Are there intrinsic benefits of bilingualism?
Yes. It must first be acknowledged that bilingualism is a common condition among the populations of the world-in most parts of the world, multilingualism is encouraged and certainly increases the economic viability of individuals who possess it. The United States, in fact, is probably unusual with respect to its predominantly monolingual use of English. With respect to ASL/English bilingualism, there has been a movement for many years, among hearing parents, to teach ASL signs to their hearing infants. This is seen as a way for parents to take advantage of the early gestural behavior of their children as a route to initiating the acquisition of language.
