If there is one thing that learning sign language is known for, it is being expensive.
To become a competent signer can cost many hundreds or thousands of pounds and the result of that is that families of deaf children, arguably those who may need it most, will not be able to afford to learn.
By Andy Palmer, Deputy Editor.
Andy is Chairman of the Peterborough and District Deaf Children’s Society and teaches sign language in primary schools. Contact him on twitter @LC_AndyP
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Tamsin Coates
July 16, 2014
We are really lucky locally that our sensory service have prioritised sign language classes for families and also 1:1 work with some families. It has meant that so many more people with in our wider deaf community can sign…..lovely to see.
Marie
July 16, 2014
I teach family sign language, as well as normal sign language course.
Yes I think NHS should fund family sign language, but however in Derby, level 1 and level 2 is free to family who live in same household as a deaf person.
I feel, if teacher for deaf or school write a letter, to say the deaf child is under 14 years old, then grandparents and Aunty/uncle who don’t live in the same house could get level 1 and 2 free. I think this should happen because of babysitting and giving parents a break.
Family sign class in Derbyshire open to invitation by the parents – could be grandparents, or neighbours or even friends.
Andy, not him, me
July 16, 2014
One of the reasons why these classes are so expensive is because the whole business is now beset with rules and regulations. Most Deaf kids learn to sign at school, unless they come from a signing family. They learn as much from each other as from the teachers. I learnt like that but unfortunately as I live in a hearing environment I have forgotten much of it and my vocabulary is still at school level.
Consider now the position of someone wanting to learn to sign. I have often thought that the best way to become fluent is simply to immerse yourself in the Deaf world.
Even so this takes time and practice and fluency only comes with experience. Sign language *classes* are a new invention. In the past everyone learned by doing and it’s only comparatively recently that a structured educational approach has evolved.
As I say it’s all beset with rules and regulations, the premises have to be appropriate, the staff have to be well qualified etc etc. These things cost money. No way around that. But in the Deaf world, everyone learns for free!
Alayne
July 16, 2014
You have hit the nail right on the head. We all know that basic communication at a very early age is vital to language acquisition. I am a staunch supporter of baby sign classes and both my hearing grandchildren 10 months and 2yrs attend. Both have picked up many every day signs really well and were able to communicate before they could speak. The sad thing is that a lot of hearing parents with a deaf baby, are grieving the loss of a spoken communication. Communication in a signed format is out there and crucial to that bonding, learning process in those early years. Information for those parents is sadly lacking.
Andrew
July 16, 2014
Agreed, as my parents saying BSL level 1, wasn’t suitable for them to learn how to communcation with me when I was baby!
1948lizLIz James,es
July 16, 2014
I’m hearing. Exam classes are a waste of time and too focused on the exam. We need the deaf community to help us learn sign language. But deaf clubs are far and few between, and, in my experience, not always very welcoming. I’ve spent nearly two years looking for a deaf BSL user in my area I can have a cup of tea and a chat with, just so I can keep my level 1 skills going in a way that is relevant to me.
Of course sign language should be made a priority in homes where there are deaf children. There is too much emphasis on “normalising” deaf children by hearing practitioners. It seems to me that those attempts are often rejected by the children when they grow up.
Schools could help too with an annual return to simple BSL every year, continuing the good work started in reception classes. Kids love it and are less inhibited in trying out their BSL skills than us adults.
Methusalada
July 16, 2014
You pose / ask a very important question . I don’t have much time at present, however it is vital that communication with all profoundly deaf children begins as soon as possible before they even start school. How, who, when, why ?. Secondly, that which is equally important is the subject of parental involvement at this early stage. This must surely be the most important ingredient of the child’s progress is it’s development with parental support .How is another big ?
Chase me up on this to complete my reply to your ?.
Editor
July 16, 2014
Chasing up! AP
National Deaf Children's Society
July 16, 2014
Thank you for a thought provoking article Andy. The National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS) believes that Family Sign Language (FSL) tuition should be available to all parents of young deaf children who wish to use sign language to support communication and language development.
Currently we are working to help make FSL more widely available. We train professionals on how to teach FSL to families, following our Family Sign Language curriculum which is aimed at parents with children in the early years. We also offer grants to organisations to support the costs of setting up Family Sign Language courses. Visit our FSL website to see what signs are taught to families: http://www.familysignlanguage.org.uk
In England, NDCS is a member of the I-Sign consortium, which recently made recommendations to local authorities to ensure that parents of deaf children can access FSL tuition within the first year after diagnosis. Read more here: http://www.ndcs.org.uk/family_support/how_ndcs_can_help/ndcs_projects/isign/bsl_access_report.html
Natalya D
July 16, 2014
Yes. To me the answer is so obvious, but the reality we live in shows it still needs asking and discussing.
As well as parents and family members being able to access family specific sign classes we need to ensure the deaf child is exposed to fluent signing from native and very fluent signers while their parents are catching up so they are exposed to complex and full linguistic signforms! Hell many oral deaf children don’t get exposed to complex language cos we deaf people can’t learn by incidental learning so well and people don’t tend to talk to children in complex ways even though hearing children will overhear that easily enough.
One of the reasons (there’s many) my family didn’t go with sign for me as a child was cos they worried about how the wider family would access it. My mum felt some would make the effort, indeed a grandparent said they’d help financially with sign classes, but others wouldn’t. Many of my signing friends don’t have parents who sign competently, nevermind grandparents and extended families which makes them quite isolated. Sign is made out to be hard and inferior to oralism (nice speech trumps all) when actually ongoing supportive community spaces for learners to keep in practice would go a long way.
