Communication of The Hearing Impaired

In America, English exists as the standard language. For that reason, it is understood that children will learn this as their primary language. However, according to the “National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders” website, “about two to three children per 1,000 are born deaf or hard of hearing”(Quick Statistics [NIDCD Health Information]) . Moreover, an article by Karen Kalivoda points out that “depending on the age of onset and the severity of the hearing loss, an individual's spoken language development may be radically affected”. Babies learn to speak by parroting the sounds around them; however, a deaf child does not hear these noises and, therefore, the child does not “develop their language” skills (Kalivoda). These children are known as having “prelingual hearing loss” (Kalivoda) and cannot learn “English as a spoken language” (Kalivoda).

For this group of children, the primary source for communication is through American Sign Language, or ASL, instead of spoken English. Without the basic understanding of the English language either in spoken or written forms, deaf students have an immensely difficult battle with the English grammar system. These children tend to have “a more restricted vocabulary, grammatical errors in verb and tense agreement, and errors in word usage” (Kalivoda).

Another website titled “Deaf Literacy: Research Highlights” from the Elementary and Middle Schools Technical Assistance Center, EMSTAC, provides information on several problems deaf students experience when learning fundamentals of the English language. For example, “students’ lack of exposure to spoken language makes teaching traditional sound-letter correspondence difficult” and “deaf students whose first ...

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...decrease the amount of mistakes.

Works Cited

“American Sign Language” 21 August 2008. Nidcd.nih.gov Web. 24 February 2010.

“American Sign Language (ASL) Syntax” Lifeprint.com Web. 01 March 2010.

“Brochure” Web. 22 February 2010. Austincc.edu Web. 22 February 2010.

“Deaf Literacy: Research Highlights” Emstac.org Web. 24 February 2010.

Izzard, Sylvia. Interview by Miranda Harrison. “Sign Language Interpreter.” 24 February 2010.

Kalivoda, Karen S., and Others And. “Teaching Students with Hearing Impairments.” Journal of Developmental Education 20.3 (1997): 10-16 ERIC. EBSCO. Web. 1 Mar. 2010.

Morenberg, Max. Doing Grammar. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

"Quick Statistics [NIDC Health Information]." Nidcd.nih.gov 4 August 2008. Web. 22 February 2010

"Why is English Difficult for Deaf Students?" Accd.edu 8 July 2008. Web. 24 February 2010