LL-L "Language development" 2010.08.23 (01) [EN]

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*L O W L A N D S - L - 23 August 2010 - Volume 01
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From: Sandy Fleming <sandy at fleimin.demon.co.uk>

Subject: LL-L "Evolution" 2010.08.19 (02) [EN]



> From: Brooks, Mark <mark.brooks at twc.state.tx.us>
>
> Subject: LL-L "Evolution" 2010.08.18 (02) [EN]
>
> On a related note to evolution and sign language. Here in the USA some
> parents of very young children teach them a rudimentary form of sign
> language before they have the ability to talk. I believe that day care
> centers initiated this idea. Kids make a sign for “more” “thank you”
> “hungry”, etc. They don’t continue it for very long, and make no
> effort for them to really learn ASL. They use it as a way to
> facilitate what a child wants before he or she can pronounce the
> words.

I know hearing people who sign have taught their babies sign language
before they could speak, but hearing children of hearing parents tend to
stop using sign language once they can speak. I know such children, and
they're now getting very good reports in school - I was talking to the
mother of one recently who was telling me that her six-year-old was now
getting all "A"s. As we now know, the earlier a child acquires language,
any language, the better their linguistic development in all languages.

Most children of hearing learners of sign language often seem to pick up
sign very quickly from watching their parents signing with Deaf people
or other students. I know hearing children who are happy to sign with
Deaf people - as long as there are no hearing signers present. So some
of my hearing friends know by hearsay that their hearing children know
sign language: they've just never seen it for themselves.

Hearing children of Deaf parents are of course expert signers and never
stop using it.

> I recently talked with a friend who has an 18-month old son. She said
> she decided not to teach him the rudiments of sign language, because
> she heard that it “delays language development.” I put that in quotes,
> because she said it that way.

Quite a lot of hearing people who work in Deaf organisations are
anti-sign language and can take quite a hard-line approach, even telling
parents of Deaf children that the children should never be allowed to
sign. This results in Deaf children going to nursery school with a
vocabulary of perhaps a dozen English words.

Some take it further and even talk about Deafness as a "cult", as if
attempting to deny that it even exists.

Sandy Fleming
http://scotstext.org/



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