Factors Influencing Deaf Children's Language Acquisition (annotated bibliography)

Krisztina Horváth

Factors Influencing Deaf Children’s Language Acquisition

 Deaf children’s language acquisition is influenced by various factors. According to the listed sources, three factors play a very important part in language acquisition: environment, linguistic input and the degree of hearing loss.  Concerning environment, school and family in particular have a great influence on language learning. If a deaf child is born into a hearing family, language acquisition is more difficult. Linguistic input also plays an important part and it is important whether it is given in sign language or a spoken language. The degree of hearing loss also plays an important part in language learning; every case is different and poses different levels of difficulty concerning language acquisition. The most important question for the research is: how do these three factors influence deaf children’s language acquisition?

Hattyár, H. (2008.) A magyarországi siketek nyelvelsajátításának és nyelvhasználatának szociolingvisztikai vizsgálata. [The Sociolinguistic Research of Hungarian Deaf People’s Language Acquisition and Language Use] Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Nyelvtudományi Doktori Iskola, Magyar Nyelvtudományi Doktori Program, Budapest. http://doktori.btk.elte.hu/lingv/hattyar/diss_nem.pdf

Hattyár’s doctoral dissertation covers several topics concerning deaf children’s language acquisition and language use from a sociolinguistic point of view. She argues that linguistic input, family background and education are all important influencing factors in deaf children’s language acquisition. However, the best method for language acquisition can only be determined in light of whether the child has pre- or post-lingual deafness.

I found Hattyár’s dissertation a valuable source for my research as it covers many aspect of deaf children’s language acquisition. One aspect in particular is very interesting, namely that the ‘type’ of deafness plays an important part in children’s language learning process. If children have pre-lingual deafness that means that they became deaf before receiving any linguistic input, thus having no access to linguistic structures that could help their language development later. Post-lingual deafness means that children have received linguistic input and already acquired some linguistic structures that could help them with language learning. In both cases there are various methods to help language acquisition, but it is clear that the most useful mode of instruction is the one in sign language. At the early stages, the choice is in the hands of the parents, that is why family background is also an important influencing factor.

Schick, B., De Villiers, P., De Villiers, J., & Hoffmeister, R. (2007). Language And Theory Of Mind: A Study Of Deaf Children. Child Development, 78(2), 376-396. Retrieved March 25, 2015, from Jstor. 

This study examined deaf children’s linguistic and cognitive development with the aid of various tasks (e.g., appearance reality task). They measured the children’s nonverbal intelligence, false-belief reasoning and language. 176 children participated in the study from age four to eight year olds from various family backgrounds; deaf children with hearing parents who received oral linguistic input (oral DoH), deaf children with hearing parents who received sign language input (ASL DoH), deaf children with deaf parents (ASL DoD) who learned sign language and also hearing children were involved to provide a control group. The children were given various tasks that were conducted with carefully selected examiners. The study showed that although deaf children have normal social and emotional skills, their language skills are most often delayed compared to hearing children because they do not have or only have limited access to language, either spoken or signed.

I found the study important for my research because it provides evidence that deaf children’s language acquisition is indeed influenced by family background and linguistic input. The study shows that language delay and language deficits are more prevalent among deaf children with hearing parents who are provided with oral linguistic input in most cases. Even if hearing parents provide sign language input, it is usually restricted, parents’ vocabulary is limited, and therefore, they only provide conversation topics on a rudimentary level. In such scenarios, deaf children have no or very limited access to conversation or speakers; consequently, they have limited access to complex structures, thus they are delayed in their reasoning about cognitive states as well. However, deaf children with deaf parents (DoD) who are given proper sign language input develop linguistic and cognitive skills just as well as hearing children born to hearing families. The study argues that proper linguistic input is vital for deaf children to acquire language properly.

Meyer, R. (1991). Language Acquisition by Deaf Children. American Scientists, 79(1), 60-70. Retrieved March 25, 2015, from Jstor.

Meyer argues that every child has an innate capacity to acquire languages and says that language acquisition itself is independent of modality. This means that sign languages could be acquired just as easily as a spoken languages in general. Consequently, children pass roughly the same milestones in language acquisition in both the cases of sign and spoken languages. Language acquisition is also controlled by maturation; therefore, it is important that children are exposed to linguistic stimuli during a critical period, from 2 to 13 years of age, otherwise they will have problems with language learning.

The article is important for my research because it provides information on deaf children’s language acquisition and stresses the importance of proper linguistic input. Meyer argues that deaf children from hearing families are in a difficult situation, as they have restricted language stimuli. According to the critical period theory, the sooner they acquire a language, the more native-like proficiency they will reach. However, many deaf children from hearing families encounter sign languages in schools or dormitories for the first time around the age of seven; or only after finishing their studies, around the age of 20, if the school uses a strictly oralist method that excludes sign language. Their language competence will be very different compared to those deaf children who had access to sign language from early childhood. Meyer demonstrates that delayed linguistic exposure has significant effect on knowledge of morphology but less on word order. Late learners can still acquire a large sign vocabulary but they will never be able to produce utterances with the same syntax as their peers who have been exposed to sign language since infancy.