The experiment of teaching all children sign language: “Difference is wealth”

Both the Lomce and the Lomloe allow centers to introduce free configuration subjects or an interdisciplinary project taking into account the needs of their studentsA public school in Córdoba has created a sign language subject to teach deaf and hearing students in third and fourth grade “Learning sign language does not limit their lives, but the other way around. It makes them more competent, more autonomous and more independent”, they assure from the centerIn the Colón public school, in Córdoba, some classes are given in silence. The teacher does not use oral language, but rather teaches the whole class in sign language, despite the fact that the vast majority of students hear perfectly. This year the center, which has nine students with hearing disabilities enrolled, has done something pioneering: for the first time teach a new sign language subject to all third and fourth grade students once a week. But all this started much earlier, specifically in 2007 – the year in which sign language was recognized as a language to access the curriculum – in which the center adopted the bilingual sign language project, as others do with English. . This means that in each classroom where there is a deaf child there are two teachers. One that teaches classes in oral Spanish and another that does so in sign language. “Each activity or daily routine is worked on in two languages ​​so that students with hearing disabilities learn through both: in the language of signs, which is easier for them, and in the oral language, which is the one in which they will learn. develop with the rest of the people”, explains Mar Molina, co-tutor teacher of sign language and coordinator of the orientation team. This system has meant that all the students who attend these classes (the listeners as well) are very familiar with the language of signs and have learned it naturally. “At a given moment we realized that it was necessary to have a sign language subject for all students, so that those who did not have a deaf classmate in class would not miss it. It was something that they demanded and their families, too”, explains the teacher. “Hearing children wanted to interact more with their peers or to be able to attend talks by former deaf students and for that they needed to learn this language,” he says. Creating a subject from scratch Last year, the sign language team, made up of six teachers, met “I messed up the blanket at the head” and launched to design a sign language subject from scratch, taking advantage of the fact that both Lomce and Lomloe allow centers to introduce freely configurable subjects or an interdisciplinary project taking into account the needs of their students. The reception of the new subject could not have been better. “Now when we pass each other in the corridors, the students greet us in sign language. Or in the courtyard, they look for a deaf classmate to ask him how to say, for example, the days of the week. They are very motivated”, she points out. The truth is that, despite the hearing aids that many wear, deaf students frequently miss explanations if they are only taught through oral language. “Learning sign language does not limit their lives, but the other way around. It makes them more competent, more autonomous and more independent”, explains Molina. “Here at school they are offered as one more resource to access information. School situations are not always idyllic and the vast majority of children do not arrive at the age of three with a developed oral language for different reasons: because the implant has been placed late or the response to the implant has not been adequate and they are taking time to evolve . And all that time that they are without oral language, they have the language of signs to communicate, to learn and access the world”. Benefits for hearing studentsAnd hearing students, why is it beneficial to be taught sign language? “It is one more language that they learn, a language that makes it possible to make a more inclusive society, that accepts diversity more. In our school, difference is a wealth”, says Molina. “Sign language also allows you to improve your resume. It is a language with its grammar, semantics and structure, but instead of being auditory, it is visual. And with it you can express everything and learn everything. It is not limited by anything,” says the teacher. Molina assures that the majority of deaf children feel more comfortable speaking in sign language. “Their thinking is more visual and information, the more visual it is, the better they are going to access it,” she says. “That does not mean that we do not give them the tools to develop their oral language, and, depending on the environment, use one language or another. They will never be incommunicado. We have former students who are studying a career, who speak perfectly orally.” The idea of ​​the school is to extend this subject beyond the third and fourth years of primary school. While life goes on in this center full of posters in sign language, assemblies with infant students who sing both in oral and sign language, and primary classrooms where one student presents his work orally while another does it in sign language. “Here you take a look at the classes and the children are signing, regardless of whether they are deaf or hearing,” says Molina.