Oralism vs Spoken English

I couldn't help but respond to Barb Digi's vlog after seeing her video with the little boy. In this video we watch as a hard-of-hearing or Deaf child tries to process a math problem. He seems to be concentrating hard. He uses his hands to make a plus sign. Then he makes a five with his right hand while saying the word "five" There was no sound on the video but it's easy to lipread. Next, we see his hand get pushed down by the oral facilitator, not in an abusive way, but firmly. It's clearly a reprimand-- almost a light slap-- though he doesn't seem hurt.

My grandmother was born in 1885. When I was a little girl she used to tell me about her school days. She was a "leftie." The school master used to hit her hand with a stick whenever he caught her writing with her left hand. She learned to write with her right hand, but inside she was always a "leftie." Though a good student, she dropped out of school at the age of 14 because writing with her right hand all the time was so uncomfortable. Her right-hand writing was never beautiful and she felt repressed. Seventy years later, I would sit on her bed listening to this story, wondering why her school master was so mean. My own father is a "leftie" and I myself took a long time to decide on a dominant hand. I still perform many tasks left-handed. Today, left-handedness is respected. We realize it's more important to teach a child information than to worry about what hand he or she uses.

Back in the early 1980's when I took early childhood development classes, I learned the more senses stimulated during a lesson, the more students will retain. For this reason most preschools develop a highly sensory environment organized around one weekly or monthly theme. Even adults prefer to process information through different senses. Because all people process differently, teachers need to be sure to consider the many learning styles of their students. Research has identified seven ways people absorb new information. (Some say there are only three, however the seven ways are basically the first three broken into more detail.) Most people have one dominant and a secondary preference. It should come as no surprise that hard-of-hearing/deaf/Deaf children and adults may not process information auditorily. We tend to be more visual and kinesthetic.

Further, it's estimated only ten percent of the hearing population processes auditorally. Most people, whether hearing or deaf, prefer looking at visuals, touching, manipulating, dancing, playing games, singing about and smelling objects while learning.

Our schools overwhelmingly rely on outdated aural teaching methods, in which a teacher lectures and a student listens. However, in the past few decades many elementary school teachers have begun to incorporate art, games, visuals and manipulatives to help their students learn. Hearing children now often learn the ASL alphabet because teachers have found ASL enhances spelling lessons. Secondary school teachers also try to include other learning styles into their lessons by assigning group projects. The idea is that hopefully students will organize themselves according to their learning strengths. Even college professors utilize group projects to a large degree-- because they recognize the importance of learning styles.

What bothered me most about that video was the little boy's natural kinesthetic learning style was being discouraged. Forced to sit still with his hands folded on a table, he was only allowed to listen and respond orally when questioned. That teaching method is SO outdated I wanted to scream. Worse-- a hearing child in the same one-on-one situation would NOT have had his hand pushed down. His kinesthetic need should have been respected.

It reminded me of the stories my grandma used to tell about being a "leftie."