Hi5—Special Edition (June 20, 2019)

Welcome to this special issue of Hi5, focusing on President Cordano's Norway visit and keynote presentation!

President Cordano was the keynote presenter at the How Sign Language Matters conference June 13-14 at Oslo Metropolitan University in Oslo, Norway. This conference brought together politicians, researchers, teachers, school leaders, and administrators to discuss how to strengthen sign language competence in Norwegian society. 

In her presentation, “Invitation to a Paradigm Shift: Considering Needs of Deaf Children from New Perspectives,” President Cordano shared personal and professional anecdotes and experiences, together with research and best practices, to illustrate the point that the "best" option is not always obvious. She also highlighted the importance of promoting bilingualism from birth to adulthood and the remarkable benefits in academic, cognitive, and social development that accrue to deaf individuals who have access to a bilingual learning community from an early age. Finally, President Cordano invited an opportunity to shift the paradigm of our thinking through different perspectives for consideration in Norway's policies and practices related to ensuring that its deaf and hard of hearing children thrive and become active citizens.

The Gallaudet delegation to the conference included Dr. Melissa Herzig, ’98, manager of the VL2 education and research translation and assistant director of the Ph.D. program in educational neuroscience, who presented on "Why Sign Language Matters: Research and Resources to Maximize Student Learning.” Dr. Deborah Chen Pichler, professor in the Department of Linguistics, presented on "ML2 Signers: Parents Learning Sign language as a Second Language.” 

President Cordano, Dr. Herzig, and Dr. Chen attended the conference at the express invitation of its organizers, including Dr. Hilde Haualand, a professor at OsloMet. Said President Cordano, “Thank you to the conference organizers for bringing the Gallaudet team to Oslo. Both Norway and Gallaudet are committed to a shared goal of building an infrastructure that optimizes deaf and hard of hearing children’s educational, linguistic, cognitive and social/emotional development so that they can grow up to become healthy, vibrant, and contributing citizens.”

Dr. Joseph Murray of the Department of American Sign Language and Deaf Studies served as conference moderator. Dr. Murray is also vice president of the World Federation of the Deaf, which will hold its 20th quadrennial World Congress July 23-27 in Paris. Loriel Dutton, E-’15, and Kari Bahl, G-’05, from Gallaudet Interpreting Service, rounded out the Gallaudet delegation.