Working with deaf children in the South

The main purpose of collecting a set of inspirational and thought-provoking articles for IDCS’s Resource library was to promote the sharing of information about work with deaf children in the South, and to inform the development of IDCS programmes internationally. The following criteria were used to assess the articles and their appropriateness for the Resource library:

• A clear vision and strategy which will lead to the empowerment of deaf children and their families
• An understanding of the social model of disability
• Open minded attitude to communication approaches
• Preparedness to involve or involvement of deaf adults (as well as beneficiaries) in the delivery of services
• A commitment to the empowerment of parents and carers
• Working in partnership with local governments
• Networking with other organisations working with deaf and other disabled children
• Innovative programmes
• Visibility within the community.
  

The aim was also to identify potential contributors from all regions of the world, and from a wide range of organisations working directly, and indirectly, with deaf children, young people and their parents.

The first emails were sent out to potential contributors in January 2004 and the process of collecting and editing the articles took place over a ten week period. At the time of launch (April 2004), we have been successful in obtaining ten articles from Africa, Asia (south and east), the Middle East and Central America. These articles cover a wide range of themes including early years provision, parents’ organisations, education in various settings, sign bilingualism, bicultural education, deaf children with additional impairments, audiology, deaf empowerment and advocacy, and the impact of AIDS.

Lessons from Africa
The articles from east and southern Africa provide a rich, wide-ranging and inspirational source of information about working with deaf children and young people, often in a context of extreme poverty and in isolation from other practitioners. There are two articles from Tanzania in east Africa, and one each from Zambia, Swaziland and Botswana in southern Africa. Some of the topics covered in these five articles include: early years provision; the role of parents’ organisations; the relative educational merits of schools for deaf children and units in mainstream schools; the involvement of deaf young people in providing audiology services and in advocating for their peers; the issue of AIDS and the challenge of making health education messages clear and accessible to deaf young people.

A parents' organisation, Tanzania
There are very few well established parents’ organisations in Africa which focus exclusively on deaf children. It is far more common for national parents’ organisations to focus exclusively on children and young people with learning difficulties or intellectual impairments, although some are open to parents whose children have other impairments, including those who are deaf. Most of these parent organisations are members of Inclusion International, an umbrella body, which has considerable international influence. There is no such equivalent for the parents of deaf children.

The particular challenges facing the parents of deaf children in Tanzania in establishing an organisation are described in the article about UWAVIKA. These include difficulties with communication and few opportunities for parents to meet. The article has been written by the organisation’s chairperson, a Tanzanian father of a deaf child. UWAVIKA is a new organisation which represents parents of deaf children in the Northern Zone of Tanzania. The parents first came together as a group because their children attended the same school for deaf children. UWAVIKA would like to play a role in the formation of a national parents’ organisation.

This article describes UWAVIKA’s current role in ensuring that their children gain access to education and in helping to promote the establishment of small units for deaf children attached to mainstream schools. Their next major project is to set up a secondary vocational school to provide deaf young people with valuable skills. This need for vocational education is also identified in the Zambian article and in a professional case study from Cameroon. They have come to this conclusion because the education that their children receive in school does not prepare them for employment.

Integrated early childhood development, Tanzania
One of the major differences between North and South in terms of access to services for disabled people is the issue of early identification and intervention. Health and education systems in Northern countries prioritise screening and early years provision in order to prevent further disabling conditions. In the case of deaf children, early stimulation and appropriate language teaching is crucial to longer-term language acquisition and fluency in both speech and sign. Yet such opportunities are rare in the South. The Kilakala Unit for the Deaf in Morogoro, Tanzania, is the focus of a new initiative to promote a family-centred, child rights approach to the education of deaf children, which prioritises early years support and parental involvement. A strong rights approach is also advocated in the articles from China, where the right of minorities to have their own language is acknowledged.

This new initiative only began in May 2003 and the article describes the early experiences of establishing a community based programme, including the setting up of a community theatre group, consisting of deaf and hearing young people. The article was written by the Tanzanian head of the unit and the Dutch project coordinator, who has many years experience of working in Tanzania. The article reflects on national policy initiatives, the unreliability of statistics, the lack of early years provision for deaf children and the exclusion of the majority of deaf children from education. Although this article is focused on Tanzania, these issues are also raised in the articles from Zambia and Swaziland. The photos which accompany the article give a clear visual image of the active learning techniques used in the classroom and parents’ participation in the initiative. This programme provides an excellent example for mainstream educators of how they could learn from so-called ‘special’ education initiatives by introducing more participatory and less formal teaching methods.

Educational policy, Zambia
The development of educational services in Zambia is very similar to most other east and southern African countries. Special needs education for deaf children was first introduced by benevolent missionary societies, and it has since proved difficult to convince the government to take on full responsibility for the education of all its deaf children. This article is written by a Zambian teacher educator and it raises various policy issues which require urgent attention.

