Deaf and hard of hearing children who lack sign language proficiency encounter multiple challenges when they begin their education. In light of this, a lot of parents are currently recommending for even more American Sign Language education in US schools. Research indicates that children who learn sign language skills during their early years tend to perform better in various areas, including academics and social interaction, in comparison to those who do not.
Children who suffer from deafness or hearing impairments are commonly given hearing aids, cochlear implants, or both to assist with their condition. Hearing aids work to amplify the remaining auditory capabilities of the children, while cochlear implants directly transmit electronic signals to the brain, bypassing the ears entirely.
The latest edition of the Social Service Review journal featured an article titled “Avoiding Linguistic Neglect of Deaf Children”. In their article, the authors, who are mainly Deaf or Hard-of-hearing themselves, state that the use of electronic devices with a “speech only” approach can negatively affect the development of many deaf children. This prevents them from mastering the language during their formative years, which is a crucial time for learning. As a consequence, inadequate brain development takes place, causing lasting damage to an individual's intellectual and social abilities. The optimal approach would be for parents to commence teaching sign language to their deaf children as soon as feasible.
Obstacles to Expanding Access to ASL Education
Numerous parents of Deaf/Hard of Hearing children discover that their local area lacks the resources needed to adequately teach ASL. When these parents seek guidance from educators on how to assist their Deaf or Hard-of-hearing child, they become exasperated. There must be more discussion about communication, access, language learning, and the parents’ options.
Typically, local school districts do not provide services for Deaf/HoH students Consequently, there is an urgent need to broaden the opportunities for these children and enhance their ability to acquire language.
Social workers can take the following steps to tackle the problem of insufficient ASL education in their communities:
- work diligently to educate themselves concerning the issue
- take steps to educate the public about ASL education, and...
- advocate for Deaf/HoH children to receive top-quality education in American Sign Language.
Additional Options to Enhance the Recognition and Implementation of American Sign Language Education
Below are additional approaches to broadening ASL learning through the educational systems, government, and communications media.
Allow ASL to fulfill foreign language specifications in schools
Providing ASL to meet a foreign language requirement is a practical option for all students. That’s because ASL is the principal language of roughly one-quarter to half a million people in the US. Offering ASL as a foreign language option can also result in far better child care for Deaf and Hard-of-hearing kids. It can considerably facilitate communications amongst the D/HoH and hearing communities when ASL is well known and used by lots of people.
Create more online learning resources to make ASL accessible to everybody
At the beginning of 2023, a total of 5.16 billion people globally were going online. This number comes to 64.4 percent within the worldwide population. Thus, raising the number and availability of online ASL academic resources which include Start ASL can tremendously broaden public entry to and acquisition of the language.
Campaign to obtain additional government legal guidelines that supports ASL learning
Endorsing projects such as Language Equality and Acquisition for Deaf Kids (LEAD-K) are highly influential in expanding ASL education. LEAD-K is a national legislative campaign. It calls for states to place ASL learning to be equal with English learning so that D/HoH kids have a very strong language foundation when they start school. What's more, it calls for states to ensure that D/HoH children are at age-appropriate learning levels as soon as they reach kindergarten.
The approaches described above could go a considerable ways toward providing greater access to ASL education. If you wish to take action and help support campaigns endorsing increased entry to ASL learning, have a look at LEAD-K as well as other similar efforts in your community and round the nation. Additionally you can start learning ASL online to become a part of the increasing American Sign Language family.
Comments