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Deaf Education requires collaborative approach – DAG
Deaf education is an emerging issue, a journey even, said Head of the Deaf Association of Guyana (DAG), Ms. Sabine McIntosh. She recalled that during the 1980s, instruction of the deaf was relocated to the David Rose School for Handicapped Children and has over the years seen a constant evolution, said McIntosh.
Ms Sabine McIntosh
McIntosh, who was speaking at a forum to launch an Adapted Deaf Curriculum, recalled that in the 1980s delivering education to the deaf was through an oral approach which emphasised auditory training and de-emphasised visual communication.
Accordingly, two teachers were sent to Jamaica to undergo training in the auditory approach of instruction. However, in the 1990s, McIntosh said, there was a shift to sign language. Consequently, teachers were again sent to Jamaica to be trained.
By this time the David Rose School for the Handicapped Children was the hub for deaf education. In fact, the emerging approach internationally and the one which is reflected in the adapted curriculum is the bilingual-bicultural approach.
“To put it simply, deaf children will be taught to be functional and comfortable in two languages – Sign Language and English – in two cultures, that is the deaf culture and the hearing culture,” McIntosh related.
Currently the situation that obtains is that there are over 100 deaf children enrolled in four public schools and about 20 in private programmes. Based on some findings of DAG, McIntosh said that it can be deduced that there are a significant number of deaf children across Guyana with a great number of them not attending school.
Those enrolled in public special education needs (SEN) schools, she added, are taught by teachers with little formal training in sign language and deaf education. She however acknowledged that these teachers undertake a herculean task.
“SEN teachers, whether they are assigned to the deaf or children with learning disabilities, have been given very little and expected to give very much,” said McIntosh.
But the family also has an important role in deaf education. The DAG Head pointed out that early family intervention is imperative, as language development is age dependent. According to her, in the case of a deaf child acquiring visual communication skills, families cannot wait until nursery school, thus language development must start at home. As such, McIntosh stressed the need for collaboration between the Ministry of Public Health’s Maternal and Child Health programme.
She pointed out that deaf education schools and programmes are dependent on demographics, as it is believed that it would allow students to maximise their learning achievements. “Georgetown, a hub if you wish, is long overdue for a deaf education school,” said McIntosh, as she emphasised the importance of teacher training.
“With teachers competent in sign language and deaf education issues there is no way forward,” said McIntosh, as she stressed the importance of teachers.
She underscored that the bilingual approach for deaf education is significant, since it best prepares the deaf students for adulthood in the hearing world without compromising his or her linguistic and cultural identity. She also spoke of a well planned transition to tertiary education and vocational training because “in the face of a distinctly deaf and friendly work environment it is especially important to prepare deaf students, from early on, for a chosen career path, be it vocational or academic.”
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