Every year on the last Sunday of the first month of autumn, a holiday is celebrated around the world - Day of the Deaf, approved in 1951 in connection with the creation of the International Association of the Deaf. Now it is celebrated on September 27-29 annually.
According to statistics, one in nine people on Earth has difficulty hearing. The causes of this disease are completely different: the consequences of the disease, accidents, congenital malformations. Worldwide, there are about 30 million deaf and dumb people, with Russia accounting for about 40%, 5% of which are children under the age of majority. A large number of people united by one common problem realized the idea of defining the International Day of the Deaf.
The history of the international community of the deaf dates back to the 18th century in France.
Methods of teaching Charles-Michel de l'Epe
At the origins of the Association of the Deaf lies the association of graduates of the Paris Institute for the Deaf in the early 18th century. Like most educational institutions, this school was created by a clergyman, namely Abbot Charles-Michel de l'Epe. He not only created the world's first specialized educational institution for the deaf, but also was the founder of gesture pedagogy, based on the work of European philosophers D. Didro and J. Komensky.
Deaf education included the use of various speech means: verbal (written and spoken) and non-verbal (sign language) methods. The latter was the main one. Thus, a mimic training method was developed, which subsequently became a way of communication between the deaf and dumb.
Charles de l'Epe outlined his conclusions in the writings "Teaching of the deaf-mute by means of the method of signs" and "The true way of teaching the deaf-mute, confirmed by experience."
Deaf Day in France
The king of France approved the activities of the priest and provided financial support to the school, which was widely known throughout Europe. But help was not enough, and the abbot had to spend all his income on the maintenance of the educational institution, which ultimately ruined him.
Since the beginning of the 19th century, graduates of the Institute of the Deaf in Paris annually celebrate the birthday of Charles-Michel de L'Epe, celebrations in his honor have become traditional. This is also a kind of deaf day in France.
Later in France, three more specialized institutions for the deaf-mute appeared - in Bordeaux, Metz, Chambery, and in Paris still exists today. Deaf people are not singled out in France in a separate category, there is no special relationship with them - they lead a normal, normal lifestyle.
Sign languages
2.5 thousand languages exist on Earth. But the language of views and gestures is one of the most interesting forms of communication. The World Federation of the Deaf, back in the year 50, developed a gesture system - gesture. The need for this language arose to serve such events as congresses, symposia, conferences, and olympiads.
The first dictionary, published in 1965, contained three hundred gestures, and in the 1975 edition - 1500.
Zhestuno was not an ideal language and had several disadvantages:
- there were no grammar rules;
- gestures were difficult to use in context;
- it was based on only 4 languages - British, Italian, American and Russian.
Subsequently, a need arose for a language capable of circumventing these problems. So international gesture communication appeared, which developed naturally, without artificial scientific intervention. This system allowed the deaf-mute to communicate from different countries.
Attitude towards the deaf and dumb in Russia
Today in Russia, World Day of the Deaf is also celebrated, but few know that the first Russian school for the deaf-mute was opened in 1802 under Alexander I. Under it, the first higher educational institution for deaf-mutes was founded by European standards.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the first kindergarten for deaf children appeared in Moscow, not only in Russia but also in Europe. At that time, educational institutions for preschool children were in a single quantity. Special education has developed into a system and was developed only in the early 30s. last century. So by the mid-90s. In the 20th century, there were about 84 schools for the deaf (in which up to 11, 500 students were enrolled), 76 schools for those who heard, but weak (10, 000 were enrolled in them). Currently, the number of special educational institutions where qualified teachers teach has increased significantly. And the International Day of the Deaf in such educational centers is one of the main holidays.
For parents of children with hearing problems in large cities of Russia (Moscow, St. Petersburg, Rostov-on-Don, Yekaterinburg) there is an opportunity to arrange their child to study in special educational institutions and attend these institutions on a standard basis every day. From birth, the state took the deaf person under its care and control back in Soviet times. There was a clearly structured training system: the beginning in kindergarten, continued in a boarding school, then vocational school and university.
Deaf children education system
This system has been saved today. Gardens are able to accept children from 1.5 years. In cities where there are no specials. institutions for deaf children, special groups are opened in ordinary educational institutions. Children are taught not only to read texts adapted to their abilities, write, communicate using the fingerprint alphabet, but also work with the correct perception of the child of the world, the development of their own "I". They play with them, arrange all kinds of entertainment events. Including annual Deaf Day. For children, this is really a real holiday.
All-Russian Society of the Deaf (VOG)
The All-Russian Society of Hearing Impaired, formed in 1926, exists to this day. There are already more than 90, 000 deaf people united in one large community.
The All-Russian Society of the Deaf has 76 regional and nearly 900 local branches that serve deaf people living in the Russian Federation.
This society includes more than 340 cultural institutions (both regional and local level), the Moscow theater of facial expressions and gestures, rehabilitation centers and organizations.
The main tasks of VOG
Protecting the rights and improving the quality of life of a deaf person are the main tasks of VOG. The company actively interacts with state authorities and, as a result, a new federal list of rehabilitation measures, as well as equipment and services that are provided to people with disabilities for free: hearing aids, special mobile phones, fax machines, signaling devices, televisions, sign language interpretation services, etc..
Another of the goals of VOG is to inform society about the lives of people with disabilities, their problems, and solutions. A socially oriented approach to celebrating in our country such an event as International Day of the Deaf is also partly their merit.