The many changes of terminology used to describe inclusive education over the past 40 years are identified as a major cause of confusion. New educational policies are designed to fit the new terminology, but are rarely implemented. The need to give greater recognition to the importance of sign language in teacher education and in schools is highlighted – and is linked to the Ministry of Education’s policy to promote mother tongue teaching in the first two years of school. It has been suggested by the Zambian Association of the Deaf that deaf adults should be employed in schools for deaf children, to provide positive adult models and to foster the development of sign language, but no action has been taken by the government.

The author suggests that those children who are being educated in units in mainstream schools receive an education of inferior quality to those who are in residential special schools. The units are very dependent upon one specialist teacher, and if this teacher is absent or leaves, then the unit often closes. By contrast the schools for deaf children provide an environment conducive to the development of sign language and have greater resources at their disposal. However many deaf children are refused entry into these schools as they are too old, and in some cases because they also have visual impairments. Although the special schools are considered to have conducive learning environments for deaf children, many of the problems associated with residential schools raised in the following article from Swaziland are also acknowledged in this article. The author concludes by suggesting that ZNAD should be given the formal responsibility of advising the government on the education of deaf children, and supporting parents in the placement of their children, since it fulfils this role extremely well informally. This could be a way forward in other countries facing similar challenges.

Reflections on working with deaf children, Swaziland
Although this article reflects on the education of deaf children in a residential school and the establishment of audiological services in the mid-late 1980s, many of the issues raised are still highly relevant today. It was written by a teacher of the deaf from the UK who has over a decade of experience of working in various African countries. The lack of early identification, a late start in education for most pupils, teaching in a second language (English), disapproval of the use of sign language, the lack of amplification, and the pupils’ dislocation from their homes and families are some of the main barriers identified.

In addition the article discusses the enormous challenges faced in sub-Saharan Africa in providing sustainable and affordable audiology and hearing aid services. Yet such a service was successfully established in Swaziland with minimum expertise and material resources over a seven year period. One of the priority needs identified by the service was to provide medical care and follow up audiology services for the large number of children and adults with chronic otitis media (long-term middle ear disease). In particular, supporting children to continue their schooling following medical treatment and the fitting of hearing aids was a valuable role played by the service, and it helped reinforce the right of deaf children to attend their local school.

The article suggests that schools for deaf children have considerable potential to be transformed into resource bases to promote more inclusive practices in schools and communities. It also suggests that national, regional and international networking, and the formal and semi-formal sharing of experience, can help to improve practice. By providing practitioners with opportunities to reflect on their own work, the transformation of the education system is possible. In this way, the minority of deaf children who are already in school can have access to education of a higher quality, and the majority, who do not attend school, can be enabled to access education for their first time. Practitioners need encouragement, however, to take risks in order to make changes in their practice. They also need convincing examples of practice from other countries which are facing similar resource constraints.

Deaf empowerment, Botswana
The Godisa Technologies Trust is based at Botswana’s Camphill Trust and
produces quality, but low-cost, solar charged hearing aids. Ten deaf school leavers are employed at Godisa and they are also undergoing leadership and teacher training during the early stages of the Southern African Deaf Empowerment Programme, supported by Christoffel Blinden Mission (CBM). The involvement of deaf young people in the provision of audiology services is also the main theme of the article from Jordan, Middle East. This article from Botswana has been co-written by one of these young people and a CBM employee from the US who has many years of experience in working with deaf people in the South.

The article focuses on the need for deaf young people to have access both to information about HIV/AIDS, and to greater educational opportunities. Until recently this information has not been made accessible to deaf and disabled young people in Botswana. Through the young people’s leadership programme, however, this information is now being made available and is being discussed. The young people are in turn providing seminars to other deaf students about sexually transmitted diseases. An examination of the signs used for HIV/AIDS sheds some light on the way this issue is perceived by the deaf community in Botswana. It also provides a useful starting point for other practitioners who are concerned about the lack of accessible health education information in many countries.

Audiology in Jordan, Middle East
The Holy Land Institute for the Deaf in Salt, Jordan, is an important regional resource and inspiration for the establishment of services for deaf young people in the Middle East. This particular article was written by a British audiologist who worked at the Institute from 1994–1998 as a Christoffel Blinden Mission (CBM) employee.

The author reflects on the setting up of audiology services and the training of a deaf member of staff to carry out hearing assessments and oversee the management of hearing aids. In addition deaf earmould technicians were made responsible for the maintenance of the students´ hearing aids. Prior to this many of the students at the school were suspicious of audiologists as they thought they would discourage them from using sign language. Although most of the students had hearing aids, few were properly fitted or used correctly. Working together in this way with the deaf students a more positive attitude towards audiology and hearing aid use was developed.

