My Commonplace Book

For woofiegrrl and friends interested in deaf culture:

13-year-old's invention allows athletes to feel signals from referees

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I ran across a fascinating New York Times article from 2004 about how the brain learns language based on studying deaf children in Nicaragua who invented a gestural language to communicate with each other.  (Requires free registration or use bugmenot). A few excerpts:

... Instructors [at their special education school] noticed that the deaf children, while absorbing little from their Spanish lessons, had developed a system of signs for talking to one another. As one generation of children taught the system to the next, it has evolved from a set of gestures into a far more sophisticated form of communication, and today's 800 users of the language provide a living history of its stages of formation. ...

... the younger children have now decomposed certain gestures into smaller component signs. A hearing person asked to mime a standard story about a cat waddling down a street will make a single gesture, a downward spiral motion of the hand. But the deaf children have developed two different signs to use in its place. They first sign a circle for the rolling motion and then a straight line for the direction of movement.

This requires more signing, but the two signs can be used in combination with others to express different concepts. The development is of interest to linguists because it captures a principal quality of human language - discrete elements usable in different combinations. ...

From this raw material [of ordinary gestures], the deaf children appear to be spontaneously fabricating the elements of language. ...

Dr. Senghas, who has been visiting their school every year since 1990, said she had noticed how the signs for numbers have developed. Originally the children represented "20" by flicking the fingers of both hands in the air twice. But this cumbersome sign has been replaced with a form that can now be signed with one hand. The children don't care that the new sign doesn't look like a 20, Dr. Senghas said; they just want a symbol that can be signed fast.

Something the article doesn't discuss that caught my attention is that in the case of the number "20", the children have abbreviated it in order to sign it faster and more efficiently. Yet in the case of the cat walking down the street, they've extended it to two signs, even though that slows it down. I wonder why the discrepancy, and how that fits in with the way language develops.

Although what's being observed in Nicaragua is fascinating, I was dismayed to find that it's being used by the Chomskyans to supposedly prove that humans have a "universal grammar" that is "pre-organized" due to the existence of a "language organ" unique to the human brain, rather than a neurological system composed of several separate functional abilities distributed across numerous cortical and subcortical structures.

( Digressive anti-Chomsky rant )

Have any of you Deaf or hearing ASL speakers ever heard of anything like this happening? I'm hoping this is just an isolated incident of a real asshole and this kind of thing isn't common!

Gestures spark 5-person brawl

Raymond Keith McWain, 26, had just turned from Mountain View Drive onto Boniface Parkway when he noticed a truck with three men alongside his car. One of the truck occupants is deaf and mute. The deaf man was communicating with the other two in the truck through American Sign Language, a written police statement said.

McWain thought the sign language gestures were some sort of slight or "disrespect" toward him, police said. So McWain began doing some gesturing of his own. He honked and cut in front of the truck before pulling into the Papa John's pizza store on Boniface, police said. The men in the truck followed.

That's the opening of the original article in the Anchorage Daily News. The Washington Post Online has the full AP story.

Apart from the horrible situation, I wonder if the guy really can't speak, or if the reporter just assumed that anyone who is deaf must be "deaf and mute".  (At least she didn't say "deaf and dumb"!)

( Full text from Anchorage Daily News )

Dolphins can't use sign language, so a marine mammal rehabilitation facility opened a dolphin "chat line" of sorts Saturday, hoping to teach a deaf dolphin's unborn calf to communicate. The Marine Mammal Conservancy is maintaining a blog about Castaway and the preparations for the birth of her calf.

This is a fascinating situation in general. Scientists may not agree (I've had interesting conversations about animal comprehension and culture with cyanocorax), but it sounds to me like this dolphin purposefully came to the humans for help.

The female dolphin was found stranded on a Florida beach last November. During evaluation she was discovered to be in the third trimester of pregnancy with a live, active fetus. After 79 days of rehabilitation, she was released on January 30 close to her original stranding site.

She immediately restranded. Researchers were unable to figure out why the release was unsuccessful.

By late February, Castaway's lack of response to sound caused her caregivers to wonder if hearing impairment may have played a role in her reaction when release was attempted. Audiology tests were done, and confirmed the suspicions that Castaway is deaf. Without hearing, she would be unable to echolocate, avoid predators, or communicate with other dolphins.

Since dolphins are highly social animals and Cassie has no other dolphins for company, her caregivers swim with her to help keep her happy and active. She enjoys deep tissue massage, especially likes to have her belly rubbed,  and responds rapturously when her melon is tickled.

Even though she dislikes all the medical procedures and treatment she is subjected to, Cassie  cooperates willingly. She responds particularly well to her primary caregivers, exhibiting a developing relationship of trust and mutual respect.

