Signs of the Times While Sign Languages Work to Get Recognition from the EU, Flanders’ Cochlear Implants Become Standard for Children
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FLANDERS TODAY MARCH 23, 2011 FREE NEWSWEEKLY WWW.FLANDERSTODAY.EU Erkenningsnummer P708816 2/NEWS 6/BUSINESS 9/FOCUS 10/ARTS 13/AGENDA 16/FOOD Hippity hop Spreekt u Engels? Bring me an angel West Flanders’ hop shoots Language politics in the SonicAngel gets fans p16 Flemish periphery financing musicians p9 p6 #172 Signs of the times While sign languages work to get recognition from the EU, Flanders’ cochlear implants become standard for children DENZIL WA LTON ast autumn, the This got us thinking that sign Declaration on Sign language might just be as hot a Languages in the European topic as spoken language. What UnionL was signed by all 36 we discovered took us all the representatives on behalf of 160 way back to the beginning – delegates of deaf communities what first happens when a deaf at a special conference to baby is born in Flanders. initiate legislation for the In 1998 Flemish agency Kind deaf and hard-of-hearing. The & Gezin (Child & Family) document declares that the sign introduced a neonatal hearing languages of every member screening programme – the first state are native languages and region in Europe to implement that minimum standards for such a scheme. Previously, adequate services for the deaf hearing problems in many throughout Europe should be children went undetected until implemented. they went to school for the Next month in Brussels, first time. Every newborn in meanwhile, the Flemish deaf Flanders now gets a visit from a community will celebrate the care worker from Kind & Gezin, recognition of Flemish Sign who conducts an automated Language by the Flemish hearing test. Virtually all government five years ago with countries in western Europe a major three-day event in and most states in the US have parliament. now followed Flanders’ lead. ➟continued on page 5 Belgium sends F-16s to Libya Reactors to undergo stress tests Belgium is sending a minesweeper, Each F-16 will be equipped with two six F-16 fighters and about 230 medium range AIM-120 Amraam Nuclear power plant closure hangs in the balance military personnel as part of the air-to-air missiles and two short- international action being taken range AIM-9 Sidewinders. Since AL A N HOPE against the Gaddafi regime in the aircraft on exercise have only Libya. missiles equipped with guidance uclear reactors in Belgium that fail a become known how the tests, which are not Belgium already has eight F-16s on systems, warheads and other parts NEuropean stress test will be closed down, obligatory, will be carried out and by whom. exercise in Greece, and, according will be delivered by C-130. The federal energy minister Paul Magnette has “Belgium will also argue for as many member to the Air Force, six of those would minesweeper Narcis is also in the promised. Meanwhile last week, “a small states as possible to submit their nuclear go into action as Flanders Today Mediterranean, with its crew of 32. incident” was reported at the nuclear power plants to the tests,” he said. went to press. The personnel detail The duration of the mission is plant at Doel in Antwerp province. Magnette pledged the results of the tests will include about a dozen pilots as not known, but federal defence The European Union has called for the tests would be made public, and any reactor that well as support staff, whose numbers minister Pieter De Crem warned at following the earthquake-related crisis at the failed would have to close. Belgium has seven will depend on the base at which the the weekend that it “could last a Fukushima plant in Japan and a decision by nuclear reactors, four at Doel and three at jets are stationed and whether other long time” and cause “very many German chancellor Angela Merkel to shut Tihange in Liège province. “But I should be nations are also present to share casualties”. down seven older reactors in Germany for an surprised if all seven reactors failed,” said technical responsibilities. The detail Meanwhile, about 1,500 people in indeterminate time. Two are unlikely ever to Magnette. “When they were built, the rules will be supplied from air bases in Brussels took part last weekend in open again. were very strict.” Kleine Brogel, Limburg province, a march in support of the “Arabic As Flanders Today went to press, Magnette and Florennes, Namur province. spring” – the series of popular was due to discuss the issue with his fellow The planes themselves come from uprisings in the Arab world, including EU energy ministers. Only then would it Limburg. Libya. ➟continued on page 3 FLANDERS TODAY Feature MARCH 23, 2011 Signs of the times There are as many sign languages as there are spoken languages ➟ continued from page 1 If the screening shows hearing and arranges sounds picked up by successfully installed in babies as problems, the