Presentation Video
Pam:Research has been done since before the 1970’s on this and that’s where they determined that deaf individuals can only read at a 4th grade level on average came from. Its based on old research, do you want to talk a little about where that notion came from?
Elsie:Absolutely. Most of the time, the research process is based on studies by using a specific control group. The participants of the control group is a group of hearing individuals and their first language (L1) is English. The control group is used as the main group and the other groups including deaf individuals are constantly compared with the control group. This sets a dangerous precedent and that is how the data are collected. The other groups will always lose because they are not meeting the “standards” established by the control group. Is the research fair? It is not.
Pam:There are two groups being tested. There’s one group whose L1 is English against someone whose L2 is English. They’re not the only ones, deaf individuals who read at that 4th grade reading level. There are also those who speak Spanish as their primary language or those who come from other countries-- they tend to also be behind in their reading levels. So for a second language acquisition of English, it is pretty typical for individuals to be behind, not in language, no, but in reading levels.
Let’s make this distinction of language and reading. You have reading, language and cognition. People often test reading levels and then make the assumption that their language is also behind when they’re two completely separate entities.
The same goes for cognition as well. It is very separate, but often times it is only reading levels that get tested. That’s extremely dangerous because, perhaps they’re a little behind in their reading, and then it is automatically assumed they’re behind linguistically and cognitively when truly they’re only behind in their reading levels, not behind linguistically and cognitively.
A lot of determinations about a child are made based on reading levels. Unfortunately, this makes the notion that deaf individuals can only read at a 4th grade reading level persist and still affects how people evaluate their language and cognition. I’ve seen it in deaf education programs when they declare: “Oh, you know children hit a glass ceiling when it comes to reading at a 4th grade level.” When they say that this is typical for deaf children, or say that there’s even a glass ceiling, it is dangerous. They put it on the kid, deciding that their cognition has also reached its limit. This is dangerous. If they were tested cognitively or on their expressive language skills, they could be right on par with their peers and their results would be much higher. I’ve seen it when I taught for 9 years. Their struggle is with reading, specifically, and I avoid making that jump to the assumption that deaf children also have cognitive and linguistic issues.
Elsie:Exactly. A lot of research is published without deliberation about the history of reading. Often researchers will simply cite resources while not seeking deeper issues. There are a lot of citations out there but what’s missing is what happened right at the birth which is Motherese. Did the parents share language and information with their baby? Was there eye contact with the parent? Did the parents sign bigger? These are vital to raising a deaf child and many missed this. So to compare deaf children with the control group is not the right way to do contain research. Keep in mind, the control group is L1 users. They always had full access to language and communication from birth. The group of deaf children rarely had full access to language and communication from birth. Therefore, the data is invalid.
Pam:Now if we look at that 4th grade reading level, we need to look at why. Let’s put deaf education aside for now and look at curriculum nationwide in the United States and what actually happens at the 4th grade. Let’s go back to kindergarten through 3rd grade, the educational focus typically is on teaching the child to learn how to read. That’s pretty typical for public schools in the United States for children whose first language is English. Now at the 4th grade level there’s a shift to independent reading and reading to learn. That’s when that shift happens and that’s when many children whose second language is English struggle, including deaf children. And to make matters worse, teachers typically who are teaching deaf children to read, foster dependence from the child. They hope to help the child do better and give extra information, ask leading questions. Deaf children often develop a dependence on the teacher, then at 4th grade, all of a sudden they’re expected to read independently when all along they’ve been helped in their reading.
If we teach them to be independent from the get go, that shift of reading independently and reading to learn will be more effective. We need to have a different type of teaching that allows that to happen so learning how to read and making that shift to reading to learn will be more successful.
If we keep saying that that deaf child is the problem and their cognition is the issue, we won’t get anywhere. We need to really look at the curriculum and the teachers that are not prepared to make the shift with the students to develop that independence. If we develop independence and if we change that from the get go, the notion of the 4th grade reading level average will no longer be there.
Elsie:Do you want to talk a little about the controlled communication that occurs as well?
