Sign and School: Using Signs in Deaf Children's Development

Born in a world of vision and movement, deaf children from an early age and without apparent difficulty, learn to use these media to create a natural sign language. For nearly the last 100 years, educators and parents zealously over-anxious to make these children acceptable in a hearing world, have ignored this language and have immersed their children in a puzzling world of lip-read patterns and indecipherable sound. Now a new approach is appearing in deaf education where the skills and language of the child are exploited to the full to deliver an education which is accessible and meaningful. This innovation does not require us to give up the goal of children being able to function in a hearing world nor even lose sight of the aim of mastering the spoken and written language of the majority. Rather it is a new way of gaining entry to the world, a way in which deaf children can be valued for themselves instead of being seen as delayed and deviant. Sign and School is a book about this change in approach. These new, challenging ideas for the first time offer a real bridge between the world of deaf people and the accumulated knowledge of hearing people. The book is dedicated to Professor Dr Bernard Tervoort, researcher, educator and linguist of the University of Amsterdam whose dedication to deaf children and their communication has made him a renowned international figure. Innovator and discoverer in his research career of over thirty years, he becomes a catalyst in this special collection of new work of colleagues from thirteen countries. As with all of Tervoort's work this book is directed at all those professionals and parents with a concern for deaf children.