April Action

I'm on the road speaking out against the human rights violation of raising babies without language.

Details and news will appear soon, but I'm now off to Columbus State Community College for two days of speaking.

Last week, I spoke and met with hundreds of people at Indiana University in Bloomington, and PBS broadcasted a TV interview throughout southern Indiana.

Wednesday, I move on to Dayton and Wright State University.

See www.susanschaller.com to get information on how to keep the word (and signs) moving.

Onward for human rights!

Language Rights as if Babies Mattered

When my paper was accepted for the EHDI - Early Hearing Detection & Intervention - conference, I got a call asking if I would change the title (from the one above) to just Language Rights. I laughed - they sounded so serious and upset that I would imply they didn't care about babies - and immediately agreed.

I should have kept the original title.

New Orleans was a shock. Five hundred people talking about audiology, speech, cochlear implants and all the needs of all the EHDI programs in the United States, and only twenty of us (hopefully, there were maybe forty or fifty, but many were quiet) seemed concerned about the babies.

The babies are lost when the discussion, the money, the resources - ALL the attention is on hearing and speech, as if only ears and mouths existed. Language development, cognitive development, socialization, normal family communication, self esteem and identity, education, and mental health were secondary or not mentioned at all.

Fast forward two weeks: I presented at the CAL ED conference in San Ramon where everyone talked about babies, humans, whole people who have feelings and need language to be fully human. Language is not speech which is how it was interpreted in New Orleans.

Please, accept my public apology for changing the name. Refer audiologists, speech therapists, and ENT doctors to this site and ask them to back away from mouths and ears far enough to see the whole baby.

LANGUAGE (a complete accessible visual language for a visual baby)

and LANGUAGE RIGHTS

AS IF BABIES MATTER

Signing is a right for deaf babies, not a medical issue - pass it on.
susanschaller.com

Honoring Biological Diversity

This coming weekend I fly to New Orleans for the Early Hearing Detection and Intervention conference. It is good to see folks like Ben Bahan of Gallaudet giving presentations. I hope to discuss bilingual policies and the human rights approach to meeting new deaf babies. If one thinks of human rights and what a child needs, language is early on the list, and the sensible response to deafness is "Oh, a visual baby - let's match him/her to a visual language."

I'll be curious how many people will be talking from this center as opposed to: " What's WRONG with this baby?" That question leads to trying to fix and mold the baby to fit one idea of how we all are suppose to be. Turtles are deaf, and I've never heard of anyone suggesting fixing a turtle. Is accepting and honoring differences such a strange idea?

Onward,
susan

susanschaller.com

Language Rights Globally

I finally made it back to California time after my trip to England where I presented to the National Deaf Children's Society, and met with Bencie Woll, director of a cognitive and language research center in London. England has certainly been progressing. British Sign Language is on television everyday, employment for the deaf has increased and diversified and Deaf leaders continue to emerge and assert their rights. Oralism and mainstreaming, however, still influence far too many hearing parents and many deaf babies are not exposed to signing. We need to roll up our sleeves and keep working.

The Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Conference has invited me to give a paper on language rights, so I am off to New Orleans February 23-27. I am meeting with some good Texan workers who will update me on what is happening in that big state. I will be encouraging everyone to view and use Vital-Signs, the DVD, to present a positive picture of the Deaf community and their wonderful visual language, especially to new parents and health professionals Check it out at www.susanschaller.com

Yours for bilingualism, multiculturalism and a more tolerant world,

susan schaller

happy new year

2008: Day One: As I am preparing for a presentation in England related to the Every Child Matters legislation, a theme for the new year weaves through my thoughts: every day matters.

So, today I continued to think of ways we can promote human rights for all people every day. Just as each one of us can promote peace by being more peaceful, we can each promote ideas of basic human dignity, equal access to health care, education and community through our daily attitude and actions. The easiest way is to be present, look each person you meet in the eye as an equal and celebrate whatever we can together, starting with the first day of the year. Today, let's help each other share this full life.

Happy New Year
susanschaller.com

November Action

In November, after October's successful classes, university presentations, radio interview and constructivist teachers' conference paper, I worked closer to home. After a workshop with some enthusiastic participants at Pixar's University, I volunteered as a roaming ASL interpreter for the Green Festival in San Francisco. I was thrilled to see so many interpreters for formal speeches and for Deaf participants who want to survey the hundreds of booths along with the hearing crowd. The greater joy was in seeing Deaf people come, join in and take advantage of the volunteer resources. Like when traffic flows smoothly and everyone is taking advantage of the rules of right away, traffic lights and planned lanes, it's wonderful when the system works, because people are using it.

Toward the end of the month, I was asked to evaluate an almost deaf boy (it is possible that the parents want him to be more hearing than he is - could be the misdiagnosis: Potentially Hearing) to see if he signed. Indeed, he signs more than his parents, and better than his parents. I could tell he was rusty, stuck at a beginning level, and reverted to "hearing" signs, for the sake of his parents. I submitted my report and reccommendation: GET A DEAF AIDE, A DEAF PLAYMATE, A DEAF BABYSITTER, AND SIGN, SIGN, SIGN in order to improve his language and communication, because speech and hearing are limiting this boy, and he is not progressing linguistically, educationally or socially. Of course, a Deaf teacher would be the best, but I knew the district didn't have one. If inclusion were really a goal, wouldn't that mean included Deaf people at every level- students, aides, teaachers and administrators?

I was sad for the boy; I used yet another reminder that I must work harder to prevent deaf children from growing up with little or no shared language.

I have a radical suggestion: let us (teachers, professionals, parents, administrators - all of us) try solutions that are the easiest and work best for the child. Give me your ideas, suggestions and comments - check out www.susanschaller.com

Thank you for all who showed up at CSD's Open House - another great November event.

Lives Without Words, People Without Language, my second book, moves closer to publication as the subject of languageless begins to surface. The Southern California tour was an inspiring success. At universities and on the radio and in many classes I talked to future and current teachers, doctors, academics and parents who were encouraged to respect our deaf babies instead of mistreat them. Next week, I talk to artists in the film industry about learning visual poetry from the superior world of seeing - the Deaf community.

Contact me with any ideas for events or publicity: see www.susanschaller.com