In hearing infants, the first word usually emerges around 12 months, and by two years most children are putting two words together, while some are doing more than this. For deaf infants the pattern is more variable. Some will develop spoken language following a similar pattern to that of hearing infants. Some will develop sign language and again the pattern of development may be similar. Deaf babies also babble like hearing infants however, they babble in sign, “Deaf children show a kind of sign “babbling” between about 7 and 11 months of age, much as hearing children babble sounds in these same months,”(Bee 1994:115). If they grow up in a home with parents who can sign, they will follow the same patterns of development using their first language, signing, and will sign their first word at around the same age that hearing children speak theirs. “At about 12 months of age, deaf babies seem to display their first referential signs” (Bee 1994:115). If their parents are deaf then communication will be in sign language. For other deaf children, development can be significantly slower and the question can arise as to whether the development is delayed due to deafness not being diagnosed and hearing parents who cannot sign and communicate with their child. Babies with hearing problems can have trouble picking up language if their parents are unaware of the hearing problem. It is very important that they receive environment input to develop and that the environment stimulate this inborn language ability. Partially hearing children perhaps follow a similar pattern to hearing children if their deafness is identified (Studies - Schlesinger & Meadow (1972), Prinz & Prinz (1979), Pettito & Marenette (1991) Too often, hearing loss is not diagnosed until children are 12 months old, when they will have missed a crucial year of initial language acquisition. “Late diagnosis can have a devastating effect on language acquisition, communication development, confidence and social skills, which can last a lifetime” (Defeating Deafness 2005). Not many hearing families of deaf children learn sign language to communicate with their deaf child, and the majority of children experience extremely poor social and family interaction. In most families, communication between parent and deaf child is through oral language. Some deaf children do not encounter sign language until much later in life when they go to school or deaf club and meet other deaf people.
So how do deaf children develop? This depends on many variables in the deaf child’s life and the degree of deafness, which could be mild, moderate or profoundly deaf. If the hearing loss is mild then the child will receive some speech but maybe not all. If it is moderate deafness, they could miss high sounds and if profoundly deaf then no sounds will be identified by the infant. The environment into which an infant is born affects its language development. If a deaf child is born into a deaf family then the language development will be the same as a hearing child of hearing parents. The parents will interact with their child teaching sign language. They will communicate with their child through touch and facial expressions just like hearing parents do. “In the cases of children with parents who are deaf or who are aware of their child’s deafness, it may be that increased rates of touching, visual stimulation, and facial expression can compensate for the absence of auditory stimulation in mother and child interactions.” (Marschark 1993:53) The deaf parent will interpret gestures as meanings and sign and reinforce them, as the hearing parent will interpret any babbling or utterances as words. If their parents are hearing, then deafness may not be diagnosed until later and the deaf child will miss vital information for language development. It is vital to get early diagnosis for the child to develop. Some parents opt for intervention and the child’s language development can be altered depending when the intervention takes place. The earlier intervention, takes place, the better the infant will develop. Hearing aids and cochlea implants are used to improve the deaf child’s hearing. The culture of the family is important and children acquire much of their knowledge from their parents and their environment. If parents do not sign then the infant, will find it difficult to communicate and could feel isolated. Deaf children find it difficult to reproduce speech.
Piaget identified four stages of cognitive development sensori-motor, pre-operational, concrete operational, formal operational, Piagets findings show that in childhood a child thinks logically and learns from experience. He believes children develop cognitively and language comes after. Other theorists have studied childhood development, came up with different theories, such as Vygotsky, who thought the role the adult and the infant’s environment impacts on their development, and is important. Chomsky proposed that humans possess a “Language Acquisition Device” (LAD). He felt that children were born with the ability to process language through an innate LAD. He felt nature was more important than nurture, and the device would be activated by language input. These theorists recognise that children are active learners in developing their worlds. Their language development is part of their development, emerging from cognitive, emotional and social interactions. For language to develop, all these things need to be considered. From the social and cultural environment, the interaction and how children come to interpret all of these in their minds are fundamental to language development.
As we have seen, deaf children do have the same capabilities of developing language like hearing infants. However, there are many different variables and issues within the environment and family that the child is in that can affect the way language is developed. If a deaf infant is in the right environment then they too can learn from their parents or caregivers. Many theorists have different views on language development and clearly more research needs to be done concerning language development in deaf infants. However all aspects of language can be developed through, the environment, the culture of the family and interaction. All babies will learn whatever language they are exposed to from birth, families that speak English produce children that speak English so if deaf children are exposed to sign language from infancy they too will communicate in sign language , the environment has a large effect on a child’s language development.
Bibliography
Bee, H. 1994, Lifespan Development, New York, HarperCollins College Publishers.
Deuchar. M. 1984, British Sign Language, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul
Kyle, J.G. and Woll, B. 1985, Sign Language; the Study of Deaf People and their Language, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press
Marschark, M. 1993, Psychological Development of Deaf Children, New York, Oxford University Press.
Moores D. & Meadow-Orlans K. 1984, Educational and developmental aspects of deafness, Washington DC, Gallaudet University Press
Quigley, P. 1994, Language and Deafness, California, Singular Publishing Group
Strong, M. 1996, Language Learning and Deafness, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press
Volterra V. & Erting (eds.) 1994, From gesture to language in hearing and deaf children, Washington DC, Gallaudet University Press
Websites
, 2005 Childhood Deafness 29/3/07
, 2003 Understanding Deafness. 29/3/07
, 2007 internet resources 29/3/07
, 2005 Information Resources Fact sheets. 29/3/07