- In 1969 visiting the educational institutions for deaf children In
Colombia South America, Dr. Hale discovered that to no fault of
their own, they held to an old educational method of first developing
the ability to speak and read lips, then proceed to use the same
educational curriculum provided to the hearing students.
"Speech therapy is meaningful to discover the exceptional few
deaf individuals who can attain the speech ability. However,
continuing the same with the majority of deaf students who fail
to attain speech reveals a lack of knowledge in the psychology
of deafness. The Psychology of deafness in reference is in
relation to the thought and memory process of majority of deaf
people."-Hale 1967
- In view of the special educational agency of the Government's
inability to develop and provide special educational materials to
assist teachers to educate deaf students, and due to the agency's
reluctance to accept the manual communication of the deaf people
as a real language, Dr. Hale returned to Colombia to reveal to the
educators a more natural method that would improve the process of
speech therapy and allow education to begin 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." -Hale 1969
- In an effort to make a difference, Dr. Hale resigned from his position
as Senior Pastor and began 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 the speech therapy methods" .
The 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.
Today, the Special Educational agency of the Colombia Government
recognizes the language of the Deaf as an important bridge of
communication and incorporates the language into their
"mainstream" system. Combining deaf students together with an
interpreter in a normal class of hearing students and teacher is not
the best method, but it is a great advancement compared to what
Dr. Hale witnessed from 1969-1993.
DMI continues in the educational development of materials with deaf
professionals in special education who with their own experience
are serving to improve the educational system.
"A deaf person with the ability to read, can read the Holy
Scriptures with understanding and serve to teach others who
are among the majority that can not read with understanding."
-Hale
Isaiah 29:18
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| History "The Educational Challenge" "In that day the deaf shall (will) hear (understand) the words of the book..." Isaiah 29:18 |
| DMI "Deaf Missions International" |
| DMI "Deaf Missions International" |
| DMI "Deaf Missions International" |
| DMI "Deaf Missions International" |
| "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 no fault of their own. . . to consume the limited educational time with the same failing therapy is an act of being irresponsible! The Dactylology Visual Memory Method with the use of the natural manual language helps deaf student construct their bridge of communication to a superior education." - Dr. Bernie Hale, Dactylologist |