parents are referred the microphone young as six months. Of course, to a specialised audiological ◆ a transmitter and receiver/ such early intervention would assessment centre or university stimulator, which receive signals not have been possible without clinic, where additional testing from the speech processor and the universal hearing screening is completed within four weeks. converts them into electric programme. These centres work closely with impulses The results are impressive. the five early intervention teams in ◆ an electrode array, which is a Around 60% of all deaf babies Flanders (one per province), which group of electrodes that collects given a cochlear implant can be inform parents about hearing the impulses from the stimulator sent to a normal, hearing school problems and the communication and sends them to different by the time they are six years old. and therapy options. regions of the auditory nerve The reason is that the implant Early screening is vital because it An implant does not restore stimulates the auditory nerves as gives health workers the chance normal hearing. Instead, it gives a early as possible – when the brain to implement early onset of deaf person a useful representation is the most receptive. intervention. In this area too, of sounds in the environment and “It’s a successful combination of Flanders is a pioneer, particularly helps him or her to understand early screening within weeks of in the area of cochlear implants. speech. birth, cochlear implantation in the “About 200,000 people worldwide next six months if possible, and the Helping to hear are wearing cochlear implants,” provision of excellent support of A cochlear implant is a small, says Leo De Raeve, Director of the the parents,” adds De Raeve. “This complex electronic device that Independent Information Centre involves helping parents to use helps provide sound to a person on Cochlea Implants (ONICI) the implant properly and advising who is deaf or severely hard of in Zonhoven, just north of them how to communicate most hearing. An external portion Hasselt. “In the last three years in effectively with their child.” sits behind the ear, and a second Flanders, 95% of all children born When the child enters mainstream portion is surgically placed under deaf received a cochlear implant education six years later, his or her the skin. A cochlear implant has: – nearly three-quarters of them language ability is either average ◆ a microphone, which picks up before they were 18 months old.” or only slightly below average. sound from the environment The average age of implantation is Without implantation, many of © Courtesy of Fevlado ◆ a speech processor, which selects 14 months, but implants have been these children would not be able The Federation of Flemish Deaf Organisations (Fevlado) is spearheading a three-day event next month to communicate with hearing in celebration of the recognition of Flemish Sign Language by the Flemish Parliament five years ago children or teachers. (www.fevlado.be) Since February 2010, medical surprise to find that cochlear to French Sign Language). Breaking new ground in Flanders insurance companies in Flanders implantation has its critics. On An attempt was made to create an also reimburse the second implant one side of the fence are those – International Sign Language, but (that is, in the child’s other ear) – particularly the hearing parents this has never been well received. previously, only the first implant of a deaf child – who support Therefore, there is no universal was covered. Most countries, cochlear implants because they sign language. in fact, reimburse just one believe that they allow children Even in a region as small as implant, but after Flanders began to function successfully in society. Flanders, there are two main covering the second, Sweden, On the other side is a sizeable sign languages (Flemish Sign the UK, Austria, Switzerland portion of the deaf community Language and French-Belgian and some areas of Germany are who believe that deafness is a Sign Language) as well as a now introducing legislation that cultural identity, not a disability. multitude of dialectical variants. allows the second implant to be “With deaf children of deaf parents, So the chance that a deaf person reimbursed. we say that their first language is in Hasselt can understand what It’s highly advantageous for sign language, and we emphasise a deaf person in Knokke-Heist parents, as the total cost of a the need for the child to learn that is signing is, unfortunately, very cochlear implantation is about important language – even after small. €22,500. After reimbursement, the receiving an implant,” explains De This dichotomy is also linked cost to parents winds up at only Raeve. “But in situations where with the absence in Flanders of about €500, part of which covers the parents are hearing and don’t a special academically oriented the child’s stay in hospital.