User:AdinaAnn/sandbox

Helaine's draft (my additions according to videos are in bold):::

For hundreds of years, the idea that exposing deaf children to sign language could interfere with their ability to learn spoken language has persisted, despite evidence to the contrary. Because new hearing parents of deaf children are frequently advised by professionals with no training in the field of language acquisition in deaf children, they are often advised, based on this unsupported belief, to use sign as a last resort, only after the child has failed to learn spoken language. Therefore, these children are subjected to language deprivation, only being exposed to accessible language after the critical period of language acquisition has closed. This has been shown to increase the likelihood of permanent, irreversable effects to the brains of deaf children, including not only a detrimental impact on language acquisition, but other cognitive and mental health difficulties as well.

Putting off sign language exposure for deaf children has serious consequences; studies show that like hearing children, depriving deaf children of linguistic input that they can access early in life permanently affects their ability to ever acheive proficiency in language. Deaf children who learn to sign later in life are more likely to process signed languages not as linguistic input, but as visual input, contrasting with children exposed from birth, who process signed language in the same region of the brain that hearing people process spoken language. Additionally, studies show a notable decrease in sign language grammar skills of deaf adults who were not exposed to sign until after age 5 when compared to those exposed from birth, and an even greater decrease in those who were not exposed until after age 8, in some cases being so poor as to have near-coincidence levels of accuracy.

Interestingly, this effect extends to spoken language as well. One study comparing English-as-a-second-language speakers showed that while deaf children who are signed to from birth have similar proficiency in spoken English to hearing ESL speakers, deaf children who were not exposed to sign until entering school show a marked reduction in English proficiency. Note that this last group had been exposed to spoken English from birth; however, since auditory input was inaccessable to them, they failed to acquire English as their first language, and therefore did not acquire language at all until learning ASL upon entering school.

While Cochlear implants may help somewhat with making spoken first language acquisition more possible, this effect is unreliable at best; children with Cochlear implants exposed only to spoken language can still show a serious lack of spoken language ability when compared to hearing peers. In contrast, implanted children exposed to signing from birth, a more accessable medium of language, do not show this deficiency, despite having spoken language as their second language. This suggests that even when implanted, the period of language deprivation prior to implantation is enough to seriously impact a child's language development.

Dan Foley shares his personal experience being deprived of language as a deaf being.

Timothy Skaggs shares his personal experience being deprived of language as a deaf being.

To further understand the language deprivation within the deaf and hard-of-hearing community, I collected two personal videos based on two Deaf people's experience with being deprived of language is included on this page with subtitles. In one video, Dan Foley explains how he was deprived of language outside of his immediate family members, especially at school. It was not until later he had access to a language that he could understand and apply to his education. His story helps us to get a better perspective on where language deprivation can happen, even at school. In other video, Timothy Skaggs explains his experience being deprived of language at home and school. He explains how deprived he was from incidental learning because he had no direct communication with anyone except for his interpreters at school. He missed out on family gatherings, social cues, and a normal childhood in general because he was always the last to know everything because of his limited access to spoken English. For more extended information on both stories, refer to the videos on this page.