subject: Why All Babies Should Learn American Sign Language [print this page] Why All Babies Should Learn American Sign Language
Regardless of whether they are hearing or deaf babies, all children need to develop early language skills as the foundation of their ability to communicate throughout the rest of their lives. Ironically, parents of hearing children are encouraged to have their children learn American Sign Language (ASL), while the parents of deaf babies are often told that for their children to become integrated into hearing society, they must focus entirely on developing early language speech skills and not spend any time on ASL.
Today, hearing children are encouraged to learn to sign from the time they are born as a way to learn how to communicate with their parents far earlier than they would be able to if they relied on learning speech alone. Babies as young as six months are able to communicate their basic needs to their parents using sign language. These precocious children not only are able to sign that they are hungry or tired, but as they grow up, they are more attuned to lingual learning and more likely to find success as they begin to read and write. These children also are able to better bond with their parents.
Sign language is much more than just a substitute for speech. It is a language all its own, and one of the defining features of theDeaf community. Deaf signers use sign language throughout their lives to communicate with each other. This means that they are highly attuned to others' body language and facial expressions, making them highly skilled professionals in all areas and industries. When deaf babies are taught ASL from birth, they are able to gain enough language skills to become active members of both Deaf society and the rest of the world.
Often though, at the same time as a parent of a hearing baby is being told that she should enroll him or her into baby sign language classes, the parents of adeaf child are being told that they should force their baby to communicate entirely verbally. This philosophy may lead to their child having a cochlear implant before they are a toddler. A cochlear implant allows a deaf child or adult to hear, and the sooner they have one implanted, the more likely they are to integrate that experience into their language skills. However, it is challenging to communicate entirely verbally fordeaf children when they have spent the first year or two of their lives unable to hear and unable to communicate using sign language.
Sign language helps both deaf and hearing children to be more observant and perceptive while developing crucial early language skills. Without these language skills, children are unable to move to the next steps of their education and learn fundamentals like reading and writing. Sign language helps to develop these skills, while encouraging children to communicate effectively with their parents and with their classmates and friends.
Sign language allows parents to communicate with their children, whether they are deaf or hearing, and learn critical language skills that will serve them throughout their lives.
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