I’ve always wondered how a child could learn sign language if they are deaf. I could understand a child or even an adult knowing sign language if they studied it before they became deaf but what about children that were born deaf? How did they learn sign language if they grew up not being able to hear? It must be difficult to teach someone like that.
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Have you ever seen the movie Helen Keller? or read the book? This will answer your question. This was great movie. Patty Duke played in it.
Deaf children learn sign language the exact same way hearing children learn spoken language.
Hearing children learn spoken language by hearing and interacting with those around them.
Deaf children learn signing language by seeing and interacting with those around them.
The process is almost exactly the same. The only difference is that sign can be acquired sooner and much faster then spoken languages.
I know a 5th generation Deaf 22 month old – he has more language then any hearing children his age. He also knows all the letters of the alphabet in English and can read about 8 words. His first words were at 5 months of age.
Deaf children learn differently depending upon their situation. If a child is born Deaf to a set of Deaf parents then they will be signed to early on in life. Children are visual learners either way, so they learn to connect items to signs early on in life. They will also learn from interacting with Deaf peers. If a child is born Deaf into a hearing family who does not sign, it can delay their learning, but they would learn in the same manner, once their deafness is recognized. They can be sent to special schools (residential) where they would often learn mostly from other students and some from teachers. They can also learn from parents (slowly) if given the opportunity. It has also been known that hearing parents who have Deaf children (which is 90% of Deaf children are born to hearing adults, and 90% of Deaf adults have hearing children) will often be sent for periods of the day to interact with local Deaf families who can enrich them in the language and culture.
Not all families though take the ASL approach for their children. Some parents choose to send them through oralist schools where they learn to lipread(speechread) and speak without the use of signing. Although ALL Deaf children will go through SOME form of speech therapy and lipreading(speechreading) not all will excel in it, nor will they like it.
I am personally “late deafened” and losing my hearing later in life. I am learning ASL slowly, but surely. Children have it much easier. I have seen children pick up on signs in seconds and retain them (like babysigns) and use them more easily then myself or other college students. They are sponges for information and will have an easier time with ANY language you correctly present to them early in life.
My sister is deaf (diganosed at age 2). When I was born (and she was 2) we were taught sign language. My entire family learned it.
My mom would sign to my sister, simple words at first, like up, down, sleep, tired, food, tv, etc… overtime my sister would be teaching us(we’re all hearing). By the time I was two, I knew enough sign lanuage to carry out an entire converstion with my sister. Also as deaf children go to pre-school (they normally start at a very young age – my sister was 3) sign lanuage and new signs are taught.
It was natural for us to learn it, just like it’s natural to learn English as a baby. You see someone signing, and you repeat it. I could sign before I could talk.. but learning it at an older age is definetly a lot harder than at infant/youth age.