Language Development of Deaf Children - Coursework Example

Language Development of Deaf Children Outline Introduction History Significance Language Development for Deaf Children Oral Language Development Phonological development Semantic Development Syntactic Development Cued Speech Development Sign Language Development Conclusion The paper deals with the detailed study of language development with regard to the deaf children. Language Development of Deaf Children Introduction Deaf children (born deaf or ones who have become deaf before absorbing lingual messages or those having marred hearing) that do not have any other impairment make a significant portion of total children population and mainly that of the students. It is very necessary to make these children understand the context of messages or languages spoken to them in order to make the children progress in their lives (Harris, pp. 95). For meeting the purpose, it is mandatory to consider a number of significant factors that help the deaf children and students with their impairment. One substantial factor that becomes even more important while teaching deaf children is the development of language. As the deaf children are unavailable to hear and understand the language and messages spoken to them in a natural or direct manner. They cannot acquire the language from their environment like other children. Therefore, it is very essential to develop certain processes that help deaf children in acquiring language and developing effective communication skills. There are certain different techniques and tools that help deaf students and children in acquiring language (Harris, pp. 59-66). These methods depend upon factors such as the family and home environment of children, what method do the children find more comfortable, and the inclination of the family towards different approaches and methods. Language development is a very significant and important factor; researchers regard the process as one of the most crucial factors that determines the future of deaf students with respect to their literacy and lingual learning. Language Development Language development among children of different ages does not always work the same way. Many deaf students acquire the language earlier than the other students do. Researches (Harris, pp. 39-42) have showed certain reports that clearly signify the factors differentiating the capability of deaf children in acquiring language. This differentiating factor is the age at which, deaf children and students get the introduction of the methods of acquiring language. Studies (Hoff, pp. 29-31) have indicated that the starting period of six months is the most substantial period in language development of deaf as well as hearing children. Therefore, the major consideration should be making the deaf children exposed to language as much as possible in this period. a) Oral Language Development The approach discussed above is successful up to some percentages only. Therefore, it is mandatory to devise concrete methodology that serves the purpose of language development and efficient acquirement of language by deaf children. One effective approach in this regard is that of the Auditory or Oral Approach (Hoff, pp. 21-22). In this method, the teaching or language acquiring method for the deaf children is a function of technology or it depends on technology one way or another. Deaf children learn to acquire language in terms of speaking and lip-reading by using technology efficiently. The technological devices used in this regard include “hearing aids, cochlear implants, frequency modulation systems, and visual help” (Hoff, pp. 52-55) as cued speech. By practicing these approaches, deaf children are capable of speaking and reading lip movements up to greater extent. Nevertheless, by adopting only visual techniques and approaches the probability of understandability of speech is less the 0.5. In order to make a comprehensive understanding of oral approaches towards language development, it is necessary to make a detailed study of these techniques. Prelingually deaf children experience a great deal of problems while going through the oral methods of acquiring language. Several experts have an opinion that oral approach is not much effective in helping deaf children with the native language. Like every approach, the oral development approach has its own benefits and shortcomings in terms of acquiring language. The detail about these gains acquired and not acquired during the language development comprises phonological development, semantic development, and syntactic development. i. Phonological development At the very early stages of life, there is no significant disparity between the voice of a deaf infant and a normal infant. Normally, both the infants produce noises and sounds in the same manner. However, there is a difference in the quality and quantity of sound produced by a deaf infant than those of a normal hearing infant. The deaf infants are unable to produce clear babbling syllables unlike the hearing infants (Hoff, pp. 31-34). Few of the deaf children that have come across the oral development methods appear to grow a system of phonology. These deaf children decreases the consonant clusters while producing words, this phonology is similar to the early speeches of hearing children. The oral approach also develops the skill of lip-reading as well. The phonological development in deaf children serves as a great aid for reading, as the phonology is all about making sounds. Therefore, the reading level of deaf children undergoes improvement up to some level. ii. Semantic Development Semantic development centralizes the language development of deaf children at early stages of their lives. Studies have showed that there not much significant developments in terms of oral approaches in very young deaf children. However, different studies (Hoff, pp. 11-12) made have indicated that semantic development in deaf children resembles to that of hearing children. These studies show same somatic development in two different categories of children with respect to understanding of expression and presenting the meaning, but not the language (Hoff, pp. 302). iii. Syntactic Development Syntactic development comes across a delay in prelingually deaf children who have undergone oral educational processes. The result of syntactic development normally lags behind the capability of normal speech competency. The language produced by children who have come across oral education results in many of his syntactic errors in communication. In terms of syntactic development, the production capability of an 18-year-old orally educated student is less than the abilities of a normal ten-year-old hearing student. The mistakes or errors made by deaf children who have acquired