[sw-l] SignWriting Art from Christoph, age 11, in Germany ; -)

Sun May 8 17:39:45 UTC 2005

SignWriting List
May 8, 2005

Shane and Stefan -
The world is fortunate that there are people like you both, who
understand that communication and a feeling of happiness, is more
important than flawless speech..and these studies on cochlear implants
are not grasping that hearing (non-deaf) children love signed languages
too and benefit from signed languages, so even if the cochlear implants
really made deaf children become non-deaf children, they would still
benefit from signed languages...so why take away signed languages, just
because there is a machine that helps some hearing?...

And this saddens me greatly, to hear about Denmark. When I worked with
the Danish school system in the 1980's they were very strong on
bi-lingual education that was really great...DSL and spoken Danish were
treated as two separate languages and SignWriting was a part of that.
Their bi-lingual education was very sophisiticated and way ahead of its
time...historically they had really accomplished
something...SignWriting was used in the schools for Deaf children from
1982-1988, and a great report was written about SignWriting in the
schools...I had plans of translating that report from Danish to
English, but it takes some time...but that needs to be done...my Danish
is fluent and I can do the translation and I should, because they
learned important facts about bi-lingual education and it was
positive...

Then something weird happened...Denmark changed. I do not believe that
the bi-lingual program is strong there now and I know that some of the
old sign language teachers are suffering for this...

It may swing back again...who knows?

Val ;-)

----------------------------

On May 8, 2005, at 7:03 AM, Stefan Wöhrmann wrote:

> Hi Shane,
>
> yes you are right - the political correct term for DEAF is "gehoerlos"
> hearing-impaired  (= hoergeschaedigt) hard of hearing (schwerhoerig)
>
>
> Your statement about CI in Denmark is hard to believe. Yesterday I got
> answer from Prof. Gisela Szagun  a very famous osychologist who ran a
> survey
> on speechdevelopment in children after CI implantation.
>
> Fact is - that some of the children will be able to develop an almost
> "normal" spoken language development. (All these studies  do not
> mention -
> as far as I know - the psycholocial aspects in the long run - but
> focus on
> hearing and speaking)
>
> Quite a lot of these children however will spent hours, weeks, months
> and
> even years in a state of comunicative deprivation.
>
> It is rediculous and wrong to keep SL away from them. The contrary is
> right!
> And we can proof that -- smile!
>
> So again intense use of GebardenSchrift-Documents enabled these
> children to
> compare there knowledge of SL with their knowledge of Spoken Language
> beautifully!
>
> Go ahead and start with SW memory cards,  hand shapes, Mundbilder (!
> yes!),
> name signs, single signs  - like hello, where, good morning ... the
> very
> first day at your new project - I can tell and show more about that at
> Brussels!
>
> And well - the fact that all of my sons (even little Godian -age 6
> now) had
> been my teacher to demonstrate how easy little children can remember
> and
> read these signs - has had a major impact on my attitude and
> enthusiasm.
>
> Today Gordian (6 years) sat down and produced this darling maenniken -
> picture) Can you imagine? He will start school in September but he is
> absolutey fluent and competent in remembering and finding all the tiny
> symbols, he can shift between typing letters and signwriting , he can
> use
> the dictionary perfectly - word order like spoken language (smile), so
> from
> his idea inside his head until saving (alt + s) his work he proofes his
> ability to handle this software progam perfectly. In this case he even
> took
> care of the fill of the hand shape (smile!!) So he develops kind of
> consciousness about the meaning of the fills. ( I did not realise that
> before)
> The written words are German following more a kind of phonetic code -
> but
> you see - he already chooses to type single words instead of endless
> rows of
> letters.
>
> I love to see these maenniken ...
>
>  So yes - even hearing or hard of hearing children can take an
> advantage out
> of the use of SW --
>
> Stefan ;-)
>
>
>
> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> Von: owner-sw-l at majordomo.valenciacc.edu
> [mailto:owner-sw-l at majordomo.valenciacc.edu] Im Auftrag von Shane
> Gilchrist
> Ó hEorpa
> Gesendet: Sonntag, 8. Mai 2005 14:57
> An: sw-l at majordomo.valenciacc.edu
> Betreff: RE: [sw-l] SignWriting Art from Christoph, age 11, in Germany
> ; -)
>
> (that’s the email long overdue!)
>
> Val,
>
> That’s excellent about Christoph being non-deaf - we need more non-deaf
> people to be fluent in our national sign languages AND able with
> signwriting.
>
> I was reading a very sad email last night that basically all deaf kids
> in
> Denmark are now implanted at birth - and parents (unless they are
> deaf) have
> to sign an agreement with schools that they will not use Danish Sign
> Language with their implanted children - that was said by a school
> principal
> (headteacher) but I am not sure about "all Danish deaf children" - u
> might
> have more contacts in Denmark than I do, Val - and it's really
> affecting the
> quality of their education - and of course their identity :(
>
> As for "taub", I think German Deafies tend to go for "Gehorlen" (sp?)
> - (did
> I get it wrong - PLEASE CORRECT ME, STEF!)
>
> Good news for u, Val - we are putting together a group of parents with
> non-deaf kids with the aim to start Northern Ireland's first
> NISL-medium
> primary/elementary school in Belfast - the majority would be non-deaf
> of
> course - that’s the point - and we will use your system there :D
>
> Now the question is when? :p
>
> Shane
>
>
> ________________________________________
> From: owner-sw-l at majordomo.valenciacc.edu
> [mailto:owner-sw-l at majordomo.valenciacc.edu] On Behalf Of Valerie
> Sutton
> Sent: 17 April 2005 02:58
> To: sw-l at majordomo.valenciacc.edu
> Subject: Re: [sw-l] SignWriting Art from Christoph, age 11, in Germany
> ; -)
>
> SignWriting List
> April 16, 2005
>
> Shane Gilchrist Ó hEorpa wrote:
> Is Christoph deaf or nondeaf?
>
> Ist Christoph taub? Is Christoph Deaf? No. Go to this web page to read
> about
> Stefan's three sons and his wife...all hearing (non-deaf). But Stefan's
> little boys have learned SignWriting very very young, and they use the
> SignWriter Computer Program all the time...creating lovely art and
> they read
> signs at very young ages and can produce the movements they read!
>
> Woehrmann Family
> http://www.gebaerdenschrift.de/team/
>
>
> <Gordian Mann macht Bauchklatscher.gif>