Reading, Special Education, and Deaf Children
Supalla & Byrne
Discussion and Conclusion
In reviewing all of the different considerations for supports in teaching reading to deaf
children, problems for both instruction and assessment become apparent. The importance of
recognizing that English text is restrictive for deaf children cannot be emphasized enough. Deaf
children must have the opportunity to learn to read which is best accomplished through signed
language-based texts accessed through ASL gloss. Both English and ASL support approaches are
plagued by problems because of the use of English texts. In addition, with English support
approaches, special education holistically fails to address the serious implications of using spoken
language with deaf children. This includes not taking into consideration the concept of linguistic
accessibility and the status of ASL as a signed language. In theory, reading becomes unattainable
with no working or natural language in place.
With ASL support, teachers of the deaf have their hands tied by their special education
training. Such teachers cannot venture into signed language reading or ASL gloss, as it means the
use of non-English text. Subject for discussion later, such supports would cease to exist when deaf
children can read in their own language. This offers as a plausible explanation for the common
practice of teachers settling on the practice of translating books into ASL for deaf children.
Reading is deemed as a 'hearing thing' in this context and obviously a wrong perception, but has
been widely spread among teachers of the deaf (S. Supalla, et al., 2017). The default ideology is
deaf children have reading difficulties and must be provided with the information through
translation. Thus, deaf children receive support from ASL and become part of the flawed special
education framework.
For clarification, the Arizona charter school, where ASL gloss originated, included some
translation, but it was done differently than what is reported for the ASL support approach. For
example, at the Arizona charter school, a limited but specific type of translation which changed
regular books into glossed books was used. The interlinear translation practice at the charter school
falls in line with the Universal Design for Learning framework. Ralabate (2011), a prominent UDL
scholar, explained that translation constitutes a vital way of manipulating text. Deaf children end
up reading a much needed ASL-like text. With the glossed books, there is no need to support deaf
children because the text is already accessible and facilitates deaf children's learning. A plan for
learning and curriculum supports the ASL gloss approach and actually works around the
curriculum. This is a big difference. Again, ASL gloss is not just designed for reading in ASL, but
for deaf children to have an effective means of transitioning to written English as their second
language.
The current situation for the education of deaf children in the United States without ASL
gloss is dire. Extensive reviews of the literature on reading research in deaf education have
concluded that the criteria, or level of evidence, for the literacy recommendations is limited or
lacking (i.e., Easterbrooks, 2010; Guardino, Cannon, & Eberst, 2014; Luckner, Bruce, & Ferrell,
2015; Schirmer & McGough, 2005; Trezek & Wang, 2017). The fact that these findings are in the
context of the English and ASL support approaches is not surprising.
Why are supports so important to special education? It is interesting that the notion of
'support' has an affiliation with the field of mental retardation (Wehmeyer, 2003), which in itself
has implications for the education of deaf children. It is plausible, because of special education's
obligation to serve all children with disabilities, including those with cognitive impairments, that
the consideration for cognition may unintentionally be grounded in deaf education. Historically,
cognition was once used against children who suffer a cognitive impairment as they would not
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