FOR BSL- Why British Sign Language should be taught to

ALL school children

What is British sign language (BSL)?

It is a “visual-spatial language… (which) uses hand shapes, hand movements and facial expression to convey meaning” (BBC See Hear, 2006)

There are records of signing being used in the 16th Century

It has been a recognised language in the UK since 2003 (RNID, 2009 & MyChild website, 2010)

There are local variations in the signs used and there are grammatical rules that are different to the British language

An example of a signed word

Images from: http://www.britishsignlanguage.com/words/index.php?id=46

A history of BSL

1576- Records of a signed wedding ceremony 1698- Two handed alphabet is published in a pamphlet 1760- 1st school for the deaf opens 1880- Deaf educators vote for the oral method to be used in

schools 1889- British Government vote to use oral methods in schools 1890- British Deaf and Dumb Association founded (later BDA) 1893- UK Education act results in compulsory education for all 1974- Research proves that BSL is a language due to the

presence of grammatical rules 1980’s- Courses set up to train deaf individuals to become BSL

teachers 1992- 1st BSL dictionary published 2003- British Government recognise BSL as an official language

Statistics

Approximately 688,000 individuals with a severe to profound level of deafness (RNID, 2009).

20,000 children with a severe to profound hearing loss and approximately 12,000 of these were born deaf (RNID, 2009).

These individuals will struggle to hear and understand everyday conversations and so BSL enables them to communicate easily with other BSL users.

Who currently uses sign language?

Everyday people use non-verbal communication which is a form of sign language

A nodding or shaking of the head is an example

Different types of jobs use sign language, such as divers, those working in a noisy environment

(signedlanguage.co.uk)

Anyone else?

There are estimated to be “50,000 deaf people in the Britain who have no functional understanding of written English and whose only language is British Sign Language (BSL).” (Darby, 2001)

An estimate in 1999 suggested there are “over 70,000 people whose first or preferred language is BSL” (BDA Sign language policy, 1999)

There have been cases of children with normal hearing who learn to sign before they can speak

Human rights

1) UN Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, religious or Linguistic Minorities (Article 2.1) 18 December 1992.2) Two cultures together.3) Deaf Ex-Mainstreamers Group (DEX) wants performance standards. (DEX 2010)

4) Attainment gap and teacher training.5) Awareness of BSL.6) Support and sustainability for BSL in education.Teachernet (2009)

Further human rights issues

7) Choice, rights and inclusion.8) Language, identity and culture.9) UN Convention- Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities. Article 21- Freedom of expression, opinion and access to information. Grove (2006)

10) Survival in wider world.(Whetnall 1971)

11) Choice by the child and equal opportunities.12) Adult development.13) Inequalities in education.(Smith 1992)

Negative implications of being unable to communicate

DepressionLoss of identity and confidence“an inability to use British Sign

Language” (Barlow, 2007)IsolationEmbarrassment and humiliationChildren find it hard to make

friends (Laeb and Sarigiani, 1986) “when BSL interpreters are not

available it leads to an exclusion of a section of society and can cause serious problems” (K-international, 2009)

Advantages of effective communication

“Communication is the ability to express positive and negative ideas and feelings in an open, honest and direct way. It recognises our rights whilst still respecting the rights of others. It allows us to take responsibility for ourselves and our actions without judging or blaming other people. And it allows us to constructively confront and find a mutually satisfying solution where conflict exists.”By (Hopkins, Lee "Assertive Communication)

There are many advantages effective communication, most notably these: · It helps us feel good about ourselves and others · It leads to the development of mutual respect with others · It increases our self-esteem · It helps us achieve our goals · It minimises hurting and alienating other people · It reduces anxiety · It protects us from being taken advantage of by others · It enables us to make decisions and free choices in life · It enables us to express, both verbally and non-verbally, a wide range of feelings and thoughts, both positive and negative

(Hopkins, Lee "Assertive Communication)

Further examples

• Effective communication builds strong business and personal relationships because you learn to understand exactly what people want and how to give it to them. Learn to communicate your thoughts and emotions in ways that they instinctively understand at an unconscious level. (Grahams Gibbs)

• If you have a sore throat or laryngitis, you don’t need to speak to communicate (assuming you teach your friends and family to sign.( Phil Lewis )

• If you have a concert where its loud or far away from some one you need to talk to, you can communicate without yelling.( Phil Lewis )

Benefits to speech and language (1)

Sign language can help facilitate verbal language development in babies.

A longitudinal study conducted by Goodwyn et al (2000) evaluated the effect on speech development in 103 hearing infants, by encouraging them to use simple gestures as symbols for objects, requests, and conditions.• The parents of infants in the experimental group (sign training group) encouraged their infants to communicate with symbolic gestures. The control groups knew nothing of symbolic gestures. This consisted of a verbal training (VT) and a non-intervention (NC) group.

