Before the why’s – How?
We can make use of those who would be interested from the estimated 70,000 who already know and use BSL, along with those interested in learning it, to develop teachers who can then teach it to primary school children from age 4 until secondary school, by which point they should be fluent.
Once the first wave of children have become parents, employees and teachers, BSL can be taught to even younger children at home and in nursery school, and throughout primary and secondary school.
By this time, BSL would not have to be taught as a separate subject, but used to deliver other subjects. This would ensure continued use and fluency until university age.
Why?
1. It would eliminate segregation of the D/deaf and the Deaf-Blind communities
The D/deaf community is not small. In the UK 1 in 6 people have hearing loss. There are 356,000 Deaf-Blind people.
38 per cent of people believe disabled people are a burden on society
BT – ‘Ready, Willing and Disabled Event 2011
BSL was given official recognition in 2003. My mind boggles that by 2014, society not only continues to rudely ignore over 10 million of its own populace, but also suffer from the financial burden of doing so.
2. It would benefit the hearing community
By ignoring sign language, the hearing community is depriving itself of doing something that comes at least as naturally as speaking.
Cognitive and verbal/language development in hearing children is consistently more advanced in those who learn signs from a very early age and beyond, in comparison with children who don’t.
Children as young as 8 months old can reproduce signs they have been shown repetitively for the previous 2 or more months.
Through signs they are able to communicate their needs before they have developed the ability to speak. The result is less frustration and the reduced need to cry as a communication method to ask for what they want.
3. It could assist people who have other types of challenges
Children who are autistic, have Downs Syndrome or Learning Disabilities, as well as children who demonstrate certain unsocial behaviours that stem from difficulty in verbal communication, are all found to benefit from knowing and using sign language.
4. It could improve communication generally and benefit society as a whole
Sign language apparently improves the relationship between the parents and young children who use it, due to the need for constant eye contact. If true, then it is possible that relations between teachers and students might be made easier and less challenging.
Undoubtedly, with BSL as our second language, we will end up being a friendlier society, with more tolerance for people who have physical challenges of all kinds.
Nearly two-thirds (65 per cent) of people have admitted they avoid disabled people because they don’t know how to act around them
BT – ‘Ready, Willing and Disabled Event 2011
5. Others who would benefit:
People who lose their hearing suddenly, gradually or later in life would not suffer as severely from the loss as they do today.
Hearing parents would automatically have the ability to communicate with their D/deaf child/ren.
840 babies are born in the UK each year with significant deafness. The vast majority of these are born to hearing parents.
BT – ‘Ready, Willing and Disabled Event 2011
Anticipated resistance:
Cost
The financial decisions Governments make are influenced by their desire to stay within budget and look good to their people. This is why real progress rarely happens.
The initial costs of a teacher-training program and employment of teachers of BSL would be the highest costs, but they would only run for the first decade or two.
Once BSL became a true second language, the costs would practically disappear.
Or an excellent investment?
I couldn’t find any statistics, but it is highly likely that the costs of dealing with millions of D/deaf and Deaf-Blind people would mount to a fairly pretty penny; In the form of unemployment benefit or disability allowance, misdiagnoses and similar problems that arise from misunderstandings, compensation and interpreter’s fees.
If BSL were the nation’s second language the D/deaf would have genuinely equal opportunities in education, training and employment. We would be better able to contribute economically.
Savings might also be found in those of us who opt out of using or updating audio technology. Also perhaps a reduced need for support teachers for children with learning disabilities etc.
Parents
Some will not immediately recognise the value of teaching BSL to their children. They may argue that other subjects would have to be given less time in order to accommodate BSL. As usual, the problem itself presents the solution, and it would be better anyway to incorporate BSL into other lessons, to be used little and often, which is the best way to learn a language.
Already in progress
Signature states that GCSE BSL is on the horizon, and they are encouraging existing teachers to start learning BSL.
Other countries are taking steps towards getting their sign language onto the curriculum (and a few other countries already have).
A close second language
These are steps in the right direction, but if BSL is only taught to a basic level then unused and forgotten, or as a subject for Deaf students only, or as an optional ‘foreign’ language, it will by and large remain as it is today.
