Deaf Children Invent Language

Deaf Children Invent Language By: Timm Peterson

Deaf Prevalence • 28 million Americans have some form of hearing loss • By 65 1/3 of all Americans will have developed some degree of hearing loss • 1 in 22 births have hearing difficulties • 1 in 1000 births are completely deaf

Helen Keller • Became deaf and blind at 19 months • By age 7 she had invented over 60 signs for communication • Traveled the world and became a famous speaker and author

Ludwig van Beethoven • Considered the greatest composer of all time • Lost his hearing gradually through his 20’s • His most famous work occurred after he was nearly completely deaf

Types of Sign Language • Uses manual communication instead of sound to convey meaning – simultaneously combining hand shapes, orientation and movement of the hands, arms or body, and facial expressions to express fluidly a speaker’s thoughts • American Sign Language (ASL) • British Sign Language (BSL) • French Sign Language (FSL)

Baby Sign • “Children of an early age have a desire to communicate their needs and wishes, but lack the ability to do so clearly.” • “Hand-eye coordination is easier than the coordination of speech, which requires coordinating the lips, tongue, breath, and vocal chords simultaneously.” • Infants can communicate through signing long before they actually have the ability to speak.

Invented Language • As late as the 1970’s most deaf children in Nicaragua received no education • Those who did, where classes with students who had cognitive disabilities • In 1981 the first schools specifically for deaf students opened • As these students came together amazing things began happening

Invented Language (Cont.) • Home Sign - the gestural communication system developed by a deaf child who lacks input from a language model in the family. • As the children (with no training in proper sign language) came together, they shared and blended each other’s Home Sign

Invented Language (Cont.) • In the mid 80’s as the second generation of deaf students entered the schools, they has perfected and expanded their pantomime into a complex language which resembles many other gestured and verbal languages • Today that language is called Nicaragua Sign Language (NSL)

Simon • Parents learned American Sign Language (ASL) during adolescence • Signed to Simon from birth • On a grammatical task, Simon scored higher than his parents, native signing children, and almost to the level of native signing adults

Nature Our behaviors come from our genes Identical twins separated at birth should remain similar Characteristics should be common among people with similar genetic traits Nurture Our behaviors are largely effected by our environment Identical twins raised in separate houses will turn out different Characteristics would be unique to different cultures Nature verses Nurture

Evidence • The formation of NSL as a whole is proof of how humans need and will create a method for communication • Simon’s case also shows how the human brain will strive for better communication skills • In both cases improper or no training was provided, yet in both the children still managed to perfect or even create language

Deaf Children Invent Language