Infants from all three groups were tested in the lab at 11, 15, 19, 24, 30, and 36 months, each session was videotaped, and a variety of standardized measures of both receptive and expressive were administered.

Results- Verbal training does not impact on the performance of the children when compared to the non-intervention group. Symbolic gesturing does not hamper verbal development but may even facilitate it.

Benefits to speech and language (2)

Basic forms can be used by babies (signedlanguage.co.uk, 2009) Increases child confidence and reduces frustration The local sign language dialect can be learnt- a national

programme could cut out colloquial signs Deaf children who communicate through sign language from

birth can communicate as well as those children using a spoken language (Kumar et. Al, 2009)

Children will develop better communication (Kumar et. AL, 2009)

Developing bilingual skills allows access to a greater number of opportunities, including schools (Kumar et. Al, 2009)

Sign language can develop children's speech ability to other languages, even if they have a hearing impairment (signedlanguage.co.uk, 2009)

Evidence of the benefits

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gSZfW4gVhI&feature=player_embedded

Children who are deaf can also ‘sign sing’ and learn nursery rhymes

Your turn

I have taught some BSL to children when I was a primary school teacher. They were always very enthusiastic.

Sign language is•       Fun

•       Expressive

•       Interactive

It is very easy to start having conversations with. So I thought I would show you how easy and fun it is by us all having a go!

Practicalities (1)

Arguments against teaching BSL include the practicalities of bringing it into the school curriculum and include lack of specialist teachers, room on an already crowded timetable

One particular school was looked at-Christchurch Junior School in Dorset- to see how Spanish was successfully introduced from starting position of no previous Spanish teaching and no specialist teachers. Strategies include;•       A number of teachers attending basic BSL evening course.•        Other teachers taught basics on teacher training days and in staff meetings .•        Lunch time and after school clubs set up for children to practise Spanish skills.•       All classes had1 hour timetabled for Spanish- to include fun activities and games, role play etc.•       Spanish brought into other curriculum areas such as art,

geography, dance.•       Board displays were situated in classrooms and around the school.•       Annual Spanish week established.

Practicalities (2)

Result- successful integration of Spanish onto the primary curriculum.

Principles and ideas could easily transferred to bring BSL into the curriculum.

Potential for weeks to focus on deaf awareness

Sign language is a powerful medium for expression through dance and music, some deaf individuals sign sing in BSL.

Children may want to continue to study BSL

An example of a sign singing concert in the USA from front.bc.ba

Personal experiences (1)

Tanya 28yrs has been deaf since birth and communicated by sign language with her family.

Her feelings on sign language are:- Can divide people as it is a whole new language which many people don't know.- People can "run away" from someone who signs because they don't know how to deal with them- It is difficult to communicate in shops- You get used to not communicating with anyone outside of your network- At school some friends learnt sign language which made communicating a lot of fun- It is always a great feeling when someone starts to sign back to you when you didn't realised they could sign- She thinks children should learn to sign as it is a great skill to have- It will open their minds to learning other languages- Thinks it is "...a great asset for a person to communicate with sign language, just as much as any other language“ (www.signedlanguage.co.uk)

Personal experiences (2)

Family two consists of: one 11 yr old girl, three boys aged 4, 5 and 9. The 9 yr old boy has a profound hearing loss, but the others have normal hearing. The 9 year old is also autistic and has a speech delay The family is low middle class with few means of paying for high healthcare costs

“They reported that he signs less and acts out his intentions when he becomes frustrated. Early last year, he was a candidate for a cochlear implant but was denied one due to his diagnosis of autism. He was also eligible to attend the Texas School for the Deaf, but the parents were unable to find a means to transport him to Austin. They also feared that he would not be able to cope in a new environment in the absence of his family members”.

In sum, signing is an essential part of functional daily life for this family. Even though the parents sought testing and medical insurance coverage to facilitate additional communication methods with their 9 year old son, the benefits that sign language brought to them greatly improved their communication and allowed them to cope.

Research from UNT health science centre (social and behavioural sciences/public health department)

Conclusion

Speech and Language DevelopmentEffective CommunicationNegative implications of being unable to

communicateHuman RightPracticalities of teaching Sign Language to

all

References (1)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/seehear/info/bsl.shtml http://www.mychild.co.uk/articles/learning-british

-sign-language-131

Darby, A. (2001) War Resisters’ International- The fourth language [online], Nottingham, Available: http://www.wri-irg.org/node/2228 [accessed 06/03/10].

www.k-international.com/bsl Image of deaf child:

http://www.csdf.k12.ca.us/outreach/resources/deaf-ed.htm

References (2)

Deaf Ex-Mainstreamers Group (DEX) (2010) Scottish Sensory Centre: Benchmarking Sign-Bilingual Education, Wakefield. Available: http://www.ssc.education.ed.ac.uk/courses/deaf/dex.html [Accessed 04/03/10].

