The theme of this year's Dovencultuurweek was "Time machine". Today a cowboy and two indians came out in stead.
Outdoor games: kids of all ages (4 - 18) played together.
The teenagers helped out a lot with the small children (they had their own activity in the afternoon). Here a dry spaghetti had to be carried to the other side.
Games were explained in sign language. Placing both hands beside your head means: Paying Attention. Everybody copies the sign to spread the word to pay attention.
Lunch. These kids were very assertive and assumed that, since we were adults, we would act the same as the camp leaders. So we served lots of fries, sausages and tomatoes!
Pimp your hearing aid!
Friday, 21 August 2009
Wednesday, 19 August 2009
Quick notes from Dovencultuurweek
Today, we visited the Dovencultuurweek, a summer camp for deaf children at the school. We will post pictures and more details about our impressions later on, but here are a few quick take-aways already:
- Flemish Sign Language is more similar to French Sign Language as it is to Dutch Sign Language
- Deaf people try to attract someone else's attention a lot, by waving (sometimes right in front of your face), grabbing your arm, tapping your arm or sholder, etc.
- It is really easy to talk to deaf kids with CI's, they can hear and talk much much better than you'd expect
- Appropriate physical interaction is an important issue for deaf people and can cause quite some problems
Monday, 10 August 2009
Onici
In my first contribution to the blog I'd like to direct your attention to Onici, an indepedent expert organization on Cochlear Implants (CI). Although the somewhat outdated website may give you the impression that clear communication is not organizations first concern, it does contain some interesting information on the current state of research on CI.
After a first glance at the presentation Onici gave at the beginning of 2009, Onici is clearly (and obviously) enthusiastic about the possibilities CIs offer to hearing impaired people. However, Onici does not shy away to also underline the limitations of the implants.
From what we have learned from the first interviews we have conducted, it seems that the presence of this kind of organization is very much needed. There is a high need for neutral information on CI, as many parents with hearing impaired children have unrealistic expectations towards CI. While the technology is continuously being modified and improved, many children still have difficulties understanding other people in groups. Cognitive issues that are typical for hearing impaired children also arise: difficulties with language comprehension and abstract thinking.
Some years ago, Belgium has introduced newborn screening hearing tests, and as a result CIs get implemented earlier, but it is unclear how this will affect the personal development of deaf people in the long run. Currently, children with CIs still have hearing difficulties in group, and those integrated in mainstream education often feel different from their peers and experience troubles with social integration. These are issues that remain important and that have to be dealt with in specific ways.
CI is also controversial as it is perceived as treathening by some people in the deaf community: they fear that CIs will make deaf and hard-of-hearing school focus solely on oral speach, ignoring sign language and thus can making deaf culture disappear.
To what extent sign language should (still) be teached is a very sensitive issue. Often parents are very reluctant to let their children learn sign language: they want their children to be as normal as possible and they are afraid that sign language will alienate their child from the world and his or her parents. On the other hand, deaf organizations and certain psychologists insist on making sign language a part of the curriculum of deaf and hard-of-hearing children. The decision to whether or not teach sign language is not only controversial, but also important as it determines the future cognitive development, mental well-being and identity of the deaf or hard-of-hearing child.
The decision making here is further clouded by audiologists telling the parents of the children that "the CI will make their child normal again" and CI companies (like Cochlear) ignoring the steps that follow CI implementation.
To avoid further confusion and to be able to make decisions irrespective of all kinds of possibly unrealistic expectations surrounding CIs, an organizations like Onici is important. Therefore, we hope to be able to add their voice to the research data.
Pieter
After a first glance at the presentation Onici gave at the beginning of 2009, Onici is clearly (and obviously) enthusiastic about the possibilities CIs offer to hearing impaired people. However, Onici does not shy away to also underline the limitations of the implants.
From what we have learned from the first interviews we have conducted, it seems that the presence of this kind of organization is very much needed. There is a high need for neutral information on CI, as many parents with hearing impaired children have unrealistic expectations towards CI. While the technology is continuously being modified and improved, many children still have difficulties understanding other people in groups. Cognitive issues that are typical for hearing impaired children also arise: difficulties with language comprehension and abstract thinking.
Some years ago, Belgium has introduced newborn screening hearing tests, and as a result CIs get implemented earlier, but it is unclear how this will affect the personal development of deaf people in the long run. Currently, children with CIs still have hearing difficulties in group, and those integrated in mainstream education often feel different from their peers and experience troubles with social integration. These are issues that remain important and that have to be dealt with in specific ways.
CI is also controversial as it is perceived as treathening by some people in the deaf community: they fear that CIs will make deaf and hard-of-hearing school focus solely on oral speach, ignoring sign language and thus can making deaf culture disappear.
To what extent sign language should (still) be teached is a very sensitive issue. Often parents are very reluctant to let their children learn sign language: they want their children to be as normal as possible and they are afraid that sign language will alienate their child from the world and his or her parents. On the other hand, deaf organizations and certain psychologists insist on making sign language a part of the curriculum of deaf and hard-of-hearing children. The decision to whether or not teach sign language is not only controversial, but also important as it determines the future cognitive development, mental well-being and identity of the deaf or hard-of-hearing child.
