There were classes on:
- Social Skills
- Self Advocacy
- Special Education Law
- Mainstreaming
- Reading with your child
It was a lot of good information. One thing I noticed at the end of the day....no one ever said a word about WHICH language these things should be in. There was ZERO dogma. It was simply about information for families. None of the speakers mentioned spoken language vs. ASL. One of the panel members used an interpreter (which the school provided) but spoke for herself.
It was so nice to NOT have people putting down other people's choices!
***I also wanted to address a comment made, this workshop was at the oral school, but it was not only for families that attend our school. There were families from other schools, including families who sign. In fact, there were children that were voice-off, kids that SIM COM and others that were oral only. This was a diverse group and no one ever said that THEIR way was the right way.***
5 comments:
That sounds lovely. :)
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Well you are in a oral school where everyone pretty much made up their mind.
I love open conferences where everyone is invited and everyone gets along!
I have attended several different workshops focusing on deaf and hard of hearing education. Most of the workshops about oral methods or developing listening and speaking skills have been positive--most of them did not look down on sign language or talk about it in a negative way. They simply provided information. Quite a few of them had deaf people who signed and interpreters.
I wish I could say the same for most workshops I have attended about sign language or bi-bi methods. Many of these workshops have been turned into heated discussions about deaf culture, sign language, and how the oral method alone does not work, or even off topic things such as how deaf people are discriminated against. Many of them did look down on and talked negatively about oral programs for deaf and hard of hearing students. It would have been nice if they were able to stay on topic and provide the information I came there to learn about.
But, that is just based on my experiences. Of course, I will admit that one oral workshop I attended was biased and not informative as there were two workshops about sign language that were positive and informative.
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