Language and Literacy Acquisition through Parental Mediation in American Sign Language

Abstract

This longitudinal case study examined the language and literacy acquisition of a Deaf child as mediated by her signing Deaf parents during her first three years of life. Results indicate that the parents’ interactions with their child were guided by linguistic and cultural knowledge that produced an intuitive use of child-directed signing (CDSi) in American Sign Language (ASL) and that the child developed in ways similar to her hearing, speaking counterparts. Parental attention to eye gaze and eye contact, especially prior to the advent of the first sign, are described, as are the ways they mediated their child’s transference of knowledge about their visual language, ASL, to printed English. These findings demonstrate that when deaf children are immersed in a visually accessible natural language environment from birth, they can participate in the kinds of mediated interaction that provide the linguistic resources and the cognitive mapping necessary for increasingly complex development. Implications for the development of deaf children are addressed in light of continuing reports of underachievement in this population, whose members are typically deprived of the linguistic and cognitive resources afforded by early immersion in a natural signed language.

Language deprivation syndrome: a possible neurodevelopmental disorder with sociocultural origins

“…Subsequently, immersing deaf children in a rich signing environment would likely reduce the risk of harm associated with language deprivation [24]. Current early childhood education should shift to prioritizing language and cognitive development , not solely speech or spoken language outcomes, especially at the expense of general education and development [74]. …”

What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You: The Risk of Language Deprivation by Impairing Sign Language Development in Deaf Children

“…Medical and educational advice is frequently rooted in a framework of viewing deaf children as “defective hearing people” (Bailes, Erting, Erting, & Thumann-Prezioso, 2009), an approach that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. In fact, medical school education does not address language development for deaf and hard-of-hearing children (Humphries, Kushalnagar, Mathur, Napoli, Padden, Pollard, et al, 2014), which can lead to flawed medical advice.…”

“…Rather, this systematic exclusion of sign language in deaf child development is described as being rooted in bias and prejudice (Humphries et al, in press). As a result, parents can become misinformed about the “potential and probable implications” of not exposing their deaf child to a fully accessible visual language such as sign language (Bailes et al, 2009, p. 449). If spoken language is not fully accessible to the deaf child and sign language exposure is delayed, then there is a strong possibility of permanent brain changes.…”

Deaf Children as ‘English Learners’: The Psycholinguistic Turn in Deaf Education

“…In a six-year case study, Bailes et al [136] followed Ann, a deaf child with deaf parents, through three years of her early home life and three years of her life in preschool. Ann was of particular interest to the researchers because, upon entering preschool, her linguistic, cognitive, and literacy development were all on par with her hearing peers.…”