Sound Of Silence: Deaf Education Today

Before we can talk about Deaf education, I think it’s proper to start at the beginning and discuss how American Sign Language (ASL) effects babies and children.

All along we’ve known that babies, before their bodies are developed enough to be able to produce any sort of speech, they make sounds that resemble words or at least, letters. We refer to this a babbling and have always encouraged it, believing that the more a baby babbles, the sooner they will begin speaking properly. But let’s examine something else here. For an average human, a baby’s hands develop before their vocal cords. This is why, when you watch a young child, even as young as a few days, they will begin to move their hands, opening and closing them, before they begin speaking words. Sure, we all know how babies and toddlers make sounds to try to make themselves understood, but how often do they get their point across? Why not teach them an alternative way of communication?

In Fredrick, Maryland, parents are starting to be given more options. Kriste Hartman Kovarcik established a baby signing class for parents and children as young as 19 months (though, studies have shown that you can start this process much earlier in a child’s development). Children often are also frustrated during the toddler years because of their lack of strong communication. Screaming, crying children can drive anyone up the wall, but what if that ‘Terrible Two’ stage could simply be passed over? This is one reason why Kriste began teaching her son, Kaden, ASL when he was young.

Toddlers often throw tantrums because they get frustrated when their parents can’t understand what they are trying to say, said Kriste Hartman Kovarcik, the Maryland School for the Deaf staff member who created the baby signing class.

If a child can express himself with a sign, he is less likely to get frustrated, she said.

She attributes her own 3-year-old son’s easy passage through toddlerhood to his signing abilities. Whatever Kaden couldn’t say, he would sign, she said.

“He might not sign perfectly, but I would understand, and he’d be so pleased,” Hartman Kovarcik said.”

With all these seemingly obvious reasons, why wouldn’t a parent want to teach their child ASL as a first, tentative language? Many believe that by teaching a young child ASL before English, the child will be delayed in spoken language development or will rely so much on the signing, their speech skills will be less then standard, there for, setting them behind in school. Anyone who had raised a child in a multilingual environment knows that since children’s brains are developing so quickly while they are at this stage of their lives, they are able to adapt and adjust in numerous situations while still sustaining and retaining all the information they are absorbing. Hartman Kovarcik brings up this to add:

“She believes learning ASL also has helped Kaden develop vocabulary and spelling skills at a young age. He can already spell more than 35 words.

Various studies have shown that children who use signs to communicate before they learn to speak score higher on IQ tests than children who don’t learn signs, Hartman Kovarcik said.”

Higher scores on IQ tests? What parents wouldn’t want that for their child? So let’s look at this again:

Decrease in tantrums, better developed vocabulary, improved spelling skills and a higher IQ? So what’s the problem?! More and more parents today are giving their children the benefit of being able to communicate at an earlier age while also helping them with their long term education. So the final question that should be asked is; why not?

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