Teachernet (2009) BSL pilot project, Available from: http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/wholeschool/sen/datatypes/vihimsi/bslpp/ [Accessed 04/03/10].

Grove, N. (2006) “Signing For Children with Special Needs”, ISVR1014-15318: Common Learning Programme: Patient/Client/Carer Perspectives [online], available: http://blackboard.soton.ac.uk/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1&url=%2fwebapps%2fblackboard%2fexecute%2flauncher%3ftype%3dCourse%26id%3d_107050_1%26url%3d [accessed 05/03/10].

Darby, A. (2001) War Resisters’ International- The fourth language [online], Nottingham, Available: http://www.wri-irg.org/node/2228 [accessed 06/03/10].

Petty, T. and Glass, E. (2008) BSL Dictionary: Deaf Awareness [online], Edinburgh: Stories in the Air, Available from: http://www.learnbsl.org/deafawareness.htm [Accessed 06/03/10].

Whetnall, E. and Fry, B. (1971) The Deaf Child 3rd ed. London: William Heinemann Medical Books Limited.

Smith, C. (1992) Sign In Sight, London: Souvenir Press (Educational & Academic) Ltd

References (3)

Munoz-Baell, Irma M., Ruiz, Teresa M (2000) 'Empowering the Deaf. Let the deaf be deaf Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health [online] 54 (1) Available from: http://jech.bmj.com/content/54/1/40.full [Accessed 5th March 2010]

Barlow, Julie H., Turner, Andrew P., Hammond, Christina L. and Gailey, Loraine(2007) 'Living with late deafness: Insight from between worlds', International Journal of Audiology [online], 46: 8, 442-448 Available from: http://pdfserve.informaworld.com/747852_731198554_780756997.pdf [Accessed 5th March 2010]

Aguayo, Miguel O., Coady, Nick F. (2001) 'The Experience of Deafened Adults: Implications of Rehabilitative Services' Health and Social Work [online] 26 (4) 269-274 Available from: http://docserver.ingentaconnect.com/deliver/connect/nasw/03607283/v26n4/s7.pdf?expires=1267814337&id=55409503&titleid=6450&accname=University+of+Southampton&checksum=77493566374EE4C2197DB5EA9BA4D0DB [Accessed 5th March 2010]

Warren and Hassenstab in Bench, John (1992) Communication Skills in Hearing Impaired Children Newcastle on Tyne, Whurr Publisher Ltd.Laeb and Sarigiani in Bench, John (1992) Communication Skills in Hearing Impaired Children Newcastle on Tyne, Whurr Publisher Ltd

References (4)

Phil Lewis (Sign language association) Grahams Gibbs (student manual learning in teams) MLA Style Citation:

Hopkins, Lee "Assertive Communication - 6 Tips For Effective Use." Assertive Communication - 6 Tips For Effective Use. 19 Jan. 2005 EzineArticles.com. 9 Mar. 2010 <http://ezinearticles.com/?Assertive- Communication- - - 6- Tips- For- Effective- Use&id=10259>.

APA Style Citation:Hopkins, L. (2005, January 19). Assertive Communication - 6 Tips For Effective Use. Retrieved March 9, 2010, from http://ezinearticles.com/?Assertive- Communication- - - 6- Tips- For- Effective- Use&id=10259

Chicago Style Citation:Hopkins, Lee "Assertive Communication - 6 Tips For Effective Use." Assertive Communication - 6 Tips For Effective Use EzineArticles.com. http://ezinearticles.com/?Assertive- Communication- - - 6- Tips- For- Effective- Use&id=10259

References (4)

Kumar et al. (2009) Communication outcomes of children with permanent hearing loss developing speaking and signing concurrently: A Review. International Journal of speech-language Pathology. 11 (2) 135-146

www.signedlanguage.co.uk Goodwyn, S; Acredolo, L; and Brown, C. (2000). Impact of

symbolic gesturing on early language development, Journal of nonverbal behaviour, 24, p81-103

Image of a sign singing concert: http://front.bc.ca/image?id=415

Communication image: http://www.communicationmatters.org.uk/Publications/Videos/The_Power_of_Communication/Fig_-_Power_of_Communication.jpg

Images the signed word ‘wind’ : http://www.britishsignlanguage.com/words/index.php?id=46