Deaf school on cutting edge
By Cindy Kranz

Parents pushed for 'oral education' method

What makes it remarkable is that Haley, who is deaf, is just learning to speak. She's a student at one of the Tristate's newest schools, the Ohio Valley Oral School in Montgomery. It's one of about 35 oral deaf education schools in the country and the first private oral school in Ohio.

The school, which favors speech over sign language, opened Sept. 5. Seventeen students, ages 2-7, are enrolled.

Ohio Valley Oral School is on the cutting edge of a national trend fu eled by parents who think oral education gives their deaf children the best shot at making it in a hearing world. Cochlear implants that help deaf people hear some sound have driven the demand for more oral schools nationwide.

Technological advances, though, have reignited a 200-year-old debate about which method of teaching deaf children is most beneficial to their academic and social development, said Jeri Traub, special education instructor at Wheelock College in Boston. Those methods include oral and total communication, which includes American Sign Language.

“There's a group of people out there who believe that American Sign Language is the language which deaf children should be taught to communicate,” she said. “Sign language is a natural native language of deaf persons that's passed on from generation to generation to generation. It represents a cultural and linguistic community.”