Program at School of the Arts opens doors to learning and life for deaf students

These deaf kids are learning English at the same time as learning sign language.  Wow!- - Donna Poisl

by Jennifer Berry Hawes

The mostly silent but highly animated razzing among four deaf and hard-of-hearing high schoolers is interrupted by a teacher's question:
How much sign language do your parents know?

All four move their hands in the universal so-so gesture with facial expressions that indicate this to be a generous estimate.

It's why many students arrive here, at the Charleston County School District's Deaf/Hard of Hearing Program, without knowing a first language at all. Deaf children cannot learn English through hearing conversations. They learn what someone specifically tells them.
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