page_title: Deaf education
section_title: Bilingual-bicultural education
hierarchical_section_title: Deaf education / Educational philosophies / Bilingual-bicultural education
caption_attribution_description: English: This is a photograph that I made showing the Alumni Hall at the Indiana School for the Deaf — in Indianapolis, Indiana. It is the school's main building, and holds all Administration offices as well as Middle school and High school students. It is in the NRHP Indiana School for the Deaf Historic District, and on the National Register of Historic Places in Marion County. I, Jason Wilson, took this photograph years ago. I release all rights to this image and submit it to the public domain.
context_page_description: Deaf education is the education of students with any degree of hearing loss or deafness which addresses their differences and individual needs. This process involves individually-planned, systematically-monitored teaching methods, adaptive materials, accessible settings and other interventions designed to help students achieve a higher level of self-sufficiency and success in the school and community than they would achieve with a typical classroom education. A number of countries focus on training teachers to teach deaf students with a variety of approaches and have organizations to aid deaf students.
context_section_description: (Variations: bilingual education, dual language)
  In this philosophy, deafness is approached as a cultural, not a medical, issue (see models of deafness). In a bilingual-bicultural program, deaf children learn sign language such as American Sign Language (ASL) as a first language, followed by a written or spoken language such as English as a second language. Bilingual-bicultural programs consider spoken or written language and sign language equal languages, helping children develop age-appropriate fluency in both. The bilingual-bicultural philosophy states that since deaf children learn visually, rather than by ear, education should be conducted in a visual language. To promote students' accuracy and fluency in either language, sign language and spoken language are not used simultaneously, because natural sign languages, such as American Sign Language (ASL), possess their own phonological system (with visual phonemes), morphology, and syntactic structure that differs greatly from that of spoken languages. In addition to bilingualism, this philosophy also emphasizes mastery of two cultures, both Deaf culture and hearing culture.
  Proponents of this philosophy emphasize the need for deaf and hard-of-hearing students to have exposure to a fully accessible language (i.e. a sign language) from a young age for optimal cognitive development. Supporters believe that, due to the widely recognized variability in cochlear implant and hearing aid outcomes, sign language access is critical to ensure that deaf and hard-of-hearing children do not experience language deprivation, which has significant effects on mental health, socioemotional development, language fluency, and educational outcomes, among other factors.
  Critics of this philosophy believe that without a strong emphasis on spoken communication, this philosophy may lead to students being unable to integrate into the typically-hearing world.
caption: Alumni Hall, the middle and high schools at the Indiana School for the Deaf (a bilingual-bicultural school)
exif: {}