And the option needs to be kept open. There might be times when family sign isn’t right for a family, or they’re dealing with “Too Much Other Stuff” with a new baby and all that brings so the offer needs to be persistently there and made as easy and supportive as possible. 40% of deaf children have other impairments too, so any familysign stuff needs to take into account those other impairments and the impact on family life and the deaf child.
It also needs to be easier for deaf children to learn sign when they are old enough to say they want to learn. I was fingerspelling at age 6 but there didn’t exist any options to allow me access to signing space and I was bullied out of using it at school by my hearing peers. I always wanted to learn but was constantly bullied out of it by oralist agendas which are still polarised into manualism or oralism when a reality of a lot in between is I think a future reality.
CurlyGirly
July 16, 2014
Absolutely agree with this article 100%. Its a disgrace that there aren’t free family sign classes available right across the country. If there was I’m sure my job (Teacher of the Deaf with teenagers) would be made easier if more families had fluent communication with their children from a young age/
Hartmut
July 17, 2014
Deafness creates a social problem in each society. The problem lies in the solely learning how to deal with deaf people and acknowledge the undeniable existence of sign language as one language of the country. It is not a health issue.
Therefore, funding for FSL should come from the public funds rather than from the health insurance, on equal footing with general education for children.
Hartmut
Hartmut
July 17, 2014
“solely” in the second line above should be “society”. Damn this auto-correction.
Lesley Chan
July 17, 2014
A very valid post, we have limited BSL and level 1 as you rightly point out is useless to communicate to our daughter. We are also on a very right budget with one adult working for a family of six and not entitled to any benefits. Also involving shift work therefore very difficult to comit to classes, even if we could afford them.
We are currently an inpatient which is often because of additional needs. Where there is virtually no staff able to do the very basics of BSL, no please, thank you pain, medicine, nappy, food or a simple sorry after inflicting painful procedures… Nothing!! So disappointing after an NHShangeday appeal to the trust via NHSchangeday to encourage staff to try and learn these basic signs.
Disappointed parent as usual !!
Cathy Alexander
July 18, 2014
This post poses more questions than answers! Why are so many sign language classes closing, even if BSL level 1 is inappropriate for a family with a deaf child? Are these deaf children failing to communicate at all in the family or doing well?
The point is if deaf children are not struggling to communicate due to good lipreading skills, cochlear implants and supportive families, then little BSL would be required. Deaf children with implants are most likely using SSE so why would parents request BSL sign language?
It is important for parents to understand that the grammar is fundamentally different between BSL and English and if parents want their children to do well in school educationally, they would do well to use SSE at home all the time.
Forget BSL,it cannot be used to read and write with, even though they wont be doing much literacy at home! But SSE will encourage their English skills, as it follows the same grammatical structure as English itself.
I don’t think we need to worry too much at the lack of of BSL classes for families, when SSE is likely to prove a better communicating tool for them, especially where an implant is worn by a deaf child. This gives the additional bonus of understanding their lessons better and also gives them a fighting chance of keeping up with their peers educationally.
amelieincharge
July 18, 2014
My daughter is partially sighted due to optic nerve colobomas and therefore unable to lip read, she also has no hearing nerves, didn’t form inutero so she will never be a candidate for cochlear implants due to complete nerve agenesis. The school she attends is SSE but she’s done Makaton sign a long and BSL. It’s very difficult and confusing for hearing parents with no support at home to understand and learn. For secondary school we will be going to a BSL unit even further confusing for all of us. So in answer to your post I’ve no idea what’s best all I know is it’s very confusing for individual families like ours.
Methusalada
July 18, 2014
Maybe we can or should all start to rethink from here !
Jayne D
July 18, 2014
A very timely topic for me!
We are delivering a free FSL Weekend here at The Exeter Royal Academy for Deaf Education on October 11th and 12th 2014. If anyone is interested in attending, please contact me, Jayne Dingle at jdingle@exeterdeafacademy.ac.uk or mob:07789 450230
Sue Mountford, Director of Services at RAD
July 18, 2014
At RAD we are committed to Family Sign; we are currently delivering family sign to 20 families in Essex and have previously completed short bespoke courses in the home to a further eight families in the county. We must not underestimate the value of working with the family as a unit; attending a BSL course would not provide the results achieved through work that is tailored to meet the individual and unique needs of each family. We have seen incredible results from our work and will continue supporting the need to provide this valuable support to families everywhere.
Editor
July 18, 2014
Thank you to all who commented on this post. Much appreciated and kudos to RAD, Exeter Deaf Academy and NDCS for thier contributions and the work that they do. AP
Natalie
August 14, 2014
My son is 5 and was diagnosed with a progressive loss a year ago. He has a lot of professionals around him to support him thankfully. What he craves to know is BSL. He has said to me before that talking with people is sometimes too hard and that he would prefer to use sign. I booked on a BSL course to learn so that I could support him and sadly this was cancelled. We have been buying flashcards and attempting to teach ourselves but really need some guidance and this is where family sign language would become very handy, we have an older son and recognise the importance of including him in this new language to us too. Thankfully we have met a specialist social worker who is trying to help us but sadly across the UK not all children have access to the same resources and professionals . Family sign language should be offered to all and I believe that sign should be part of the curriculum in all schools regardless of the type of school.