Summary: The Importance Of Being Exposed To ASL

Another interesting aspect of this chapter is to read about how Deaf parents feel about their Deaf children in depth (such as how their lives will be mapped out). As expected, Deaf parents treat their children as a mirror image of themselves.

First, this book allowed me to see the negative way in which deaf people were perceived. This book is not old by any means, and I was taken aback by the way deaf children were perceived by not only others in the community, but often times by their own parents as well. The term

The earliest peer reviewed research on communication variables was from the 1980s. As we move forward into further developing the research a question to consider is how communication methods affects the physical development of the brain. This would be a difficult subject matter for a child psychologist to tackle alone. It would take collaboration to be able to study and map neural connections in the brain related to aural/oral methods and manual methods. However, it is vital to see how nonverbal communications impact brain development and communitive development in deaf children and

Theory of mind refers to the ability to make full mental states (beliefs, desires, intentions, imagination, emotions, etc.) that trigger action. Child with autism has difficulty to understand others thoughts which consider, according to the theory of mind, as the core cognitive deficit in autism.

However deaf culture is still a closely guarded memory thing to many. The American Deaf community views and values ASL as the central hub of a culturally Deaf identity. Through American Sign Language, members are given a unique way for expression of their personality, a special and visual language that does need the use of sound and puts emphasis on

Mainstreaming Deaf children into hearing public schools, with or without interpreters, has the potential to abolish the DEAF-WORLD. A Deaf child's natural language is American Sign Language. Therefore, they should be exposed to and taught as much ASL in school as possible. When Deaf children are mainstreamed into public schools, they lost contact with other Deaf children with whom they can associate and sign with. Many Deaf adults have remained friends with people they met while attending residential schools. For parents that have children with other disabilities, mainstreaming has an inherent attraction, but the

The philosophies how to teach deaf children in public schools have slowly made some transitions from the oral method to total communication to ASL by using the bilingual bicultural education. The bilingual bicultural education programs are using the deaf child’s native language and apply that native language to teach English. There are several bilingual bicultural education programs in the United States (De Vera & Dharer, N.D.) Bilingual bicultural education programs for the deaf are designed based on a special curriculum which includes the use of ASL as L1 and English as L2. One of the ASL/English bilingual strategies are codeswitching which is the most common strategy in the classroom during instruction (Nover et al, 1998). Codeswitching

A sample of children from age 2 to 4 were collected and were asked for their age, language ability, family size and false belief. Researchers reached children’s parents and teacher and asked them to fill out a survey to collect data on child’s family information and language ability. Each child was seen in nursery school, their age was recorded followed by giving them a theory of mind related tasks. Both Jenkins & Astington (1996) and Cutting & Dunn (1999) found an identical conclusions; the more understandings and emotions there are created through larger family interaction, the more there is to child’s ability to predict false belief understanding. Wright & Mahfoud (2012) has furthermore stated that personal relatedness with people causes children to realize that it derives them with social benefits from using the mechanism of theory of mind. Despite the conclusion Jenkins & Astington (1996), Cutting & Dunn (1999) and Wright & Mahfoud (2012) have made, Jean-Louis, (1998) disputed that although children with high language ability brings positive cognitive effects, children with greater linguistic awareness could also show recognition in theory of mind; concluding with a notion that impact on bilingualism related to theory of mind development still lies as a question. A sheer number of studies have found similar

My essay topic is the language development of deaf infants and children. In my opinion, this is an important topic to discuss, due to the lack of public knowledge concerning the deaf population. Through this essay, I wish to present how a child is diagnosed as having a hearing loss (including early warning signs), options that parents have for their children once diagnosed (specifically in relation to education of language), common speech teaching methods used today, typical language development for these children, and some emotional, social, and mental difficulties faced by the deaf child and the child’s family that have an immense effect on the child’s education.

The development of theory of mind in young children is a significant accomplishment that is imperative to their success in the social world. Theory of Mind (ToM) is the ability to understand that one’s mental states – thoughts, beliefs, desires, and intentions – differ from the mental states of others. This understanding is crucial in order to understand human behavior and the motivation behind it. A well-developed ToM enables children to engage in healthy social interaction, share thoughts and ideas, and empathize with others. These pragmatic skills are considered to be foundation on which successful social relationships are built. ToM is recognizable around four years of age when children become concerned with understanding

Furthermore, there has been said that with the start of preschool communication skills begin to emerge (Jenkins). Being able to have conversational skills and understanding your peers is an important aspect in children’s lives. Jones said that “one key milestone in the developmental process is the growth of theory of mind, the ability to understand that peers differ from self” (Jenkins).The theory of mind is the ability to attribute mental states such as: beliefs, intents, desires, pretending, and knowledge. It has been said that the theory of mind emerges as early as three years old (Jenkins). The ability to initiate interaction with and respond to peers develop when more complex language skills emerge (Jenkins). If children fail to gain these skills, they are more than likely going to be alienated by their peers and reveal problem behaviors.

Deaf children that are placed in a regular school setting often are accompanied by another individual known as an interpreter. The role of the interpreter breaks the language barrier between the “hearing” teacher and the “non-hearing” student. An interpreter’s role in the classroom is to

Parents and peers play an important role in the holistic development of a child who is deaf or hard of hearing (DHH). Even the progress of the listening and speaking or sign language skills of a DHH child is heavily dependent on the consistent involvements of the child’s parents and peers. The more engaged a DHH child is in his/her day-to-day communications and interactions with parents, peers, and even siblings, the more adapting they become in listening and speaking or signing. Hence, it is no wonder that the child’s teacher always supports, first and foremost, the establishment and development of family and peer relationships to sustain their involvements.

Bauman and Murray (2010) defines Deaf Studies as “interdisciplinary approaches to the exploration of Deaf individuals, communities, and cultures as they have evolved within a larger context of power and ideology” (p. 210). In other words, Deaf Studies refer to a specific academic field that studies deaf individuals and their unique communities and culture and may include constructs from anthropology, linguistics, bilingual education, disability, audiology, etc. Within the context of Deaf Studies, deaf individuals are no longer defined solely by their lack of hearing, but by their cultural, linguistic, and sensorial ways of being in the world (Bauman & Murray, 2010). That is why we hear people educated with Deaf Studies saying ASL kids to refer to deaf kids who use American Sign Language (ASL) system as their mode of communication or see them writing “Deaf” instead of “deaf” to give reference to the universally-recognized culture of people who are deaf or hard of hearing.

It comes as no surprise that a majority of Deaf children, whose first language is not English, struggle when it comes to English literacy. In the United States, around one half of Deaf students read at or below a fourth grade reading level upon completion of high school, with only around 7% reading at or above a seventh grade reading level (Strong & Prinz, 1997). This level of reading barely reaches the level needed to read a newspaper (Goldin-Meadow & Mayberry, 2001). The lack of ability to acquire written and spoken English is an obstacle in many aspects of life, beyond academic achievement and into vocational success. (Strong & Prinz, 1997). In today’s day and age, even the simplest jobs require the ability to read, and a