In return for some re-organization and extra costs over a decade or so, we could have a nation that would most likely be more intelligent, integrated and inclusive, with lowered costs in the longer-term. I say it’s a no-brainer.
Resources
http://www.actiononhearingloss.org.uk/your-hearing/about-deafness-and-hearing-loss/statistics.aspx
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-27972335
http://www.efds.co.uk/resources/facts_and_statistics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_sign_language
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Sign_Language
http://lifeprint.com/asl101/topics/benefits_of_learning_how_to_sign.htm
http://www.hearingtimes.co.uk/Community/1223/BSL%20now%20part%20of%20childrens%20curriculum
Tabitha Laksimi has moderate to severe sensorineural hearing loss, constant tinnitus, and recruitment. She recently started learning BSL, after realizing she was long in the habit of isolating herself from others due to her deafness. She would love to live in a world that is D/deaf aware (so she doesn’t have to keep repeating herself!) and for hearing loss of any kind to not impact negatively on anybody.
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Althea Rowland
October 27, 2014
I am an ex primary school teacher who had excellent hearing for most of my life but who was diagnosed with bilateral mild to moderate hearing loss about two years ago and I now wear two hearing aids. I immediately became interested in discovering all that I could about deafness and its impact on both deaf and hearing people and I came to exactly the same conclusions. I was told that someone in my situation should learn to Lipread because who would I sign with? It seems far more sensible to me to put effort and resources into creating a population who can sign. I am including sign supported English in my own thinking here as I don’t think it is feasible for everyone to be taught BSL but I would be interested to take this conversation further and learn more about all of the issues here and I am really encouraged by the growing number of times that I see this idea being put forward. There is such a thing as an idea whose time has come so I would really encourage everyone who believes in this and supports it to keep working in every way you can. I think the other thing I feel from the information I have gathered so far is that all D/deaf people should support the needs of every other group so that we all fight for everyone, respecting our differences, because we are stronger together than apart. Good Luck!
Tabitha
November 2, 2014
Hi Althea. I agree with you – lipreading is inappropriate and impossible in many situations, and often made so even when it doesn’t have to be due to lack of awareness. Ian Moon’s article about how tiring lip-reading is has attracted some 81 comments. John Walker, in his article called Capital Deaf, describes the first time he lasted the night because he was using sign language, rather than lip-reading.
K. Willsen
October 27, 2014
I’m a hearing signer, and I love the language. Useful in many situations, and helpful in learning other languages, too. Once you have two languages, learning a third becomes easier because you’re not locked into “monolingual mode”.
It would be great to be able to use BSL with more people.
Tabitha
November 2, 2014
Hi K. I have really enjoyed learning BSL as well. I think a lot of children would find it fun to learn and use. I really do believe that many hearing people would choose to use BSL in many different contexts, even if there was no D/deaf person present. You can sign under water, in noisy places, at a distance, when there is a need to be quiet, and also in emergency situations where someone loses their hearing temporarily. It’s also a very expressive language, and I prefer watching stories being told, rather than spoken (but then I would).
Cathy
October 27, 2014
This statement encompassing BSL into the general population is a fantastic idea, but I fear that it is only fantastic in theory, not in practise.
The idea of a BSL GCSE has been banded about for a good few years now. Iam not surprised it has not actually materialised yet. Present teachers cannot currently sign, can they? So training them up to teach BSL as a GCSE is going to cost thousands of pounds and that is if enough teachers are willing on top of their own subjects.
Has Signature got thousands of pounds ready to start teaching the teachers? Or is the Government coughing up, or rather the taxpayer? Or will the teachers be paying out of their own pay? Cost is a massive question, unfortunately.
Have Signature thought about how many teachers will be required nationally? In every school around the country? Is the demand for the language apparent? In other words the school should have lots of deaf pupils to support and give equal access to deaf students.
If schools have no deaf students would BSL as a GCSE option be sanctioned by headmasters and School Governors? Debateable.