Pam:Sure sure. Often times if a teacher struggles to communicate with a deaf child or there is some miscommunication, they will ask the child many questions, such as what or who questions, and control the conversation. For example, there are situations where the teacher will prompt the child: “tell him” or “ask her” or “tell me.” What’s happening here is that the child doesn’t develop those independent communication skills. So how can they learn to read independently if they haven’t learned to effectively communicate independently?
Teachers need to work on empowering their students to communicate independently with their peers and let them be the conversation starters. Or ask them a general question to allow them to have that reciprocal communication and learn how to become independent, then consequently, they’ll be better able to learn how to read independently. We can’t expect that independence if they haven’t developed that independence conversationally.
Elsie:Right, there are a lot of factors as to why they might be behind and we always look at thinking that having an adult there is the best way to learn. Do you want to talk about that?
Pam:Sure, there’s been some research done in Australia on one tribe. There are 3 different communities where this tribe lives. One lives in an urban area, one lives a little bit kind of in the middle and the third lives far in a rural area. The third group adheres to and speaks their own language, doesn’t use English at all. The middle group is more mixed, using both their language and English. They use English for specific situations only. The first group that lives in the city uses English for political and economic purposes and such. The study focuses on the middle group where the parents speak English for specific situations, but within their community they’re speaking their own language. Now the children in that second group became more proficient in English than their parents. And the reason for that is they were talking with each other, with their peers. They would learn the English from their parents, but they would practice and develop skills from having independent conversations with their own peers. Kids don’t practice their language skills with adults as much as they do their peers.
Elsie:Right, we often talk about early intervention, that’s the missing link with these deaf children and what’s the best solution. And I think that having peers with these deaf children will really help their language acquisition skills.
Pam:Right, socializing is very important, no matter what level they’re at. As long as there isn’t controlled conversation. They can learn from adults but then can practice independent conversational skills and that will lead down the road to independent reading.
Elsie:And remember when you’re looking at studies and information, don’t just look at the numbers of participants and that type of thing but you need to look at who’s involved and what’s their age, what’s their background, what type of family are they from, ethnic and racial backgrounds, socioeconomic status. You can’t make a generalization based off of one group. Individuals who do that are very irresponsible. Their research can cause a lot of damage to the community because that seems to be what’s happening currently.
Pam:Nationwide, when we look at the reading issue, we have to become more responsible with how we disseminate the information. We can’t just say, ”Oh well, deaf children commonly can only read at a 4th grade level on average,” “They only fall into a range,” or “They hit this reading ceiling.” Instead of using this language, we need to look at the “why.”
And one way of doing that is by looking at the fields of education, linguistics, second language acquisition, and psychology. To look at these fields separately is not going to work. There needs to be more interconnectivity. The deaf community is small, deaf education is small, so it needs to be more of an interdisciplinary approach and we can find a solution and be more successful with our children. If we look at it from a really narrow perspective is not going to be successful.
Elsie:Community accountability is very important. We need to keep up with new research. It is dangerous to leave it all on researchers and stay in the dark. By then, they’ll have published a lot of things that does not reflect us correctly. For example, there are lots of great scientific research published by a specific science organization yet where are the information in American Sign Language? Where are the videos in ASL? They are talking about ASL in written English. That is odd. This activity is called Linguicism. It means one language is perceived as superior to another language, creating discrimination.
Pam:Right, there’s a lot of great research out there, and it’s all published in English, which is fine if it’s a published article. That makes sense. But we need more workshops, where is the information sharing with psychologists, educators, those working in language acquisition and with linguists, and such? My perspective is that having that, “Oh well on average deaf people can only read at that 4th grade reading level” viewpoint is because we’re not using that interdisciplinary approach. If we can have that type of approach, we can then change the way we look at things, and maybe phrase it as, “Deaf children have a hard time transitioning from dependent to independent readers.” That’s more accurate and factual. And if we get together and have more workshops and more information sharing I think that we can be more successful in this area, I really do believe that.
Elsie:Exactly. One more thing I want to add is that if you’re a researcher you are responsible for what you publish. You hold a lot of power. It is dangerous if you publish a research without any conscience. When there are issues with your research, you need to come back and fix your mistake. Observe accordingly with different frameworks then publish your work.
Pam:Right. To say well, “This is just what it is.” No, there’s more to the story. We need to make sure we’re presenting it in a more holistic fashion.