The decision making here is further clouded by audiologists telling the parents of the children that "the CI will make their child normal again" and CI companies (like Cochlear) ignoring the steps that follow CI implementation.
To avoid further confusion and to be able to make decisions irrespective of all kinds of possibly unrealistic expectations surrounding CIs, an organizations like Onici is important. Therefore, we hope to be able to add their voice to the research data.
Pieter
Sunday, 9 August 2009
Flemish sign language dictionary
I just found another cool website, where you can find all Flemish sign language signs for letters, numbers, but also for a lot of words (click "NL naar VGT"):
http://gebaren.ugent.be/zoeken.php
This video is an example I downloaded from the website: "computer" in Flemish sign language (VGT - Vlaamse GebarenTaal):
http://gebaren.ugent.be/zoeken.php
This video is an example I downloaded from the website: "computer" in Flemish sign language (VGT - Vlaamse GebarenTaal):
Nethnography
Just a quick post to share some ideas I've been thinking about to extend our research. We are currently doing a literature review (suggestions are welcome!) to find out what has been done already in the area of user-centered design, codesign, creative and generative methods, etc. with deaf children. In one of the articles I found some interesting links to websites that might help us to further understand the deaf community:
- a website for deaf gamers
- Facebook group "Deaf"
- Facebook group "Deaf Power" (remember that Mascha mentioned this?)
- Facebook group "Deaf all around the world"
Thursday, 6 August 2009
Interview with the head of the school's living communities
The boarding school - living communitiesOur final interview was with the head of the school's living communities, consisting of deaf and hard-of-hearing kids who live at the school from Monday to Friday. Some children are only at the school during the day. The head explains that for many parents, raising a deaf child is not so easy. They are suddenly confronted with the world of the deaf and do not 'speak' sign language. Also, many children prefer to live in the living community because they feel at home there. They feel that it's the only place where they are truly understood and they like to be with peers. According to the head, deaf children hardly have hearing friends. The different living communities represent different age groups: nursery school kids, 2,5 - 7 year olds, elementary school kids, and older kids.
Autonomy and identity
Themes that are important for the kids in the living communities are autonomy and identity. The head explains the importance of confronting deaf children with deaf adult role models by two cases that illustrates the unrealistic view of being deaf of these children. First, he tells that once a couple of elderly deaf ladies visited the school. A class of children saw these ladies 'speak' sign language in the hallway and asked the head "What have these ladies done that they are still deaf?". Another story is about a 16-year old girl. After the head returned from a trip to the UK, he told her that he had visited a club for deaf people there. The girl, asked unbelievingly: "But do they have deaf people there as well?". About autonomy, the ehad explains that this is a difficult issue for all boarding school children. Especially enjoying oneself in free time is hard for them. In the living communities of the school, children are encourages to find something to do themselves.
Relational development
Another important issue that the head raises is the disturbed relational development of deaf children. Many of the children show inappropriate behaviour related to forming relationships. For instance, many deaf children think it is normal to touch women's breasts. The problem is, says the head, that the children see lots of visual information about relationships (e.g. on tv, Internet, cinema, magazines), but they miss all or most auditory information accompanying the visual information. At the school they try to give the children a more realistic view on relationships, but the problem remains that they mostly have to rely on visual information.
Dovencultuurweek
Besides being the head of the boarding school groups, the head is also the main organiser of the "Dovencultuurweek". The boarding school children can also stay at the school during the holidays and about 7 or 8 years ago, the Dovencultuurweek was started to organise activities focused on deaf culture and sign language. During the Dovencultuurweek, all activities are run by deaf adults and everybody 'speaks' sign language. Every year, a theme is chosen for the week, with matching activities. Pieter and I will spend a day at the school during this week, on Wednesday August 17th. We will then be the only ones who don't speak sign language!
The school's House of the Future
Just before we're about to leave, the head briefly mentions that the school is doing a project called "House of the Future". When we ask for details, it appears that the school is building a house full of domotics. The idea of the concept of the House of the Future is to create a house that compensates for hearing impairments as much as possible. The kitchen will be the central part of the house, overlooking the living room. Between different living communities there will be a passageway which can both be open and closed. The head mentions the metaphor of "one big familiy with the option to separate the younger and older kids". In addition, he says that deaf kids think of their class mates as their family. the school is implementing all technological innovations in the house they can afford. Examples of such innovations are touch screens with high-speed connections for video phone calls (to use sign language a high speed of at least 30 frames / second is required), an induction loop system, vibrating mattresses (for central alarms and alarm clocks), and flash alarms. The house is also prepared for future domotics applications. According to plan, the house will be finished in January of 2010 and will from then function as a home for two groups of boarding school children and as a show case for ICT at home for deaf people.
