Child using tactile sign language. Photo courtesy of www.sense.org.uk

Last year, I worked as an interpreter for a young student with CHARGE Syndrome.  While the student was in a program for children with special needs, she was the only student in the school with CHARGE.  CHARGE can cause deafness and blindness, as well as physical and cognitive complications.  In Alex’s case (whose name has been changed), she has cognitive delays (congruent with learners who are deaf-blind), has blurred vision in part of her visual field, balance issues, low musculature, pain from constipation, some repetitive behavioral tendencies, and self-stimulating physicality—similar to those observed in children with autism. These behaviors may include clapping, tooth grinding, and tense jumping.  This job was not what interpreters are trained as in terms of “typical interpreting.” As such, the work constantly generated questions and challenges for me about my role and daily practice.  Like many educational interpreting jobs, issues arose about the meaning of true inclusion, as these issues were all the more heightened by physical disability and neurodiversity.

Neurodiversity is a relatively new term, which serves as a paradigm shift away from viewing autism and other neurological conditions as diseases and disorders. Neurodiversity, like biodiversity, views these conditions as a natural manifestation of variety in the human genome.  Both of these schools of thought bring something to the table, but in an everyday context—especially in a school—I find the concept of neurodiversity to most beneficial.  Neurodiversity brings humanism to the forefront.

For instance, if I had walked into the classroom each day thinking about the negative aspects that CHARGE Syndrome can induce – thinking something like, “I hope Alex doesn’t do xyz bad thing today” – I would already be shaping my view of her and my interactions with her to be negative.  With this in mind, I walked into the classroom each morning looking forward to what Alex might accomplish that day with very solid language access support.  Beyond this positive outlook, however, there are many tactics and approaches that need to happen in order for neurodiverse Deaf and DeafBlind children to succeed.

I have come to believe that it is ethically acceptable and perhaps necessary for the interpreter of a student with neurodiversity to advocate on behalf of her needs, which are different than the needs of a child who is neurotypical.  For instance, if Alex was engaging in a self-soothing behavior, such as grinding her teeth, I would not attempt to stop this behavior, instead, I would acknowledge it aloud to the teacher, saying something like, “it sounds like Alex is grinding her teeth.”  If the teachers were busy or no one provided Alex with her tooth chewy (an oral motor device designed to satisfy physiologic stimulatory need), then I would get it for her.

Alex would need periodic sensory breaks, as she can get physically and psychologically overwhelmed. She would sometimes close her eyes in the middle of an activity or instruction. Because of this, I often needed to remind the assistants and teachers when Alex had not seen my interpretation.  When she would reopen her eyes, she would usually be attentive, with her eye gaze on me. Being aware of the overwhelming physical demands on an individual who is neurodiverse and prepared with strategies to support such a student significantly impacted the flow of our communication interactions.

Sometimes the teacher would say something like, “come on, Alex,” or “open your eyes,” believing that Alex’s behavior meant that she was avoiding work or being lazy.  A few times, one assistant teacher thought that Alex was rolling her eyes in a show of insolence or bad attitude – like a sassy teenager.  I was pretty shocked the first time I heard this; of course Alex wasn’t rolling her eyes in that sense!  I knew that Alex in all likelihood did not even know that rolling one’s eyes has this linguistic significance.

In cases like these, I would say a brief informative phrase such as, “it looks like Alex is just resting her eyes for a moment.”  In the case of the latter, I added that children with CHARGE Syndrome experience eye fatigue rather easily which is very different from expressing attitude. This would contextualize Alex’s behavior as a reaction to physical discomfort.  This could be a somewhat tricky balance for me — trying to inform the teacher of a “CHARGE moment” without making her feel threatened or like I was crossing the boundary of my role.

Pace was always an issue. I was constantly saying, “just a moment,” or “let me just make sure Alex gets this” as I would wait for Alex’s gaze and attention.  Thanks to some of these explanations, the teacher became more attuned to these “CHARGE moments” and our work as an educational team found a better balance.

As the year progressed, and with guidance from the New York Deaf-Blind Collaborative (a federal grant that provides technical assistance and support throughout New York State on behalf of children and young adults with combined hearing and vision loss www.nydbc.org), I found that there were many wonderful tools at my disposal to help with my work – from tactile signing to leg taps to shoulder squeezes to breathing exercises.  Ultimately, perhaps the most helpful tool was the one I tapped into before even walking into the room: an acceptance and appreciation for neurodiversity.  This attitude allowed me to be positive and comfortable with any day that was expected to go into unexpected directions.  I walked in everyday excited to see a child who has different learning abilities and a personality, a student who has language and desires access, a student who deserves patience and modification, a human being who has value.

