Rethinking the language development of deaf and hard of hearing children

Language is a fundamental aspect of communication and meaning-making; it occurs across different codes and modalities, connecting us to diverse communities and environments and expanding our knowledge of their languages and cultures. Language plays a central role in our lives as a means by which we can participate in social interactions, develop thinking skills, and share attitudes and ideas with others.

Supporting language development in deaf and hard of hearing children brings a unique perspective to our thinking about language. Many children born with permanent sensorineural deafness experience challenges in acquiring language and learning to communicate, with outcomes generally below those of hearing children. These challenges persist despite increased opportunities for early diagnosis, early intervention, and advanced assistive technology such as hearing aids and cochlear implants.

More than 90 per cent of deaf and hard of hearing infants are born to hearing parents, most of whom have had minimal experience understanding the influence of deafness on a child’s language development. The language and learning needs of deaf and hard of hearing children are diverse, and there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution to communication. Therefore, a flexible communication approach sensitive to each child’s language strengths is essential if optimal outcomes are to be achieved.

Deaf and hard of hearing children have the same potential for language and learning as hearing children if they can access the language of their learning environment. Providing deaf and hard of hearing children and young people with a shared language and opportunities for reciprocal and rewarding communication exchanges is essential for their language development. Whether the shared language is spoken, signed, monolingual or bi/multilingual, a critical factor influencing children’s language development is the quality of parent-child interactions and the parents’ level of sensitivity to their child’s communication. Engaged parents encourage their children’s language development by intuitively adjusting their interactions and rewarding communication bids at every opportunity. However, we also know that many deaf and hard of hearing children do not have the same opportunities as their hearing peers to engage in effective and rewarding interactions due to limitations in shared communication experiences and a range of factors that have an influence on a child’s ability to acquire language through audition.

Language development for deaf and hard of hearing children also involves important decisions concerning communication options, which has been debated in the field of deaf education for many years. The issue of speech versus sign, monolingual versus bilingual, presents many challenges for parents and professionals as they seek to determine the type of language input that best supports a deaf child’s communication, language and learning needs. Hearing parents and caregivers of deaf and hard of hearing children may be discouraged from learning sign language because of advice from practitioners, who fear that parents learning sign language cannot develop the communicative competence required to support their children’s language development. However, targeted intervention studies have shown encouraging results by hearing parents as novel sign language users.

The acquisition of two or more languages is a common occurrence globally, with approximately two-thirds of all children now growing up in multilingual environments. Multilingual, multimodal communication occurs in everyday life in these cultures. A proportionate number of deaf and hard of hearing children will be raised in multilingual societies that use diverse languages. Multilingualism encourages open-mindedness, pluralism, and diversity amongst groups of people; however, for deaf or hard of hearing children, this linguistic diversity has previously been considered unachievable.

As is the case with the advice given to parents regarding the use of sign language with their deaf or hard of hearing child, parental decisions about raising their children multilingually are influenced by practitioners, who frequently advise multilingual parents to speak the majority language with their child, instead of the parents’ home languages. This advice appears to be based on the premise that deaf and hard of hearing children will be confused by having more than one language in their environment or that acquiring other languages will detract from learning the majority language. We know now that this is not the case and that, in fact, many deaf and hard of hearing multilingual children can attain outcomes like their monolingual peers. However, more research needs to be carried out regarding the language and communication outcomes of deaf multilingual learners.

In this issue of Deafness and Education International, the article by Snoddon and Madaparthi discusses the role of mediation as it arose in developing and teaching two online American Sign Language (ASL) courses for parents of deaf children during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study demonstrated the instructor’s role in guiding parents to learn about ASL and bimodal bilingualism and improve communication with their children.

The article by Wright, Stojanovik and Serratrice reports findings about professional beliefs regarding deaf children’s ability to acquire two spoken languages. Positively, most participants believed that children could become bilingual. However, the authors recommend specific training for professionals to ensure parents receive consistent advice.

Nassrallah, Whittingham, Sun and Fitzpatrick’s article examines the speech and language skills of children with unilateral and bilateral mild and moderate hearing losses. Using a retrospective study design, the authors’ findings show lower standardised test scores for a subgroup of these children on expressive communication and articulation. These findings suggest early identification and intervention's benefits to language access.

Hand, Liu, Hardman, and Mahon’s article maps the trajectory of receptive and expressive language skill development of children with cochlear implants and evaluates the impact of age at switch-on. These children came from families with a diverse range of language backgrounds. These authors note that language outcomes for children with cochlear implants depend on a complex mixture of variables.

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