Background
-
Deaf children, most of whom are born to hearing parents, are frequently delayed in learning language skills.
-
Sign language is the only language that many deaf children are capable of acquiring at an early age.
-
However, few parents of Deaf children learn to sign well enough to interpret even the simplest books.
-
Even after they learn to sign, Deaf children face can significant challenges in learning to read, since sign languages, such as American and British Sign Language (ASL and BSL) have very different grammars than English.
-
As a result, the average Deaf graduate of a secondary school, on average, has the reading skills of a 10 year-old hearing counterpart.