Language Development
This following information is intended to show the need for deaf children to learn through sign language in order to become successful members of their community.
About Sign Languages
Sign languages have some similarities to and differences from spoken languages. Sign languages:
- Are natural languages used by communities of people, and are not invented or contrived;
- Differ from country to country;
- Have equal expressive and communicative power as spoken languages; and
- Must be learned early in childhood to be learned well (ideally, from birth).
Children Need Language
Sign language guarantees deaf children a language foundation that gives them access to communication, education, and the world. When deaf children have early access to sign language, they:
- Are not language delayed,
- Have better reading outcomes, and
- Perform like their hearing peers on standardized tests. (Mayberry 2002)
Deafness and Spoken Language
Severely and profoundly deaf children rarely acquire spoken language successfully, even with interventions readily available in the US, such as hearing aids and intensive speech therapy. Acquiring, adjusting, and maintaining hearing aids and getting therapy is not possible for most deaf children in poor countries.
Sadly, many deaf children live too far from a school for special education, and cannot afford to pay for transportation to school or school supplies. They do not hear well enough to learn the languages spoken around them and therefore do not acquire any language at all – spoken or signed.
Academic Publications
2010
Mayberry, R. (2010). Early Language Acquisition and Adult Language Ability What Sign Language Reveals About the Critical Period for Language. In M. Marschark & P. Spencer (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Deaf Studies, Language, and Education (pp. 281-291). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
2008
Lillo-Martin, D. (2008). Sign Language Acquisition Studies: Past, Present And Future. Sign Languages: Spinning and Unraveling the Past, Present and Future. TISLR9, Forty Five Papers and Three Posters from the 9th Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research Conference, Florianopolis, Brazil, December 2006, 239-258.
2006
Senghas, A., Mavillapalli, S., & Roman, D. (Eds.). (2006). Simply Unique: What the Nicaraguan Deaf Community Can Teach the World. London: Leonard Cheshire International. (In Spanish. Chapter by Marie Coppola in English here.)
2003
Senghas, R. J. (2003). New Ways to be Deaf in Nicaragua. In L. F. Monaghan (Ed.), Many Ways to be Deaf: International Variation in Deaf Communities (pp. 260-282). Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.
Press Coverage
2014
Dr. Marie Coppola interviewed on WBEZ Radio, “Global Activism: Manos Unidas helps deaf children in Nicaragua“
2007
Dr. Marie Coppola interviewed by Jerome McDonnell on Worldview, “Global Activism: Helping the Deaf in Nicaragua“