Deaf Adults as Role Models for the Hearing World: A Literature Review

Abstract

<p>Although deaf role model projects have existed for some time and their benefits and outcomes for deaf children/young people and their parents have been recorded, almost no attention has been paid to the experiences of the deaf people who take on these roles. Additionally, the experiences of being a deaf role model have been little explored in the literature. This paper explores available literature on role models for supporting families of deaf children and hearing practitioners. Most deaf people (about 95%), all over the world, have hearing parents and do not meet deaf adults and sign language before the age that formal primary education starts. The majority of hearing parents do not come in touch with deafness even after their child is diagnosed of being deaf. But it’s really crucial for families to have resources that allow them to help their child develop language and have full interaction with their family. Additionally, deaf role models can play a vital role in the development of deaf children’s knowledge, skills, and perceptions. Further work would be also required to understand the longer-term benefits and further developments that deaf role models may wish to initiate.</p><p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0909/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

The Experiences and Perceptions of Teachers of the Deaf Children in a South African Sign Language Class

“…It is claimed that teachers who lacked the proper qualifications also lacked the understanding of deafness (Storbeck 1998) and its impact on EFAL learning, the learning style and the skills of educating children who are Deaf, notably the teaching of Sign Language. Giaouri, Hatzopoulou, Karipi, Alevriadou & Kourbetis (2022) argue that SL knowledge should be a prerequisite for practitioners involved in the education of Deaf children. Presently, this is not the case in schools for the Deaf in South Africa.…”

“…Nonetheless, the participants expressed their worry about Deaf teaching assistants who were hired based on SASL fluency rather than subject-matter knowledge. They do have an understanding of the challenges Deaf individuals face and knowledge gained from their experiences (Hoffmeister & Cadwell 2014;Hrastinksi & Wilbur 2016) but they have limited knowledge on matters related to curriculum (Magongwa 2010;Giaouri et al 2022). For the fact that Deaf adults have a better understanding of the Deaf world and SL, which is significant for teaching language, they should be provided with formal training for professional development (Gaouri et al 2022).…”