Saskatchewan Deaf & Hard of Hearing Services, a Saskatoon organization providing services for the deaf, is expressing concerns over the way children who are deaf are taught in the classroom.
Public schools offer one form of sign language, while the deaf community advocates for another.
Noah Van Ee was born with profound hearing loss and has a cochlear implant. He communicates by using American Sign Language (ASL).
“We started with ASL and we watched our son blossom,” Noah’s mother Sonja said.
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The three-year-old will be starting school in the coming years, so it’s something his parents have begun to plan for.
ASL is preferred by many in the deaf community. They believe it’s a better way of communicating, but the language is not offered in public schools.
“A lot of children don’t have access. They don’t know their culture, they don’t know their identity, they don’t know their language,” John Warren, a counsellor with Saskatchewan Deaf & Hard of Hearing Services, said through an interpreter.
The group says ASL not being offered at school has forced many families to leave the province, as they feel their child is being denied a basic right. The Saskatoon Public Schools division says signed English is a better form of communication.
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Signed English uses exact English vocabulary and grammar.
“We are very proud of our program. When we look over time at what our students are able to achieve in school and beyond, we see demonstrable success,” Cathy Gaudet, a hearing resources teacher with the public school division, said.
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In public schools, deaf children are integrated in the classroom along with children who can hear, something that many feel can threaten their learning, Warren said.
“You have this view of yourself that hearing children are smarter than you: ‘I don’t seem to be able to learn as well as everyone else.’ And that starts to become my belief system about myself,” Warren said.
“Our students feel part of their community. They feel part of their classroom and they’re just like all their other peers,” Gaudet countered.
For Sonja Van Ee, offering her son ASL training is top of mind.
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