Katie Peacock Helde

Look for future articles on this and other topics from Katie Peacock Helde.

RESOURCES

CHARGE Syndrome Foundation - http://www.chargesyndrome.org/

New York Deaf-Blind Collaborative - http://nydbc.org/

National Center on Deaf-Blindness - https://nationaldb.org/

Perkins E-Learning - http://www.perkinselearning.org/videos/webcast/charge-syndrome-overview

American Institute for Learning and Human Development – http://www.institute4learning.com/neurodiversity.php

Classroom Interpreting -http://www.classroominterpreting.org/Interpreters/proguidelines/developmental.asp

Palm Reversal Errors in Native-Signing Children with Autism -http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3479340/

The post Educational Interpreting for a Neurodiverse Child appeared first on Signtalk Foundation.

by Amber Ceffalio, NIC

Before the start of each school year, NYC educational interpreters gather to review interpreting policies and procedures. Beth Prevor, Director of the Office of Sign Language Interpreting Services, mentioned during the meeting that she likes to give us educational interpreters, “the freedom to do what we do.”  She added, “And that turns out to be a lot more than just interpreting.”

This column will explore what “a lot more than just interpreting” actually means.

Even though we do “a lot more than just interpreting”, most of the work we do is within our interpreting models. In fact, it’s not a stretch to say that an educational interpreter will use all of the models in any given day.

Let’s take a short walk through how an interpreter might use our models. Obviously, there are many more ways each model might be employed.

Helper: Interpreter acts as a tutor, either formally or informally.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/371054456773398240/

Conduit: Interpreter voices everything the deaf student signs, even if the deaf student doesn’t want you to.

Communication Facilitator: Interpreter understands the goal of the student and expresses it in such a way that the teacher understands what the student needs, even though the student didn’t know how to express their own needs.

Bilingual-Bicultural: Interpreter provides mainstream teachers with materials including information on how to set up closed captions.

Ally: Interpreter escorts the deaf student to the front office and helps the student ask for a special request.  The interpreter ends up being more than an interpreter as she leads her student’s questions.

Educational Team: Interpreters have access to information that teachers don’t have and it’s their responsibility to share that information with the appropriate people.

These are snapshots of situations when it’s ethically responsible to employ the various interpreting models. Educational interpreters don’t have the luxury of simply being a Communication Facilitator. Educational interpreters need to deftly and ethically toggle between the models to provide appropriate interpreting services in any given situation.

Other parts of “a lot more than just interpreting” land outside of our models. We are language models, for example.  We share information necessary information with teachers.  We are a confidants and sometimes informants.

What we do as educational interpreters is difficult to discuss in hypothetical generalizations. So, this column will open each week with a situation. We will use the situation to explore what we do, why we do it, and what options we have to make better informed decisions.

This isn’t, though, us laying down the educational interpreting law.  We want you to participate. Please, leave your thoughts in the comments.  What would you do in a given situation and why? We’d like a healthy and respectful discussion on educational interpreting.

Do you have a situation you’d like to discuss? Email me at amberala@gmail.com. We’ll remove identifying characteristics in order to keep identities confidential.  Yet we’ll make the situation specific enough so we can agree on the parameters.

Happy terping! Amber

To learn more about Amber click here and here.

Amber Ceffalio, NIC Writer & Interpreter

Click here for more information on sign language interpreter models.

More on classroom interpreting here.

The post Educational Interpreters: Who We Are and What We Do appeared first on Signtalk Foundation.

“Accurate Fingerspelling & Number Production for 

with Miriam Morrow, CDI

Sunday, 10/5/14  9:30am – 1:30pm

SLC Conference Center

15 W 39th St New York, NY 10018

Cost: $25

CEUs: .4 PS

To Register: ddavid@signtalk.com

Workshop Overview

Research shows that adult learners who attempt to acquire a second language have more difficulty achieving fluency than those that are native or near-native learners. Research through Gallaudet University speaks specifically about the importance of lexicalization of fingerspelling and the expansion outside of ‘neutral fingerspelling’ that is commonly used by hearing people. Given the current trend in the field of interpreting, most practitioners enter the field as non-native signers, thus raising the concern of true fluency, particularly as it relates to the reception of ASL. This session will focus on native-like strategies to increase reception and expression of fingerspelling and numerical production, specifically for interpreters working in the educational setting.

Learner Objectives:

• Identify the challenges with fingerspelling & numerical production.
• Demonstrate native-like strategies to enhance production.
• Identify ways in which these strategies can be applied as an interpreter within the educational setting.

The post 10/5/14 Workshop: “Accurate Fingerspelling & Number Production for Educational Interpreters” appeared first on Signtalk Foundation.