Presenter: Sheila Jacobs, MFT
Workshop #1:
Ingredients for a Successful ASL/English Bilingual Family Recipe: Relevant Healthy Family Concepts from the Mental Health Field
The Deaf and hard of hearing child’s place in their family—as a child, as a sibling, and as a grandchild—greatly impacts their view of themselves and their ultimate success in school and in their future. Borrowing important healthy family concepts from the field of mental health, Sheila Jacobs, MFT will share the “ingredients” that contribute toward a more successful bilingual family “recipe”. Like an immigrant family who has moved to a new country learning a new language and culture, the hearing family faces a similar situation as they unexpectedly need to learn a new language and how to become part of a new Deaf World. The goal of early childhood bilingual education is to support the family in navigating the stages of bilingual, or sometimes trilingual, family development step by step successfully.
What are these predictable developmental stages of bilingual and bicultural family development? What are the key ingredients we as professionals can offer the deaf and hard of hearing children and their families easily and quickly so that the family feels more invested in becoming a successful bilingual family as time is of the essence?
Sheila recommends that the fields of early childhood bilingual education and mental health consider ways to collaborate in a possible interdisciplinary approach for the optimal success of our deaf and hard of hearing children in school, their future careers, and in raising our next generation of children. How can we work together toward helping build a successful early childhood family foundation with lots of positive family communication experiences for the whole family in the Deaf Community so that the whole family feels accepted, valued, and respected by both the Deaf and hearing worlds?
Learners Objectives:
Participants will:
- Develop an understanding of key healthy family concepts used in the mental health field
- Develop a new framework for considering the predictable stages of bilingual family development as a possible road map toward more successful bilingual family communication, step by step (for example, learning to sign directly with the deaf and hard of hearing child vs signing to the hearing family members instead of speaking)
- Clarify the diverse ways that hearing families currently communicate with their young deaf and hard of hearing children at home which would be the various starting points on the path to bilingualism for the deaf and hard of hearing child and their families
- Clarify that the path to bilingualism means that we also need to prepare bilingual families for the variety of hearing world and Deaf world settings that impact the family’s need to successfully juggle both languages. How can we better teach families a variety of bilingual communication strategies that successful bilingual families already know how to use? (Examples: holiday celebrations with many hearing relatives, attending Deaf Community events, family vacations and meeting many hearing strangers)
Sheila Jacobs, MFT has first hand experience growing up as the only hearing person in a large Deaf family. Blending her life experiences as a Coda (Child of Deaf Adults), with her experiences as a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and as an interpreter, Sheila has developed new counseling approaches for bilingual and bicultural individuals, couples, and families. Sheila was highly active in the early years of the international Children of Deaf Adults movement, helping plan the first CODA conference in 1986 and serving on the first CODA Advisory Board. Sheila has enjoyed facilitating several Bilingual Family Retreats and recently helped plan the first successful Deaf and Hearing Adult Siblings Retreat in Fremont, CA in July 2011. Sheila and her deaf sister, Lisa Jacobs, were the Sibling Keynotes. Sheila is the CEO of Double Pride which focuses on ways that bilingual families can have the best of both their worlds at home, at school, and at work. Please visit www.doublepride.com for more information about the various services Double Pride can offer.
