How do deaf people learn sign language?
Considerations In the United States, approximately 1 million people communicate via American Sign Language. However, the process for learning sign language varies greatly due to factors including family background and age at the time of hearing loss. ASL is just as complete and grammatically complex as a spoken language, and fluency is only achieved through a lot of practice and contact with native speakers. Multigenerational Deaf Families Due to certain genetic disorders, deafness can be passed down through multiple generations. In these families, a deaf child learns sign language naturally from watching his parents and family members. Cognitive neuroscience studies conducted at Dartmouth College show that deaf and hearing babies exposed to sign language will “babble” in signs just as hearing babies make sounds mimicking spoken language. The study confirmed the linguistic acquisition process is the same for deaf and hearing children when they are given equal access to language. Deaf C
