User:Nell Curtin/Language exposure for deaf children

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[edited Lead section]

Language exposure for children is the act of making language readily available and accessible during the critical period for language acquisition. Deaf or hard of hearing children, when compared to their hearing peers, tend to face more hardships when it comes to ensuring that they will receive this input of first language during their formative years. This is largely due to the fact that 90-95% of deaf children are born to hearing parents.Therefore, deaf or hard of hearing children are more likely to have language deprivation which causes cognitive delays. Early exposure to language allows the brain to fully develop cognitive and linguistic skills as well as language fluency and comprehension later in life. Hearing parents of deaf and hard of hearing children face unique barriers when it comes to providing language exposure for their children, but while it may feel daunting to parents at first, there is lots of research, advise, and many services available to these parents to help guide them on this journey and ensure their children get quality language exposure.

Critical Period and Language Acquisition [edited section]

Many theories exist on when exactly the critical period for language begins and ends; however, the research shows that when a child does not receive first language exposure during their first few years of life, they have long term deficits in language acquisition. Much of the research on language exposure, the critical period, and language acquisition are based on spoken languages and children who are hearing. In reality, these same ideas translate to deaf children as well. For children who can hear and speak, first language exposure usually starts with their parents' native language. The same is true for deaf children with Deaf parents; they are exposed to sign language since birth. However, language exposure for deaf children born to hearing parents is often delayed. Many deaf or hard of hearing children who are not exposed to language until later in life when they are given hearing devices (e.g., cochlear implant, hearing aids) show syntactic impairments (i.e., impairments in sentence structuring). Research concludes that it is not the hearing loss itself that affects language impairment, but rather if language input was received during their first year of life. Children who were exposed to language during their first year of life but lost their hearing after that year, still show normal syntactic development (i.e., language development).

Language and Development [edited section]

American Sign Language has been recognized as an official language after research that started in the 60's. The research proved that signed languages are in fact full and technical languages with structure, syntax, and grammar much like that of spoken language. They both also use the same area of the brain in the left hemisphere. For years it was known that the left hemisphere dealt with speech, but now research clarifies that all details of language organization are processed here.

Both deaf children and hearing children with proper language exposure and education have normal cognitive developments. In fact, deaf children and hearing children have similar language milestones and timelines. According to the language development and milestone sources, babies that can hear who are exposed to language will typically start to babble (e.g., ma-ma, da-da) between the ages of 6 to 12 months. Deaf babies will also begin to babble around the same time as hearing babies (this is whether or not the baby or parents can hear them). Deaf babies could make noises but they did not babble the same way as hearing babies. However, unlike hearing babies, deaf babies that are exposed to sign language will start to “babble” with their hands by using organized and repetitive hand gestures that were actual elements of American Sign Language. Hearing children make many hand gestures as well but ones that never become organized or repetitive. Unfortunately, deaf children are an at-risk population for not receiving language during the critical period for learning language. This can be due to schooling options, their parent's inability to communicate, or lack of continuous and unlimited exposure to sign language. The cognitive, neurological, and regular development of children who happen to be deaf is completely normal. Deafness does not directly cause cognitive or neurological impairments nor developmental delays. However, deaf or hard of hearing children are much more likely than their hearing peers to not have full access or exposure to language during their critical periods. This lack of exposure and support in accessible language can cause said cognitive and language delays.

Providing Language Exposure [new paragraph below]

There are two primary approaches proposed for exposing deaf and hard of hearing children to language. The first is through sign language and the second is through spoken language. However, it is not necessary to choose one or the other. Research shows that learning two languages, regardless of what languages they are, can provide unique cognitive advantages to bilingual individuals. Furthermore, bilingualism opens up more opportunities for the individual by enabling them to interact with users of multiple languages. For deaf and hard of hearing children in particular, learning both a signed language from birth and spoken/written language as they are able to access those modalities can protect the child from the harms that come from the language deprivation that occurs when a child is delayed in accessing language in any modality.

Sign Language [new section]

When deaf children are born to Deaf parents who use sign language, their language exposure is constant and fully accessible from birth. This is equivalent to the quality of language exposure received by hearing children. These children thus demonstrate typical language acquisition. However, most deaf and hard of hearing children have hearing parents with no experience in sign language. There are many options available to these parents to help them provide their child with as much fully accessible language as possible from birth onward.

First, many schools for the deaf offer sign language classes to parents who want to learn to sign with their kid. Some schools even offer Parent Infant programs which allow parents to bring their infants to the class and provide both language instruction to the parents, sign language exposure to the infant, and structured play time for the parents and infants to all interact in sign language with signing instructors present to facilitate and answer questions.

For toddlers and preschoolers, there are signing preschool classes offered at most schools for the deaf. These are places where deaf and hard of hearing children can come and spend the school day in fun, language rich classrooms which may provide more fluent sign language exposure than many hearing parents are able to provide at this point in their journey. Additionally, these preschools provide deaf and hard of hearing children with the much needed chance to start building peer relationships with others who share their language.

