By Cynthia Neese Bailes Cynthia Neese Bailes, PhD, is an associate professor in the Education Department at Gallaudet University, who has taught students at the Model Secondary School for the Deaf, in Washington, D.C., and the South Dakota School for the Deaf, in Sioux Falls. Like reading, writing is a skill that can be effectively developed in the home or dorm, as well as the classroom. She s already starting to recognize words in books we have read repeatedly. I wonder, though, if I m doing enough to encourage Jane to write. Margie presents a good question.
Many parents understand the importance of reading to their deaf children from an early age.
Little, however, is said about writing, and sometimes it is assumed that the development of writing is left to teachers once the child has entered school. We also assume writing cannot take place until the child has achieved some degree of fine motor control. Yet, writing development does not begin at the magic age of five when the child enters kindergarten. Just as children receive early impressions about reading on the laps of their parents, they also develop impressions about writing at an early age. Let s take Margie, who not only reads to Jane daily, but is an avid reader herself.