Let the children choose

The early education of profoundly deaf children by largely oral means is still predominant world-wide. Essentially, the sensory deficit of these children is such that they are inevitably deprived of both auditory and linguistic input.Research on the effects of prolonged auditory deprivation in animals points strongly to the probability of transneuronal degeneration which may be irreversible, and it is argued that similar degeneration is likely in humans in the conditions accompanying profound congenital deafness. Furthermore, the homogeneity of central nervous system processes suggests that when the deprivation is linguistic, analogous damage may occur. An exclusive pedagogic insistence on speech in the presence of profound deafness risks providing appropriate conditions for disturbance of relevant neurological function. In these circumstances massive deficit of oral language development might be expected.Research involving almost every deaf school-leaver in England and Wales confirms this expectation. It shows the close dependence of degree of hearing-impairment on intelligibility of vocal speech. This in turn can be empirically shown to determine the likelihood of internalizing speech — of thinking orally. Lip-reading, aided by small amounts of residual hearing, is shown to be an extremely inefficient way of learning language, and penal degrees of reading retardation follow.The language deficit may be ameliorated if the inadequacies of the auditory system are supplemented by sign language used concurrently with speech, especially during the earliest years. This permits a deaf child to choose a language input appropriate to the level of his auditory functioning.