Wednesday, 5 August 2009
Interview with the sign language teacher
Teaching sign language at the schoolThe sign language teacher used to be the speech therapist, but since a couple of years she is focusing on the use of sign language as a support for the normal themes of the lessons. Many deaf children have difficulties understanding the lessons because they find it difficult to understand spoken/written language. These children are guided by sign language teacher who discusses the themes of the lessons by using both spoken/written language and sign language. She is the only sign language teacher, so the time she can spend with each child is limited.
sign language teacher emphasizes the fact that she doesn't actively teach the children to use sign language. She also refers to the taboo on the use of sign language at schools that was the dominant view on education for deaf people for a long time. Only since a couple of years she is allowed to use sign language with the children, but she is not allowed to explicitly teach sign language.
Sign language and spoken/written languageThe sign language teacher explains that the structure of sign language is completely different from the structure of spoken/written language. Translating spoken/written language into sign language literally would make sign language way too slow. In addition, our visual memory has less capacity than our verbal memory, so it is harder to remember a long sentence in sign language than it is in spoken/written language. An example of a difference between sign language and spoken/written language is that in sign language elements from a sentence (mostly objects and subjects) are assigned a location in space. These locations are pointed at when referring to the original elements. This allows for a more speedy use of language and requires less visual memory than constantly repeating the names of the elements.
According to the sign language teacher, the most important reason for deaf children to learn sign language, is that you need to have a strongly developed native language in order to learn other languages later in life (including spoken/written language for deaf children). Children go through a critical period for language learning between the ages of 0 to 5/6 years. In this period, children are able to learn a native language, build their vocabulary, learn to use refined language, start to understand humor, etc. At later ages this is more difficult.
Problems with spoken/written languageEven though almost all deaf children have CI's nowadays, the need to learn sign language is still there. Because even with a CI, deaf children don't hear as much as we do, they miss a lot of auditory information. As a result, deaf children tend to think more black & white, with less nuances. Common language problems for deaf children include sentence constructions, wish expressions ("I wish I had brought my umbrella" includes the past tense (had), which is confusing because a wish is expressed) and the use of articles. Also, text comprehension is very difficult.
Identity and deaf cultureThe sign language teacher emphasizes the importance of the clubs for deaf people, especially for the children's sense of identity and their self confidence. She mentions that for deaf people it is not uncommon to show a lack of perseverance and to "play the victim". By stimulating deaf children to be proud and to fight for their rights, they become more assertive. The teacher gives an example of a girl of whom the teachers thought she was not too bright because she was very introvert and appeared to learn little. After participating in the lessons about deaf culture, this girl became much more assertive and asks for a translator if she needs one. She mentions the term Deaf Proud, which is used in English a lot by deaf communities. Also, the distinction between deaf and Deaf seems to be quite common (deaf refers to physical issues related to being deaf, Deaf refers to identity of deaf people).
Karin
sign language teacher emphasizes the fact that she doesn't actively teach the children to use sign language. She also refers to the taboo on the use of sign language at schools that was the dominant view on education for deaf people for a long time. Only since a couple of years she is allowed to use sign language with the children, but she is not allowed to explicitly teach sign language.
Sign language and spoken/written languageThe sign language teacher explains that the structure of sign language is completely different from the structure of spoken/written language. Translating spoken/written language into sign language literally would make sign language way too slow. In addition, our visual memory has less capacity than our verbal memory, so it is harder to remember a long sentence in sign language than it is in spoken/written language. An example of a difference between sign language and spoken/written language is that in sign language elements from a sentence (mostly objects and subjects) are assigned a location in space. These locations are pointed at when referring to the original elements. This allows for a more speedy use of language and requires less visual memory than constantly repeating the names of the elements.According to the sign language teacher, the most important reason for deaf children to learn sign language, is that you need to have a strongly developed native language in order to learn other languages later in life (including spoken/written language for deaf children). Children go through a critical period for language learning between the ages of 0 to 5/6 years. In this period, children are able to learn a native language, build their vocabulary, learn to use refined language, start to understand humor, etc. At later ages this is more difficult.
Problems with spoken/written languageEven though almost all deaf children have CI's nowadays, the need to learn sign language is still there. Because even with a CI, deaf children don't hear as much as we do, they miss a lot of auditory information. As a result, deaf children tend to think more black & white, with less nuances. Common language problems for deaf children include sentence constructions, wish expressions ("I wish I had brought my umbrella" includes the past tense (had), which is confusing because a wish is expressed) and the use of articles. Also, text comprehension is very difficult.
Identity and deaf cultureThe sign language teacher emphasizes the importance of the clubs for deaf people, especially for the children's sense of identity and their self confidence. She mentions that for deaf people it is not uncommon to show a lack of perseverance and to "play the victim". By stimulating deaf children to be proud and to fight for their rights, they become more assertive. The teacher gives an example of a girl of whom the teachers thought she was not too bright because she was very introvert and appeared to learn little. After participating in the lessons about deaf culture, this girl became much more assertive and asks for a translator if she needs one. She mentions the term Deaf Proud, which is used in English a lot by deaf communities. Also, the distinction between deaf and Deaf seems to be quite common (deaf refers to physical issues related to being deaf, Deaf refers to identity of deaf people).
Karin
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