The Conservancy became concerned about how the calf would learn to "speak," so underwater speakers and microphones were installed in Cassie's pen and at a lagoon at Dolphins Plus, a nearby research and interactive facility, and connected via phone lines so that even before birth the calf could begin hearing normal dolphin sounds.

Obviously Castaway had no concept of or concern about her calf's ability to communicate. But I do think that, whatever caused her deafness, she realized that she would not be able to care for her calf, or possibly even herself, without hearing, and turned to the humans for help. Whether that was the case the first time she stranded is debatable, although I don't believe it's outside the realm of possibility. But I do think it's likely that having experienced the aid of the humans she chose to go back to the humans for care.

I know there are other explanations for Castaway's stranding and refusal to leave, but although there's still much that isn't known about the dolphin's brain, they're obviously intelligent creatures. They have an extensive and complex system of communication, and wild dolphins are known to interact willingly, and seemingly knowingly, with humans. Dolphins have initiated long-term fishing cooperatives with humans in various parts of the world, including Australia, the west coast of Africa,  Brazil and Myanmar (Burma). They also behave altruistically toward humans as well as each other, and cultural transmission has been demonstrated in cetaceans, with the bottlenose dolphin having been shown to possess sophisticated social learning abilities, including vocal and motor imitation. Therefore it doesn't seem illogical that a dolphin that has seen other dolphins interact with humans might seek out humans when they need help.

Sadly, it has been determined that Castaway cannot be released because of her deafness. Sometime after the calf attrains 6 months of age, Cassie and her calf will be transported to "a suitable location" where they will be cared for permanently. Because she is a non-releasable wild animal, Federal law requires that such a location be a Public Display Facility, defined as a facility that provides opportunities for the public to view marine mammals in a captive environment. The Conservancy blog does say they will remain together, and I hope the Powers That Be have indeed realized that dolphins form family groups and don't take the calf away after it's weaned to put it in a show somewhere.

Plan to house deaf seniors in Fremont goes awry

It was supposed to be the first of its kind in Northern California: a place where deaf seniors could grow old comfortably, and in the company of others like themselves. But after bureaucratic missteps and regulatory obstacles, Fremont Oak Gardens today has 19 residents who are deaf - and 27 more who aren't. ...

"The hearing people just say `hello' and that's all, then they're gone," [a deaf resident] said through an American Sign Language interpreter. "The deaf stay around and chat for awhile. We play cards, bingo. The hearing don't ever show up to play with us." ...

"It doesn't bother me at all, living with the deaf," [a hearing resident] said. "And if they're upset, they haven't expressed it to me." ...

The topic of the Kojo Nnamdi show on WAMU today was:

What does it mean to be deaf in the twenty-first century? The incoming and outgoing presidents of Gallaudet University join Kojo to discuss the recent controversy at the school and the meaning of "deaf culture" in an era of medical and technological change.

Guests:
I. King Jordan, President of Gallaudet University
Jane Fernandes, President Designate, Gallaudet University

I've found Jane Fernandes to be a very poor speaker -- her answers to questions are brief and lack nuance, so it takes an exceptionally good interviewer to get anything but the basics from her. Unfortunately, Kojo is not very good. He has great questions, but only the pre-written ones. He's unable to follow up with off-the-cuff questions to elicit a more complete answer, so whatever the guest comes up with on their own is all we get.  (He's also prone to odd non sequiturs and an occasional Beavis-and-Butthead giggle.)

So I didn't feel the show lived up to its promise at all. Fernandes and I. King Jordan missed a lot of opportunities to explain Deaf culture -- which was supposed to be half of the purpose of the show!

For example, a caller asked an excellent question about why some deaf people resent those who get cochlear implants -- but all we got from Fernandes and Jordan was basically that the Deaf don't consider deafness a disability. One of them said, "I love being deaf!" But they never really answered the question.

But the worst disappointment was their total failure to respond adequately to the angry doctor who called in near the end of the show to demand, "Why should an individual provider have to pay for an interpreter?! People used to bring family members, or other members of the community who speak their language with them! Why can't deaf people do that?"

All Nnamdi, Fernandes and Jordan could say was, "It's required by the Americans with Disabilities Act."

But the woman knew that! She was railing against the necessity for an individual provider, who is reimbursed very little for her services by the insurance companies, to provide interpreters. It's okay to require it of large institutions like hospitals, the doctor said. "But it's not fair to make individual providers pay for that service, when they could just bring a family member with them!"

Not one of them ever answered the woman's question. From two Deaf people in such high positions I expected a clear explanation of why it's inappropriate to have a family member or friend interpret for someone who can't speak the same language as the doctor, whether because of deafness or because they don't speak English.

But not a single word was mentioned about loss of privacy, damage to relationships, putting too much responsibility on a child, incorrect interpretation of complex information, and all the other reasons (which I'm sure woofiegrrl will come along and explain). One after another, Nnamdi, Fernandes and Jordan all told the distraught doctor only, "It's required by the ADA."

