Part 4: Preschool Education, Approaches, Theories And Cognitive Growth

According to Jean Piaget, the order in which childrenís thinking matures is the same for all children (The Psychology of the Child, New York, 1969).  Although the pace may vary from child to child, it is the stimulation of thinking that is absolutely necessary for cognitive growth and development.  Without stimulation, intellectual potential can be permanently dimmed.  Children who grow up without a variety of experiences, such as the deaf child, may be three to five years behind other children in developing important mental strategies.  To enhance cognitive growth, the parent must look toward preschool education.

When deaf children reach the age of three, they are eligible for the numerous preschool programs federally funded under the IDEA.  These programs function like parent-child tutorials and parents develop important skills to assist their child in learning.  Often times these programs, unfortunately, tend to focus only on speech, lip reading and auditory training for the deaf child; they may be solely oral or they may involve use of signs.  The primary focus of many of the programs is to develop oral expressive skills (speech).  In contrast, there are also cognitive-academic preschool programs that focus on language as the fundamental tool of learning.  These programs put less emphasis on hearing and speech and more on presenting content to the child.  It is unfortunate that many teachers in these programs almost always use one of the manually coded English systems and not ASL (Bahan, Hoffmeister, Lane, 1996).

Deaf children benefit from participating in preschool programs.  They develop a variety of important skills to interact with the world and learn necessary social skills.  They also get opportunities to enjoy playing with other children and acquire a visual language.  In addition, preschools must develop an Individual Family Service Plan (IFSP) with specific goals for the child and family.

Although the popularity of including preschoolers who are deaf into a variety of preschool facilities that primarily serve hearing children is popular, it is a challenge for the deaf child.  As more children who are deaf are included in these preschool facilities, interpreters and/or transliterators will need to be used.  Interpreters are capable of changing one language to another, i.e. English to ASL.  Transliterators can change one form of language (i.e. voice) into another form of the same language (i.e. signed English).

Teachers of the deaf follow educational principles for promoting learning among deaf and hearing peers in preschool.  These "including building on the strengths of the children, removing barriers to linguistic accessibility and establishing conditions that can maximize the success of social encounters by attending to childrenís interests, group size, and other variables.  For example, since on of the primary goals is socialization in preschool for the deaf child, research suggests that teachers: (1) should provide facilitation throughout the day; (2) deaf children should spend the majority of instruction time with hearing peers; (3) groups for structured activities should contain both deaf and hearing children; (4) play should be considered the primary medium through which social integration may occur and serve as the activity through which intervention should be planned, implemented and monitored by the teacher". (Luetke-Stahlman, 1994)

As children progress in their abilities in preschool, the teacherís role becomes one of introducing the learning activity, suggesting play ideas, prompting, modeling, observing and evaluating.  Evaluation data can be used to reconstruct or adapt activities so that the goals and objectives can be achieved.

Parents should be encouraged to visit the preschool not only to interact and observe their child, but to receive feedback from the teacher. Input or modifications to the IFSP could be made as to the needs of the child.  Deaf children cannot be educated apart from their families; parents and siblings are an integral part of the learning process for the child who is deaf.

The following are some activities that author Peter V. Paul suggests in his book Literacy and Deafness that the teacher can recommend to facilitate an appreciation for similarities and differences among those in an integrated preschool program: (1) having available childrenís books on communication, Deaf culture and assistive devices to introduce or reinforce experiences and information directly or indirectly disseminated in the program; (2) teaching parents or caregivers signs on a regular basis, giving everyone in the class name signs, incorporating signing into all routines; (3) incorporating into the day times when sign without speech is used, calling attention to manual communication; (4) Offering visual clues throughout the day; (5) integrating the Deaf culture into units such as a unit on "My Family", etc. (6) during large group instruction, making sure the teacher or adult keeps their mouth clear of obstructions, face the children who are deaf and do not stand in front of a bright light (see pamphlet from the National Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf regarding optimizing classroom situations); (7) modifying activities for optimum inclusion of the deaf child; (8) using visual aids in story time. (Luetke-Stahlman, 1994).

Despite all the modifications and legal mandates, it is difficult to empirically demonstrate the effectiveness of preschool and early learning programs (Paul, Quigley, 1990).  Evaluation of early programs may be difficult because deafness is a low incidence condition.  Some studies base effectiveness of a program on communication methods taught to deaf child while other studies base effectiveness on oral total communication methods.  The controversy surrounding language/communication issues is still so strong that one can arrive at two different interpretations on the results of the same study! (Paul, Quigley, 1990)  Because of all of the intricacies involved in early learning programs for the deaf, determining the educational placement where deaf students will be most successful is becoming a complex business (Bahan, Hoffmeister, Lane, 1996).
Depending on whether or not a deaf child has been in an early learning program may or may not make a difference where that child will be placed as an elementary school student.

Many educators desire inclusion for the deaf child with an interpreter in a regular classroom with hearing peers. Audiologists, speech professionals and related medical specialists push for an emphasis on speech.  Some parents insist on special education classes for deaf students where primarily spoken language is used; this is particularly true for a deaf child with a cochlear implant.  In some settings the curriculum may be simplified to make it accessible and the teaching may be isolated from the latest developments in pedagogical or best teaching practices.  In other settings, the deaf child may not have any peers to communicate with (Bahan, Hoffmeister, Lane, 1996).

Deaf students who have cochlear implants require a different approach.  Skilled teachers of the deaf can combine a variety of methods in order to provide the necessary learning environment.