Allison Kalinowski drives her three kids the 20 kilometres from Warman to Saskatoon at least twice a week to attend the only preschool in the province that provides both American Sign Language and English under the same roof.
“Chloe is five and is the only one who has hearing loss. Everyone else is hearing, but this program is geared toward parents or siblings of deaf children, and anyone involved in the deaf community really,” she said.
“To teach everyone sign language and get everyone involved, so it’s less isolating for the child to be different.”
The name of the 4C preschool, a program offered at St. Augustine school, stands for children, communicating, connecting in community. The program is play based, family oriented and aims to accelerate speech and emotional development, encouraging children to communicate effectively.
Kalinowski said “no one in the health region” informed her about the program. She said they focused on “fixing” children rather than accepting them “as a whole person.”
Chloe lights up when someone signs to her, Kalinowski said, and the program helps their family connect with the deaf community.
“ASL should be an option for language for everybody in every school,” she said, noting others should strive to make the world more inclusive.
“Why should only my daughter learn or try to hear harder just to be included?”
Kalinowski said she is fortunate to have found herself in the deaf community. She said visits to deaf family summer camps have helped her daughter realize “she is not so alone.”
She said there is a great need in the community and the province, as she knows parents who drive 50 kilometres from Waldheim, Sask., and farther to enrol their children in the Saskatoon preschool.
‘Every deaf child needs to have a role model’: teacher
Nicole Musey, the deaf teacher at the 4C preschool, said in an interview done with the aid of an interpreter that she did not have many role models growing up deaf in Prince George, B.C.
She is trying to provide those role models.
WATCH| Why many in the Deaf community have been calling for Saskatchewan to have more preschools like this one:
A preschool in Saskatoon is the only of its kind in the province. What makes it unique is that it provides both American Sign Language and English under the same roof. CBC reporter Pratyush Dayal has more on how a “bilingual, bicultural approach” is helping deaf children — and the community as a whole.
Musey primarily interacts with three- to four-year-old children who are deaf or hard of hearing, are children of deaf adults (CODA), or are on the autism spectrum. Over the past couple of years, her classroom has had five to 10 students enrolled.
On Fridays, Musey hosts family events to foster the “sense of community.” She said the program provides kids with an option of choosing ASL or English or both.
“Every deaf child or hard of hearing child is different. It’s a spectrum. There’s different types of hearing loss. Some deaf kids prefer to sign, some like to be oral and some work between the two.”
Musey said programs like hers help speech and brain development in children younger than five, as early exposure is integral. She said in Saskatchewan, parents are typically told to wait until speech does not work before opting for ASL, which she said “is often too late.”
She noted that the Government of Saskatchewan closed the last designated deaf school in 1990, moving hearing-impaired children back into the regular school system.
A 2016 inquiry by the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission resulted in the creation of a group to advocate against “systemic discrimination” against deaf and hard of hearing people in the province. It also supported the founding of 4C Preschool in 2018.
She said children develop in their ASL use like any other language, with the way they use their hands evolving as they get more experience.
Musey wants to break the stereotype that ASL delays speech development. She said exposure to both the languages is instead more helpful.
“Every deaf child needs to have a role model. If they see an adult like them, it helps to know they can face the world. People just focus on language development, but what about their identity as a deaf person? Are they just defined by their hearing?”
Musey wants more Saskatchewan schools to use the same model.
“It’s two worlds in one in our classroom where everything is labelled in English and finger-spelled words.”
The preschool is being run under the Saskatchewan Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services programming, which Musey said is trying to work on outreach services in the northern communities too.
Bill C-81 passed in 2019 at the federal level, recognizing ASL, Indo-Pakistani Sign Language, and Langue des signes du Québec as primary languages for deaf people. B.C. and Alberta have passed similar pieces of legislation, and Saskatchewan is waiting for royal assent on its own.
‘Need in the community’: early childhood worker
Robyn Holmes, an early childhood and family services worker at Saskatchewan Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services, said she is proud to be deaf and has her two kids attending the preschool. Her parents moved from South Africa to Canada to ensure she had access to ASL.
“Both my kids can hear and speak. The reason they go to the preschool is because they’re CODA,” she said with the aid of an interpreter.
Holmes said her children now prefer to use ASL.
“It’s not just focusing on the ability to hear, but also to learn with sign and focusing on language acquisition and the kids’ abilities to use their vision to catch information and their hands to produce words and knowledge,” she said, noting the benefits of the holistic approach of 4C preschool.
Holmes said the continuity of the ASL helps in avoiding language deprivation as kids move from preschool to elementary school. Holmes said a dedicated program like the preschool could extend to all rungs of the education system.
“We have some adults here who are struggling to find employment. Their literacy levels are really low because they haven’t had these exposures. We want to avoid those gaps or loss of opportunities,” she said.
“We want to break those barriers for future generations.”
CBC Saskatchewan thanks Sue Schmid for helping interpret some of the interviews featured in this piece.
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