I'm sure many listeners were wondering the same thing after hearing the doctor's frustrated question. They completely blew all the opportunities to shed light on issues about which many people have misconceptions that are harmful to the Deaf community.

I was very disappointed.

woofiegrrl, eyes_of_cyrene, and anyone else who's interested in sign language interpreting -- NPR had a story today about terps who sign concert performances. In addition to the piece that aired, there are video clips of two terps signing Paul Simon songs, and some additional comments from one of the terps.

I'm in the middle of a fascinating book that I found in the library: Rebuilt: How Becoming Part Computer Made Me More Human by Michael Chorost.  woofiegrrl, eyes_of_cyrene, and anyone else who is interested in deafness, I think you'll want to read it.

Chorost's mother had rubella while she was pregnant, so he was born severely hearing-impaired. With two powerful hearing-aids he was doing fine until one day, when he was 35, his remaining hearing inexplicably vanished within hours. He got a cochlear implant, but had to endure a period of complete deafness for a period of time before it could be implanted and activated. In the book he describes his experiences and explores his feelings about his lack of hearing, about abruptly going from hard of hearing to completely deaf, and about the implant.

The book includes extensive factual information about cochlear implants -- how they work (including verbal explanations, diagrams, and even photographs of the inner ear), their history, and even the implant surgery.  Chorost also describes in great detail what it's like to hear with an implant -- with the two different software programs he was given, before and after an upgrade to the software, and as he gets used to using it.

He also explores his feelings through the whole experience -- a little overdramatically for my taste, as he considers himself a cyborg and compares himself frequently to Steve Austin, the protagonist of Martin Caidin's book Cyborg. (Steve Austin was also The $6 Million Man, but Chorost feels more in common with the character portrayed in the original book than in the TV show.) Although he doesn't -- at least in the part I've read so far -- say so, it's obvious that the book was undertaken at least as much to help him work through his feelings as to educate the public. Still, if that's how he sees himself then it's valid to include it, and he doesn't pull any punches about any of his feelings, including what it's like for a man with an implant to have sex (where do you put the belt-mounted processor unit when you're naked?).

All in all it's a fascinating book with a pretty good balance of factual information about hearing and cochlear implants; subjective information about what he hears with and without an implant; and descriptions of feelings about the impact of deafness and the implant on his life.

ADDED: As I read further, I was pleased to see that Chorost is very positive about signing, and regretful that he didn't learn ASL himself as a child. He devotes an entire chapter to the conflict between the Deaf community and the oralist movement, including a nonjudgmental treatment of the views of some Deaf people who want their children to be Deaf, and discusses the future of ASL as technology improves and more and more deaf people get cochlear implants at younger and younger ages.

Assorted articles for assorted people.

For woofiegrrl:
          Ski holiday ride 'cures' deaf man

cjsmith, you're not alone!
          Woman finally cuts her hair after 20 years

For all my bird-loving friends ... someone should have taken away their primaries!
          Birds Die From Flying 'Drunk' Into Windows

eudyptes, you didn't teach your students to do this, did you?!
        Man Drives Car Up R.I. Statehouse Steps

For [anonymous] -- you're not alone either! (Warning! There's a small photo you may not want to look at.)
          Australia at Risk of a Bed Bug 'Pandemic'

For all of my math-loving friends:
          Burglar solved math problems

I know I have a few friends who have suffered flooded basements, but take heart ... it could have been worse. Much worse.
          Couple's Basement Is Flooded With Oil

Here's very encouraging news for anyone with older loved ones who had, have, or may develop dementia (as my mother did):
          Unlocking the minds of seniors with dementia *



* Use BugMeNot

Two recent Washington Post* articles for woofiegrrl and anyone else who's interested:

• Education Worth 1,000 Words
  Va. Teen Among Deaf Youths Learning What Homelands Couldn't Teach
                "Mauricio Escobar-Gallegos's native language is illustration...."


• Age Barriers Soften for Cochlear Implants
                "At both ends of the age spectrum, the market for cochlear implantation is expanding...."

* Use BugMeNot

For woofiegrrl, eyes_of_cyrene, and anyone else interested in deafness:

Unique holiday gathering and a place to fit in
Deaf parents, hearing children gather for a unique holiday party

Children laughing, music blaring, people dancing and a Santa Claus with children on his lap. A typical holiday party at its best, with one exception. The primary language was American Sign Language. ...

I'm confused. I've heard of CODA, but not KODA, even though the largest KODA chapter appears to be here in the Maryland suburbs of DC.

Are these two different organizations? If so, why are there two? Ah, never mind -- now I understand. A page on the KODA website explains that KODA is for "hearing children under age of 18 of deaf parents. ... Membership [in CODA] is primarily, but not exclusively, composed of adult hearing children of deaf parents."

KODA seems like a great group -- I'm glad that resource is available for KODAs!

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