Some states in the U.S., such as Tennessee, have also established Deaf Mentorship programs to guide families with new deaf and hard of hearing children through the first year of life with their baby. By connecting hearing parents with a Deaf role model, these programs allow parents to glimpse the wonderful adults their child can become, help parents to get plugged into the Deaf community, and empower parents locate and access the other available resources around them (such as the other resources mentioned in this section).

Cochlear Implants [edited section]

Many doctors recommend families with babies diagnosed with hearing loss see an audiologist. To some, an audiologist referral is an attempt to solve a problem of hearing loss. To others, it is seen as an act of denying the baby a chance to explore and become a part of the Deaf community. Since their introduction, there has been heated debate over research on cochlear implants. This surgery is a common recommendation for children born deaf, in order to attempt to get the child to hear, understand, and use spoken language rather than or sometimes in addition to sign language. The debate mostly centers around the view that deafness is a problem that needs to be fixed. Proud members of the Deaf community view the implantation as trying to fix someone who is already whole, and many find this insulting and even unethical. Others view it as a very real possibility to open doors and give children the opportunity to function with more accessibility in a hearing society.

In 2018, a systematic review of all the literature on cochlear implants and language acquisition outcomes was published which concluded that it is unlikely for most deaf children to catch up to their hearing peers in spoken language acquisition through the use of cochlear implants. However, language outcomes were better the earlier the child was given access to language (in this case spoken language through implants). One solution that has been proposed to this is to provide exposure to sign language for all deaf children starting as close to birth as possible for the parents regardless of whether they plan to pursue cochlear implants or hearing aids later on. This strategy ensures maximum possible language exposure for the children and mitigates the risk of language deprivation often entailed in waiting to see if cochlear implants will be successful for any given child.

LEAD-K

LEAD-K stands for Language Equality and Acquisition for Deaf Kids. LEAD-K is an American campaign promoting language acquisition and kindergarten readiness for Deaf and Hard of Hearing children ages 0-5. LEAD-K recognizes Deaf children may struggle socially and academically when entering school due to inadequate language exposure in their early stages of life. LEAD-K has proposed a bill that will require assessments for certain language milestones for Deaf and hard of hearing children to ensure they are being adequately prepared for future academic success. The bill allows for assessments to be conducted in ASL and/or written/spoken English.

LEAD-K hopes the data that would be collected from assessments proposed by their bills would be used to hold state education systems accountable if their deaf or hard of hearing students seem to be falling behind on the milestones they should be meeting. LEAD-K wants everyone to recognize the importance of early language exposure and steady language progress for all children. Reaching the right language milestones on a consistent timeline will help deaf and hard of hearing children maintain a healthy developmental path.

Grade school [edited section]

Unlimited language exposure includes having education options available in one's own language. Access to communication and language is vital for deaf students’ success. 95% of deaf children are born into hearing homes and often do not have an adequate level of language exposure. To ensure deaf children are properly set up for future success in classrooms, early language exposure is essential. In a classroom, access to social and academic communication is equally as important for language and cognitive development.

The Americans with Disabilities Act states that a public education should be provided to each child with a disability in the "least restrictive environment" for them. As a broad statement, this is up to interpretation. Often this means that mainstreamed classrooms are made accessible to deaf students with the use of an interpreter. The role of an interpreter in a classroom setting is to interpret, facilitate, and provide access to the auditory language in the school environment. However, the role of an interpreter varies greatly from school to school. Interpreters in classrooms have been known to add Deaf related materials to the curriculum, teach the hearing students and teachers sign language, and tutor their deaf students.

The effectiveness of accommodating with sign language interpreters is dependent on the language status of the deaf or hard of hearing students. Deaf/hard of hearing students that are language deprived, meaning they were not exposed to an accessible language during early childhood, will not benefit as much from interpreters in the classroom as deaf/hard of hearing students who have little to no language deprivation would. Contrastingly, children that are exposed to multiple language users or peer group language users benefit substantially. Therefore, providing one sign language interpreter may not be the sole accommodation necessary to create an equitable educational classroom environment for Deaf or hard of hearing students in mainstream classrooms.

Additionally, going to a public school that is a majority of hearing students isolates the deaf child and does not provide unlimited access to their language. While schools that teach primarily in sign language are rare compared to public schools, each state typically has at least one Deaf School where deaf children can attend to receive their education in sign language. One such example is The Learning Center for the Deaf in Framingham, MA. Other deaf and hard of hearing programs and schools may teach in an oralist method, prohibiting signing and focusing only on speech, or a total communication method, with a pidgin sign language accompanying a speaking teacher, also known as simultaneous communication, and a bilingual approach that includes both sign and speech, but in a separated way.