Responding to complex needs in Sri Lanka, South Asia
The Mentally Handicapped Children and Families Educational Project (MENCAFEP) provides community-based care and support to children, young people and their families. Out of 100 children and young people supported by MENCAFEP, 14 are deaf and many others have additional impairments. This article has been written by MENCAFEP’s Community Development Coordinator, who helped to set up MENCAFEP 16 years ago and is originally from the UK.

MENCAFEP has a total communication policy for all the children they support, not only those who are deaf. This can include the use of symbol systems, hugging and touch, as well as speech and sign language. The schools for deaf children in Sri Lanka are residential, located in the cities and fee-paying, and so are not accessible to the majority of Sri Lanka’s deaf children. With MENCAFEP’s support 14 deaf children have been integrated into local government schools and were able to remain with their families in their rural, mountainous home. Four of them have recently secured employment locally and it is hoped that two others will train as teachers and return to become MENCAFEP staff members. Their experience of being integrated into the local government schools have been frustrating, however, despite the extra support provided by MENCAFEP.

Sign Bilingualism in China
The Right to Sign, Anhui, China
There are two related articles about Sign Bilingualism in China. The first is a report written in 1999 which provides some insight into the development of the collaborative project which was initially led by the Centre for Deaf Studies at Bristol University and the Amity Foundation in China. The second was written especially for the Resource library, primarily by a deaf member of Save the Children UK’s staff in Anhui and Yunnan Provinces, but with some inputs from other colleagues. The article is based on the discussions which took place at a recent conference, in September 2003, to discuss progress in the three provinces where the sign bilingual project is now well established; Anhui, Yunnan and Jiangsu.

The author plays a supportive role in this innovative sign bilingualism project. The diagrams accompanying the article illustrate the author’s own unique deaf perspective on the move from traditional teacher-centred education to the current model, which has a strong child rights basis to its sign bilingual approach. “Minorities have the right to enjoy freedom of thought, conscience and religion and to have their own language” - this is the article from the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child which is highlighted as being particularly significant for bilingual teaching and sign language research in China.

Bicultural education in Mexico, Central America
Minority ethnic groups, endangered languages, bilingual education, and diversity must all be taken into account as part of a multi-cultural country such as Mexico. The experience of supporting the integration of eight profoundly deaf students into a public secondary school in Mexico City is therefore seen in this broad context. The same principles are used when working with indigenous children as are used when working with deaf children, and there is a strong commitment to the promotion of policy, legal and judicial changes consistent with the Convention of the Rights of the Child. The project described in this article, led by researchers at the Autonomous Metropolitan University, belongs to a new line of research on intercultural education in Mexico.

Although the study focused on the eight profoundly deaf students, their interaction with the twelve hearing students in their class was also a central part of the study. The deaf students had previously attended a primary school for deaf children, and since their academic standards were low, they were given extra tutoring by the researchers. This was seen as being unfair by the hearing students who demanded equal access to the additional tutor time.

Initially this was a study of ‘integration’, but it gradually came to be seen as the development of a bi-cultural class, which used the two languages of signed and spoken Spanish. The development of a dual culture, characterized by mutual respect, had not been possible in other settings where only one or two deaf children had been integrated into a large class. This finding has implications for those practitioners who are struggling to develop inclusive schooling for deaf children. It is not only the communication needs of the deaf students which need to be fully recognized, but inclusion has implications for the teaching and learning styles of the whole class. Inclusive learning environments need to respect the rights, and accommodate the needs, of all students.

Conclusion
These wide ranging and inspirational articles provide an excellent beginning to IDCS’s Resource library. They represent the major regions of the world and they debate some crucial issues in the provision of services for deaf children, primarily in education. As a set of articles, they provide a powerful advocacy tool for those who are working for the rights of deaf children and young people. By sharing information in this way about working with deaf children in the South, networking links can be established which will help lessen the isolation experienced by many practitioners in the field, and which will inform the development of international work, including IDCS’s own programmes.


Susie Miles is the co-ordinator of the Enabling Education Network (EENET), which is based at the University of Manchester. She is a teacher of deaf children, who has spent 12 years working in East and Southern Africa. For the first four years she worked with deaf people in Swaziland, first in the only school for the deaf and later as the founding coordinator of speech and hearing clinic services within the Ministry of Health. From 1988-1994, she was Save the Children-UK’s Disability Adviser in Southern Africa, and this involved promoting community-based approaches to disability and development. As EENET Coordinator, she is currently responsible for the overall administration of the network, the production of an annual newsletter and the co-ordination of an international action-research project. She continues to maintain an interest in deaf issues in the South, and in particular the challenge of educational inclusion for deaf children. Additional information and articles collected on this issue can be found on EENET’s web site: www.eenet.org.uk

You can also download a Summary of EENET articles (141 kb) .