Fierce Debate Over Sign Language

Last month, we told you about a controversial new study that said using sign language when a child has a cochlear implant holds back the child's language development. Education Week has a report on some of responses here.

Teen allegedly killed deaf mom

A teenager in Illinois faces charges she killed her deaf mom and attempted to cover it up the death by setting the home on fire. Police say the 15-year-old waited for her mom to come home from work and told her mom to place a towel over her face before shooting her mom in the forehead. Read more details from Sauk Valley Media here. WQAD-TV spoke withe the girl's sister in the video below.

Controversial Study claims CI Kids do better without Sign

Ann Geers of the
University of Texas at Dallas

A controversial new study claims children with cochlear implants are better off not learning sign language. The researchers write, "Contrary to earlier published assertions, there was no advantage to parents' use of sign language either before or after CI." The study, lead by Ann Geers of the University of Texas at Dallas, looked at development of 97 children. They found:

Over 70% of children without sign language exposure achieved age-appropriate spoken language compared with only 39% of those exposed for 3 or more years. Children without sign language exposure produced speech that was more intelligible (mean = 70%) than those exposed to sign language (mean = 51%).

An editorial from two professors (Karl White of Utah State University and Louis Cooper of Columbia University) said the research was "well-designed" offering "credible and useful information" that "can help end the passionate but debilitating debates between advocates of signing and nonsigning." Read the full commentary here.

A limitation of the study that sign language advocates are likely to point out: The children in the study were from hearing families who were not native signers. Details of the study are in the journal Pediatrics.

Also of interest: AG Bell gave lead researcher, Ann Geers, its 2014 Volta Award for making "a significant contribution to increasing public awareness of the challenges and potential of people with hearing loss." Geers recieved the award along with colleague Jean Moog. They collaborated as at Central Institute for the Deaf and below is a video of them recieving the award.

" I see his voice. I hear his face."

image from ondeafness.com

The hearing mother of a deaf child has written a piece for the New York Times titled, "My Deaf Son Fought Speech. Sign Language Let Him Bloom." The writer, Elizabeth Engelman, works at the Family Center on Deafness in Largo, Florida and writes the blog OnDeafness. She says":

"In American Sign Language, the sign for cochlear implant is similar to the sign for vampire. Vampire is signed with two fingers like teeth to the throat. Cochlear implant is signed with two fingers like teeth behind the ears. The audiologist told me not to sign at all. She said sign language was a crutch that would hinder his speech.. The audiologist adjusted the pitch and tuned the levels to make a simulation of sound. She called this process mapping, but there were no guideposts to show the way. How do you chart loneliness? How do you trace a landscape of silence and sound between mother and son?"

Read the full story in the New York Times here.

How children with Implants learn words

Researchers at The Ohio State University are trying to determine whether children with cochlear implants learn words differently than their peers. One of their findings: "Whether or not a child learns a word can depend on when a parent says a label and what the child is doing when that label is said." Read more about the effort in US News.

A "deaf culture war" in Alabama

Rep. Margie Wilcox  

A bill in the Alabama legislature had pitted "the deaf culture and the 'hearing deaf' culture," against one another, advocate Leigh Leak says.  According to AL.com, HB 253, proposed by Rep. Margie Wilcox, aims "to help deaf kids who are falling through the cracks" but "advocates in the 'hearing deaf' culture are afraid the bill will force children who use spoken language to learn American Sign Language." They complain the opt out option for children with cochlear implants is too weak. Read the full story from AL.com here or look at the bill itself here.

Woman Arrested for Attacking Deaf Girl

from New York State Police

We reported Wednesday about a New York woman wanted by the police for intentionally ramming a Walmart shopping cart into a deaf 10-year-old. Police have arrested Erica Walker and charged her with assailt. Walker is out on bail but due back in a Cortlandt, New York courtroom on Monday.

Why she refused to alter her twins' genes

Sarah-Jane Moloney O'Regan decided not to alter the genes of her twins' to prevent them being born deaf. The sign language interpreter explained why on Ireland's Late Late Show here or watch the video below.

Getting to know.. audiologist Marion Downs

image from Marion Downs Hearing Center 

One of the people most responsible for newborn hearing screening in the U.S. was born this day (Jan. 26) in 1914. Audiologist Marion Downs published two books and over 100 articles on the topic during her lifetime. The Marion Downs Hearing Center opened nearly a decade ago at the University of Colorado Medical Center. WVXU radio in Cincinnati has more on this remarkable woman here. She was 100 years old when she died on Nov. 13, 2014.