SIGN LANGUAGE AND SUCCESSFUL BILINGUAL DEVELOPMENT OF DEAF CHILDREN
SIGN LANGUAGE AND SUCCESSFUL BILINGUAL DEVELOPMENT OF DEAF CHILDREN

Summary/Abstract: This paper reviews research on language development of deaf children, comparing those who have early access to natural sign language with those who do not. Early learning of sign language does not create concerns for the child's development of other languages, speech, reading, or other cognitive skills. In fact, it can contribute directly to establishment of more of the high-level skills needed for successful bilingual development. The global benefit of learning a sign language as a first language is that in the resulting bilingual communicative setting, teachers and learners can take advantage of one language to assist in acquiring the other and in the transfer of general knowledge. As part of this discussion, English and ASL are compared as representatives of spoken and signed natural languages to provide explicit examples of their similarities and differences.

• Details
• Contents