Integration of deaf children

As concern for the human rights of children has increased so has the demand for equality in education. In the past, when a child required special help, this was seen as a reason for separating this child from the normal school system. For the last 15‐20 years in most developed countries, this process has come to be reversed. Deaf children were one of the first groups to be integrated. Their normal appearance and compliance make them ideal candidates for the application of successive legislation. Unfortunately, when we examine the rationale for integration we can find serious problems. There is very little theory on which to base deaf children's integration; most research concerns systems changes rather than progress of children; the effect of deafness is to reduce competence in spoken and written language which is at the heart of the educational endeavour, so deaf children run the risk of secondary handicapping in integrated settings: observational research tends to confirm deaf children's lack o...