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Describing the communitySome people are 'born into' the Deaf community in an obvious way as the children of Deaf parents. These are the minority since only 5% of the Community will have both parents Deaf and a further 5% may have one parent Deaf. Up to 20% will have a deaf brother or sister (Kyle and Allsop, 1982). Other Deaf members are drawn from families where there is no deafness and where it is likely that the child will be isolated. For most children from deaf families, sign language will be acquired and used in all situations where effective interaction is required. For those with no contact with other deaf people in the early years, the communication problems can be immense. Such problems mean that for the majority of the Deaf Community fluency in the native language may come later than is usual for spoken languages. It also means that the early experience of childhood will be unsatisfactory for understanding and for interaction. Deaf people have as a central positive experience of Community life - the school. This is not at the level of education as sometimes believed by the hearing people, but at the level of peer interchange. Contact with hearing people at school is often painful and may produce a deep resentment which is either directed inwardly as a deep devaluation of one's own abilities ("I am Deaf and therefore no good - I can't....") or else becomes a "rebellious nature" which produces a school history of biting(when young) and of punishments and behaviour problems. Unfortunately this leaves the deaf adolescent as accepting of the "disabling" help. A gradual re-awakening of belief in the Community over the last few years has led to a shaking off of this image amongst the Deaf leadership in the UK and a re-assertion of the positive aspects of early life. British Sign Language is acquired early. Even those in hearing families claim to have learned the language before the age of 12 years and Kyle and Pullen(1985) found that 90% of profoundly deaf young people had learned sign by the age of 12 years and 48% of partially-hearing had learned while at school. Despite the fact that BSL was not tolerated in the school lives of most of the young people interviewed, they claim to have learned and used it while still at school. It becomes clear that signing is a key part of deaf children's interaction. |
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