Isn sign language the “natural” language for profoundly deaf children?
Sign language is the natural language for deaf children only when it is the natural language of the home, i.e. where it is used for daily communication between family members. Otherwise it is no more natural than any other language. Since most deaf parents have hearing children (about 85%), very, very few severely or profoundly deaf children are born each year into homes where sign language is the natural language. Probably no more than 20 – 25 children such children per year. Sign language, which uses movement and vision to convey meaning is organised in a way which is fundamentally different to spoken languages. It is difficult for hearing people, whose language developed through listening, to fully master sign language, unless they were exposed to it as a young child – hearing children of sign using deaf parents for example. Deaf children would need to be surrounded at an early age by fluent sign language users if they were to develop vision and movement as the basis of their langua
Related Questions
- Does this certificate qualify me as a teacher of deaf children, ASL/English interpreter, sign language instructor, or speech pathologist and audiologist?
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