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Learning Sign Language Doesn't Hold Back Spoken Words

Here's a warning families with a deaf child get all the time: teach your child to sign, and you might slow down their speech. But is it good advice? Parents who get this advice might pull back on signing, hoping to protect spoken language learning. That fear shapes real decisions, every day, in homes and clinics.

In a project led by Elana Pontecorvo we put the fear to the test. What we found should settle some nerves. Learning a sign language does not hurt spoken language. If anything, the two grow together.

What we did

we studied 56 deaf and hard of hearing children, from 8 months to 5 years old. Every child was learning both ASL and spoken English, and every child had hearing parents. For each one, we counted how many words the child had in ASL and how many in spoken English, using checklists parents filled out. Then we looked at how the two vocabularies lined up.

What we found

More sign went with more speech, not less. Kids with bigger ASL vocabularies tended to have bigger spoken English vocabularies too. The two rose together.

Their spoken English was right on track. These bilingual kids had spoken vocabularies about the size of deaf children learning English only. Adding sign language didn't cost them spoken words.

Count both languages, and they were fully on pace. Add a child's ASL and English words together, and these children had vocabularies equivalent to same-age hearing children.

A big ASL vocabulary was a good sign for speech. Kids with lots of ASL were more likely to have spoken English in the typical range for hearing children.

There are a few things to keep in mind: It's a snapshot study, so we can't say for sure that sign causes better speech. But if there's any cause and effect, the evidence suggests the effect would be positive. What we can say plainly: we found no evidence to support recommendations that families with deaf children avoid learning sign language.

Why this matters

This flips a common worry on its head. Sign languages aren't fighting speech for room in a child's brain. A deaf child who signs is building a full, rich language, and that base seems to help everything else, not hold it back. Families don't have to pick sign or speech. Plenty of deaf children grow up with both, and thrive.

What this means for families

Don't hold back sign language to protect speech. The evidence points the other way. Sign and speech can grow side by side, and strong ASL gives your child a solid language base. Look at your child's whole language, ASL and English together, for the full picture of what they know. Both is a real option: many deaf children grow up bilingual in a signed and a spoken language.

What this means for professionals

The old avoid-sign-just-in-case advice isn't backed by this evidence. Count a child's full vocabulary across both languages when you assess progress, and support families who want to give their child both ASL and spoken English without pitting one against the other.

The bottom line

The fear that sign language holds back speech doesn't hold up. In this study, deaf children who signed more also spoke more, and counting both languages, they kept pace with their hearing peers. Sign languages give a deaf child a full, working language now, at no cost to spoken words, and maybe with a boost. Families don't have to choose. They can give their child both.

This post summarizes Pontecorvo et al. (2023), Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, for a general audience. Reviewed for non-deficit language.

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