing as a medium for instruction with deaf children ). Moreover , one unfortunate situation for Bébian in France hampered the transfer of ideas from that country to the United States . Bébian was distraught over how the French school for the deaf was run , and his protests led to his dismissal ( Lane , 1984b ). The loss of Bébian ’ s leadership was profound as signed language reading ceased to be a force .
The divisions among educators that began to emerge in France and elsewhere in the world did not help with the consideration and development of signed language reading . Natural Sign and signing were losing their favored position . The field of deaf education became polarized with oralism vs . manualism as reported in the literature . Educators who advocated oralism favored the use of spoken language with deaf children in the classroom and were in opposition to manualism ( which favored the use of signed language ; Moores , 1996 ). This led to
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