—JUGGLEMAN
"Cognitive neuroscience studies have shown that a brain using sign language is active in the *same* area as a brain using speech. This indicates that sign languages *are* in fact treated as languages by the brain, and facilitate literacy to the same degree as learning a spoken language.
It has also been shown that the earlier a child receives language (any language .. not just speech or English), the 'better' ... ie, it aids their development. And children that learn language before the age of five are better able to build upon that language to learn other structures.
The implication of this, then, is that the earlier a child learns any language, the greater chance of learning other languages.
My own experience supports this. My deaf friends who were born into signing deaf families usually have English (written at least) to as advanced a level as their schooling allowed - university academic writing in many cases.They have been able to build fluency of English upon their fluency in sign.
However, my deaf friends who were born into non signing families (all hearing families in this case) may have fine spoken English, but often their written skills are far below their level of schooling. My husband is a case in point. While he had many hours per day of both written and spoken English training, this happened after the age of five. His mother *did* spend many hours before this age with picture dictionaries and writing, but he did not really start to speak until his sister (3 years younger) started to be able to play with him and speak herself. His spoken English is almost unpickable as deaf, but his written English is about grade eight. This with a measured IQ of 140 ... which I mention only to point out, it is not a learning disability that has impeded his written English skills. In other words, it was likely that not picking up language before the age of five is the impeding factor in his written English skills.
Actually, that is another point worth mentioning .. the rate of learning disabilities with people deaf through illness is extremely high .. so you cant simply say it is their deafness that is affecting their English."
—About Visitor
"The basis of any bi-lingual education is to start with the mother tongue and work towards the second language. Here in Bolivia the law requires that children who speak Quechua, Aymara, Guarani or any of the many tribal languages be first taught in their tongue to be sure they are getting the necessary basic concepts before moving on to integration in the Spanish schools. Yet, the Deaf are expected to jump right in to Spanish without acquiring knowledge by means of their birth language.
In other words, here, Quechua children have rights to a language of their own, but the Deaf don't."
—About Visitor
"I agree with Lisa Pooh more than anyone else. I have 2 hearing and 2 Deaf kids. All of them are exposed in ASL in their early years. Today, all are doing great in school including writing English. Always remember this: expose language such as ASL as much as possible before the age of 5 and the child should be communicate effectively to his/her parent before the age of 5 as well. Once communication is effectively established, the child's schooling years will be well founded. It is the parent's job to communicate in two way to their child. Saying PSE or SEE is better than ASL is plainly false."
—About Visitor
"I would be thrilled to see my 9-year old write a perfect sentence in English but I also realize that he needs ASL even more if he is to express himself. I think English and all its grammar can be learned through reading and vocabulary can improve by the same method."
— About Visitor
"I am a T.O.D. in an instutution style school but have also taught in a school that had a joint program with a hearing district and have worked as an itinerent. The main thing that allows a child to learn English is a basis in any one langauge. As an earlier person said, with most Deaf children being born into hearing families ( 90%) that rarely learn to sign well and certainly need time to learn to sign at all, these children grow up without ANY first language. You are also assuming that the children we are speaking of are ONLY Deaf. As medicine improves there are less children who are born where Deafness is their only "disability". ( Quotes to show I recognize the cultural view of Deafness NOT as a disability). Asl can be used to teach English but first the child needs to learn the grammatical aspects of ASL. How many Deaf of Deaf children can tell you the difference between