oral educational methods point to the fact that most of these deaf children do not become capable of acquiring the grammar and speech of the language completely. b) Cued Speech Development Visual speech development is another mode of oral development. Researches (Marschark & Spencer, pp. 200-212) have showed that movements of the lips resulting in speech production are the fruits of processes done by hearing sense in normal hearing children. More researches in this regard have indicated that visual speech messages affect this process of hearing that results in lip movements of the children. This is the most important ground for using the techniques involving visual aids in oral education of deaf children. Experts (Marschark & Spencer, pp. 222-225) account that the structures of visual speech formed by the visual development are similar to that of the structures created in brain of hearing children by their hearing senses. Thus, the normal hearing children acquire language completely not only by lip reading but through their hearing sense as well (Marschark & Spencer, pp. 261). With the help of cued speeches and other oral educational approaches in schools specially devised for deaf children, the average output of the whole classroom increases. The visual effects in classroom do not only help the deaf children to understand the underlying meaning of the word, but also it aids in linking words o their meanings and comparing it with other related words. Cued Speech is the “technique or the methodology that aids deaf children to get the hidden message about the phonology of the spoken word through the visual or graphical means” (Marschark & Spencer, pp. 198-199). Cued speech is a technique that involves hand-shapes, gestures, lip-reading, and other visual aids to make communication with the prelingually deaf children as effective and efficient as possible. c) Sign Language Development There is another very significant and effective manner of acquiring language among the prelingually deaf children known as the sign language. The origin of sign language comes from the fact that the prelingually deaf children who cant speak just because they cant listen, uses different gestures, signals, and signs in order to communicate to their parents or other children. This ability is natural to every person and when there remains no other option to communicate as in the case of deaf children, the deaf children utilizes this ability in order to make the communication process running. These gestures made by the deaf children are home signs. In the United States, the deaf people who know how to communicate using sign language perform the communication process following the American Sign Language (Quigley & Paul, pp. 82). American Sign Language is a comprehensive language like any other languages however, the major difference is of the fact that the American Sign Language comprises of the grammar and vocabulary that are totally graphical or visual (Adams & Rohring, pp. 21-24). This characteristic makes the language completely understandable by deaf children throughout the world. It is amazing to account that the inherently deaf children acquires the American Sign Language as normally as the normal-hearing children acquires the language of their parents. However, the deaf children that come from the hearing parents can learn the language at their special schools, and from friends (Adams & Rohring, pp. 13). Experts (Adams & Rohring, pp. 23-25) have showed by extensive researches and demonstrated by practical models that the prelingually deaf children who do have at least one parent of their own kind are most likely to have expertise and fluency in ASL than the children having both the parents as hearing ones. These deaf children with at least one deaf parent are most likely to be affluent in English or other languages of this kind as well. The reason (Adams & Rohring, pp. 23-25) behind this researched statement is the fact when the deaf children acquires the sign language completely, and they know how to communicate efficiently using a proper language, eventually, learning a second language is much easier for them as compared to the deaf children who have not acquired the sign language as their first language. This critical point becomes the source of clearing a very important misconception about the sign language development. Parents are usually too reluctant to send their deaf children to special schools designed for deaf children only because they are too afraid that there deaf children would never be able to speak in company of all deaf children in a special school. However, researches (Quigley & Paul, pp. 78-82) have clearly eliminated this misconception by indicating that deaf children who gets familiar with sign language as their first language becomes more successful in acquiring other languages. As acquiring signed language enables deaf children to hold a firm grip on the generalized structure of all the languages that help them in learning new languages. Children who have acquired signed language at first are more efficient than the deaf children that have not done so. However, it is so evident that “deaf children that have acquired signed language still lag behind the normal hearing children in terms of proficiencies in language and command over reading” (Quigley & Paul, pp. 49-52). Conclusion The irony is that despite of having the normal and even more intelligence level and greater abilities to learn, deaf children usually lag behind the normal hearing children in every lifestyle. However, experts (Quigley & Paul, pp. 80-82) have devised certain approaches that minimize the gap between the deaf children and the hearing one as much as possible. These days special schools for the deaf children utilize a combination of approaches in order to let the children excel in the most appropriate manner. Normally, the schools develop plan that include oral education as well as signed language education. In todays world, a number of examples of deaf children have proved that they are no more a handicapped part of the society. They are dedicating their skills for the betterment of people diligently. This has made the role of language development in the lives of deaf children much significant as well as successful. Work Cited Adams, John W., Rohring, Pamela S. Handbook to service the deaf and hard of hearing: a bridge to accessibility. Emerald Group Publishing, 2004. Harris, Margaret. Language Experience and Early Language Development. Psychology Press, 1992. Hoff, Erika. Language development. Cengage Learning, 2005. Marschark, Marc & Spencer, Patricia Elizabeth. Oxford handbook of deaf studies, language, and education. Oxford University Press, 2005. Quigley, Stephen P., & Paul, Peter V. Language and Deafness. Taylor & Francis, 1984. Read More