You may have also overlooked the fact that nearly all deaf children have a CI now and they are talking not signing! So, how about a lipreading GCSE instead of BSL?! Or perhaps an SSE GCSE!
Technology is marching ahead and more and more people are going for CI’s so the question is can Britain afford to spend on what is fast becoming a redundant language? It may indeed help other disabled groups like you’ve said, but SSE is just as good, if not better to support such groups.
Great thought and care must be instilled here for something that, educationally at least, is about 30 years too late!!!
Tabitha
November 2, 2014
Hi Cathy. My article has no association with Signature. I only mentioned them in one sentence, near the end of the piece.
I feel I addressed the issue of expenses in my article, where I made a point that the spending that would go towards teachers being trained and employed might be compensated by not spending on various other things associated with the D/deaf, and by the D/deaf being able to contribute economically more.
However, although what I say is the case, I was also playing Devil’s advocate, and I am glad you have given me the opportunity to say what I really think:
In 2013 the UK spent the equivalent of $57 billion on armaments. In 2012, it was over $61 billion. That is where the majority of our taxes go, each and every year, like it or not. And most of us don’t like it. Are you really sure you want to argue on behalf of a government that is so tight-fisted when it comes to helping its people, but gives liberal amounts in subsidies and spending that only benefit already extremely wealthy corporations and industries? And what about making these same corporations and industries pay their share in taxes, which many of them don’t do?
I can assure you that money is not the problem, it’s the way it gets spent that is.
I am curious as to why you are concerned about spending on training and employing teachers of BSL, but do not seem to have issue with the money spent on developing technologies that do not work for everyone. Or did you overlook this point?
Are you aware that CI’s have been in development since 1976, 28 years? As Emma says in her comment below, CI’s do not give 100% success rate. Perhaps you don’t know that millions of us are not eligible for CI’s, and hearing aids don’t work for many of us either. What about us?
Why do you feel that expensive technology that only works for thousands of people, is superior to learning a well-established and complete language which would give so many benefits to millions of people, including the hearing?
As for numbers of teachers – I also mentioned this in my article. Even if there are not sufficient number of teachers for every school to start with, the ball could get rolling with some schools being provided for, the rest later on. Even if only a third of the nation could sign to a level of fluency or near-fluency, that would still have a great positive influence on the nation as a whole. There is no need to give up the whole idea simply because of initial numbers.
Teaching BSL to hearing children, even if there were no D/deaf children present in a particular school or classroom, still benefits them, as I, again, mentioned in my article. If 1 in 6 people are D/deaf, then that means out of a classroom of 30 children, more than 4 of them will end up with a hearing problem at some point in their lives. You also open up opportunities for everyone, D/deaf and hearing, to have relationships they currently avoid.
In my own experience, my hearing ability diminished gradually over many years, and I struggled throughout school and work simply because nobody, myself included, had an alternative way of communicating that did not rely on sound. I know I am not alone when I say I feel like I do not belong anywhere. I delayed learning BSL for years because there are too few who use it. I want this to change.
Emma
October 28, 2014
Oh I am all behind anything that comes in which would benefit deaf people and children. I agree with everything in the article entirely as there are many people who are completely indifferent and intolerant of the deaf community and sign language as an official language. As hearing aids and cochlear implants do not come with a 100% success rate, sign language is even more important than one tends to believe. I get infuriated with people when they refuse to accept that my sister cannot speak and hear and that they have to use sign in order to communicate. Enriching people’s lives with sign language and tolerance of deaf culture would help considerably to break down the communication barriers and prevent full exclusion. When I eventually become a teacher my pupils will be taught sign language as it is not so different from learning French, Spanish or German and it will teach them to be more socially aware.
Tabitha
November 2, 2014
Hi Emma. Thank you for your comments. Your frustration on behalf of your sister is evident and completely understandable. Frustration is what many people with hearing loss experience every day. I know I do.
I wish you had been my teacher when I was at school, I would have loved to have learned sign language, and I am sure that if it were used to deliver other subjects it would enhance, rather than distract, my understanding of what I was learning. Thank you for being part of the solution – I am sure you will influence your students, and the people in their lives, in a very positive way.