Don't Panic: Kids who have hearing families can learn ASL
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Our study, "Deaf Children of Hearing Parents Have Age-Level Vocabulary Growth When Exposed to American Sign Language by 6 Months of Age,"Ā highlights the importance of early language exposure for deaf children. It answers a crucial question: can deaf children with hearing parents develop age-appropriate vocabulary skills when they are exposed to ASL early in life?
Children exposed to ASL before 6 months develop vocabulary at the same rate as children with deaf signing parents.
Key Findings
We studied 78 deaf children with hearing parents, comparing those exposed to ASL before 6 months with those exposed later. Children who began learning ASL before 6 months showed vocabulary growth comparable to those from deaf families.Ā They achieved age-expected receptive and expressive vocabulary sizes, proving that early ASL exposure provides a strong language foundation.
In contrast, children exposed to ASL after 6 months had smaller expressive vocabularies but made rapid gains, suggesting that early intervention still matters even if delayed.
ASL exposure seems to be a more reliable means of developing age-expected vocabularies than interventions focused on spoken English.
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What This Means for Families
Hearing parents donāt need to wait to start learning ASL. Exposing children to ASL before 6 months is key to building strong language skills, even if parents are still learning themselves. This research reinforces the need for early language access to ensure deaf childrenās cognitive and social development stays on track.
Read the full paper.
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