In Jennifer Ratter’s classroom at Prairie State University in Chicago Heights, students are busy learning.
In a typical classroom, especially one geared for children 7 to 11 years old, whispering among friends and the voices of students asking and answering questions would be commonplace. Ratter’s class is characterized by its silence.
Her students are part of the university’s Kids at College program (a summer program mainly for children in grades 1 through 8), and they’re taking a course in Beginning Sign Language.
“I always wanted to learn another language,” said Colleen O’Connor, 11, of Homewood. When asked why she chose sign instead of Spanish or French, Colleen said, “I wanted a language that was more artistic.”
According to Ratter, the 10 students in her class, all of whom can hear, are part of a growing trend. “My students want to learn how to communicate with other people, friends and relatives. They see signing as a second language,” Ratter said.
American Sign Language has been in use in the deaf community since its inception in the early 1800s. It is not signed English, but a separate language, with its own grammar and syntax.
As the deaf community begins to assert itself politically and signing feathers its way into the mainstream, children are beginning to embrace sign language, not only as a tool to talk with deaf or hearing impaired people but as an addition to the hearing culture.
Ratter couldn’t be more pleased. The Calumet City resident was born to hearing parents and diagnosed as hearing impaired at 18 months, when a baby sitter noticed she was unresponsive to noises around her. Ratter and her mother learned sign language when Ratter was 3, and by 2nd grade Ratter was mainstreamed, with the help of an interpreter, into regular classes at Reavis Elementary School in Lansing.
At 19, Ratter is teaching her first sign language course. (When she’s not teaching, she’s a cashier at Sam’s Club.) “The students want to learn how to communicate with other friends and relatives. I had friends who learned how to sign because they had deaf grandparents, so I’m happy to help them learn,” she said.
Friendship is a great motivator. Debbie Weiner, 9, of Glenwood had her first encounter with a hearing-impaired classmate in kindergarten.
“Debbie saw sign language being used and was curious,” said her mother, Marsha. “Then she became friendly with the child and wanted to be able to communicate. She has this helping nature and wanted to make sure the child was not being misunderstood.”
Debbie recalled her first experience with the deaf child. “The first time I met her, I didn’t know about sign language. Other people made fun of her … laughed at her, but I decided I wanted to be more involved. I learned to do sign language and got some books and tapes. Those made me feel important about myself, (that) I’m making a difference in the world,” she said.
Marsha Weiner is proud of her daughter’s interest and said the choice to learn sign language spills into Debbie’s life in many ways. “She’s got an (American Sign Language) poster over her bed, and for her last birthday she wanted `The Joy of Signing.”‘
While some parents find themselves reacting to a child’s interest, others seek out sign language opportunities for their hearing children. Mary Higinbotham and her husband, Harry, of Homewood had taken parent education programs to help them with 4-year-old autistic son Mark. The classes touched on sign as one method of communication.
“But we hadn’t been aware of programs for siblings,” Mary Higinbotham said. “We were trying to teach Celia at home.”
Higinbotham said the class at Prairie State has taught 7-year-old Celia words like “more,” “drink” and “juice,” which she uses when communicating with her brother.
Donna Manteca of Matteson remembers meeting deaf people as a teenager. Manteca said she and her mother attended teas, fundraisers and other functions at Ada S. McKinley Developmental Center on Chicago’s South Side. Manteca volunteered there during the summer and socialized with its deaf clients. At her church, Trinity United Church of Christ, 532 W. 95th St. in Chicago, there was a section for deaf members, and the church service was interpreted. These experiences led her to take two semesters of sign language in college, but her skills fell dormant without practice.
This summer, she took a course in sign language at Prairie State and enrolled her children in classes offered by Prairie State and the Country Club Hills Park District.
Manteca, who is adopting a foster child, has plans for her signing skills. “As a foster parent, (a working knowledge of A.S.L.) would open up an avenue to have a deaf child in our home and the children would know how to communicate,” she said.
Susan Kidder is the executive director of the Chicago Hearing Society, founded in 1916 as the Chicago League for the Hard of Hearing. The society first served as a place for social gatherings. Now the Chicago Hearing Society provides a full range of services for deaf or hard-of-hearing children and adults.
“Since 90 percent of deaf children come from hearing parents, sign language must be taught, and the more hearing people who understand this language the better. Being able to communication is the key to maximizing a child’s development,” Kidder said.
In September 1993, Columbia College became the state’s first four-year undergraduate program to train interpreters for the hearing impaired. It courses, including the study of deaf culture, are taught taught by hearing and deaf instructors.
“Children who are learning sign language now may be our students of the future,” said Lynn M. Pena, director of the college’s sign language interpreter training program.
Waubonsee Community College in Sugar Grove and William Rainey Harper College in Palatine offer excellent two-year programs, she said, and she expects more two- and four-year programs to be offered in the coming years.
“As the deaf community begins to have more professional careers, the demand for interpreters with a well-rounded education will continue,” she said.
Experts agree that the barrier between the hearing and non-hearing will be diminished with education and communication. That may put youngsters like Debbie Weiner on the cutting edge.
