|
|
Meeting special educational needs of deaf children and deaf adults through
Educational Research, Development & Application.
Apart from establishing educational classes for deaf children and deaf adults, DMI assist
educational Institutions that are Government, Private or Religious to develop or improve
their special educational curriculum and facilities design on behalf of deaf students. Having
the right educational tools helps teachers to better assist deaf students to attain their highest
educational level desired.
When deaf people are discovered in any part of the world, and it is known that no
educational services are provided or only provide speech therapy... DMI's develops two
research & Development Teams ... "A-Team" &" B-Team". "There are a number of teams
involved in the entire process... but I will not mention them here.
To began the educational process, the language and the culture of the deaf community
must be discovered, captured and understood in order to develop the appropriate
educational material.
If the deaf within the aggregate society are not coming together as a community to realize
that there are others with the same attitudes and interests in common... then A & B teams
have and additional responsibility to locate and bringing the deaf together which establishes
the active and functional deaf community within the country. What is first noted is the
exchange of concepts with one another through body movements facial expressions and
formation hand movements "a real language they understand". This is when the team
members first see a change in the life of an isolated an inactive deaf individual. For the first
time they feel they belong, the deaf community actually becomes to them a family. In the
community the deaf individuals began a mental development because there they receive
and exchange concrete and abstract concepts in a visual language they understand. With
their relatives the communication is limited to finger pointing and sometimes basic
gestures. Some times a deaf community or deaf communities are already established due
to a charismatic deaf leader or deaf leaders deaf adults follow. In order to receive their
corporation, confidence must be earned by the team. And that is accomplished by giving
attention to what they desire.
However, Team "A" with the cooperation of the deaf community initiates and completes the
Dactylology research.
The research consist of presenting a many visual concept to each deaf member
independently, recording their hand and finger movement including the body and facial
expression. The Dactylology expressing a concept by several deaf candidates
independently is recorded as authentic and certified by the deaf community.
Team "B" must be individuals who do not know the verbal nor written language of the hearing.
While Team A who knows the written and audible language is capturing the Dactylology,
Team B initiates the process of learning the written language in order to discover the same
difficult challenges that deaf student may also encounter. This knowledge helps in the
development of the educational materials that will be created with the assistance of
discovered or trained teachers.
The challenges encountered may or may not require the development of a modified
Dactylology a second language for the deaf students who desire to go onto superior
education. Modified Dactylology is a second language for the purpose of learning to read
and write not a replacement of Dactylology in the natural state that is developed and
preserved within a deaf person according to the visual culture that surrounds the deaf
community.
After the study & material Development of the captured Dactylology Language, including
the deaf culture and unified behaviors (psychology of deafness) ... the following phase of
the educational process began the Teams' effort to discovers teachers with a commitment
to learn the language of theses special people" including their culture and the psychology
of deafness. All three materials with a good attitude are necessary in order for the teachers
to earn the confidence of the deaf students and accomplish the educational goal. After the
teachers training, The "A" Team, and the teachers formulate the Educational Committee to
develop the educational curriculum.
The bridge of communication must first be established between the teacher and the deaf
student in order to help the deaf student to build the Main Bridge of communication to the
members of the hearing society. That bridge of communication is not sign language
"Dactylology"... and that bridge of communication is not speech therapy, both are valuable
tools to help the student understand in order to build "develop" the Main bridge of
communication with the hearing society. The Main bridge is the ability to read and write the
written language of the Culture wherein the subculture resides. The Hearing members of the
Society developed and uses the silent language of characters to communicate concepts.
Now it is up to the deaf student to attain the ability to read and write to the best of their ability.
Alone without teachers they can not accomplish their goal. And teachers without the right
material and facilities can not assist the deaf student. In other words, Teachers with the right
attitude, including materials and appropriate facilities can help deaf students build the Main
Bridge of communication on to a superior education.
When the communication between the teacher and the students is harnessed, The lesson
that follows is the Psychology of the Hearing in reference to ethics. This lesson will help deaf
individuals to cease receiving angry and disappointing looks from the hearing. Although
there are many ethical subjects, the one I will close with is the ethic of eating soup. There are
many deaf people "children and adults" to no fault of their own "surp...surrrrp" the soup
from the spoon... simply because they are in the vacuum of silence and have never been
told that slurping make a noise that is not pleasant to hear... therefore it is impolite. Then
comes the complicated questions in the language of the deaf: "What is noise?" & " What is
"...to hear". But, there are other deaf people that have no problem at all with slurping the
soup... reason? To slurp the soup is part of the culture and therefore not considered
unethical. When I am alone... I enjoy just picking up the bowl of soup, tilt and slurp! But due
to the culture, in the presence of others... I would never do it... nor do I like hearing others
slurp.
In 1969 visiting the educational institutions for deaf children In South America, Dr. Hale
discovered that they held to an old method of first developing the ability to speak and read
lips and then proceed to with an educational curriculum. Speech therapy is meaningful to
discover the exceptional few deaf individuals who can attain the speech ability. However,
continuing the same with a deaf students who fail to attain speech reveals a lack of
knowledge In the psychology of deafness that relates to the thought and memory process of
majority of deaf people.
In view of the lack of special educational materials to assist teachers to educate the deaf
student, and the reluctance of Government educational directors to accept the manual
communication of their own deaf people as a real language, Dr. Hale provided his Board of
Trustees a brief report. The report informed his intentions to return and to reveal a more
natural method that would improve the process of the speech therapy and allow eduction to
be began immediately. " The Dactylology Visual Memory method."
"Speech Therapy serves to discover the small percentage of deaf students who can
attain the ability to speak and read lips. But, for the majority of the deaf students who
fail . . . to consume deaf student's limited educational time with the same failing therapy
is an act of being irresponsible! Especially when there is another method with the use
of their own natural language that will allow deaf students an easy access to education."
In an effort to make a difference, Dr. Hale resigned from his position as Senior Pastor In the
US to begin his international mission lecturing on the Psychology of Deafness at several
Universities In South America and the United States. The lecture included inserts
concerning his research and development of the visual memory educational method "a
curriculum designed for the 90% of the deaf students who fail speech therapy methods.
The special lecture gave teachers the understanding that by learning the language of the
deaf they bridged the communication gap to their deaf student In order to relay clear and
deeper educational concepts on to a superior education.
|
DMI - Deaf Missions International
PO Box 8514 - Clearwater, Florida 33758
(727) 530-3020 -DMI@DMInetwork.org
|
|
