Why Schools for Deaf Children Should Hire Deaf Teachers: A Preschool Issue

Abstract

First languages are assumed to be learned in the home. Since 90 to 97 percent of Deaf children are born to hearing parents who do not know American Sigh Language (ASL), their first exposure to ASL will be in the school setting. Deaf children will spend approximately 50 percent of their waking hours with teachers, who are their main language models. However, a substantial number of teachers of the Deaf report that they learned to sign from their students, only 45 percent of teachers claim they can sign as well as their students, and only 33 percent claim to understand their student's signing as well as they understand English. Moreover, over the years, educators created a variety of manual codes for English (MCE) in the mistaken notion that manually coding English would promote literacy in English. However, studies have shown that the key to reading and writing success was students'knowledge of ASL and ASL discourse as well as the ability to use ASL to approach learning the second language. The key to educational success for Deaf children lies in their being taught in a truly bilingual manner. Bilingual education has been shown to be successful if the first language is strong and there are adequate language models present. Thousands of Deaf children are currently being taught by the impoverished MCE model and by hearing teachers who could not pass the native signing requirements. More discussion and training in ASL proficiency should be required of educators of the Deaf and those training to become educators of the Deaf. In the crucial preschool years, teachers of Deaf children should be Deaf or Children of Deaf Adults (CODAs) themselves to ensure the future success of our Deaf students.