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TIM: Hello, my name is Tim Riker and I’m part of the Language Deprivation Taskforce that was established as a result of the 2014 Conference where the delegates voted to make Education one of the NAD’s priorities. The taskforce has been working hard since then and include many members from different professions, all of whom are deaf. We have a psychologist, a mental health worker, a bilingual school administrator, a university professor, a Child Protective Services caseworker, two lawyers, and two researchers with a doctorate degree, as well. You can see their names and bios on the NAD website. At the 2012 Conference, there was a mandate that was passed for the NAD to focus on language deprivation. That mandate recognized the serious issue affecting many deaf and hard of hearing children everywhere. The tasks involved in that mandate was assigned to the Education Expert group under the Public Policy committee and they completed two things that satisfied the 2012 mandate on language deprivation. The two things were: 1) a position statement on early language acquisition and 2) a model bill. Language deprivation is an epidemic affecting many children in various ways -- it is an ongoing problem and so the NAD delegates voted to continue this work by assigning this to the Education Strategy Team. From there, this Language Deprivation Taskforce was implemented. The goal of the taskforce was to develop a long-term strategic action plan to approach, prevent, and make sure deaf and hard of hearing children everywhere are able to acquire language successfully.
To achieve that, we have collected all relevant research articles, analyzed state laws and bills, studied statistics, and now have a draft plan to start implementing this fall. We would like to share more in this video, but we must be careful because we are aware others will watch this video and may take advantage of our information. If you are curious and interested in learning more, we encourage you to go to the NAD Conference where there will be various presentations providing updates. The taskforce will be there as well.
Feel free to ask any of the taskforce members for more information and to share ideas or suggestions. We are working hard to develop a multi-prong plan with different strategies to change and improve the system to ensure all deaf and hard of hearing children, along with their families, have increased success in language acquisition with appropriate support and information -- be it in schools, hospitals, at home, or anywhere in the country. Thank you.