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The Child As far as we can determine, deaf children like hearing children learn language most successfully in the first three years of life. Hearing loss is not in itself a blockage to language development - however, the methods which have been applied and the advice which has been given have become obstacles to the child's language growth. The realisation that language development occurs most appropriately before school has been highlighted in the last session. However, the issue for most programmes has been when and how to introduce the different languages. When we move from speech-first, to sign-first, the questions remains the same. So do the answers. It is not possible to programme the acquisition of first and second languages. It is sufficient to say that the signed language requires an effort on the part of the hearing people and the spoken language requires a major effort on the part of the deaf child. If the deaf child does not have sufficient hearing to allow motor feedback to be linked to auditory feedback, then speech development will be slow and frustrating. In this case, the bilingual framework is probably in written language and signed language. In this case, it will not be introduced effectively until 6 or 7 years of age, although this might be altered by parents using reading materials and books. What is apparent is that the deaf child needs language access from the earliest possible age. In bilingual programmes proposed by deaf people, the access should be to sign language. In most realistic models of bilingualism, language should certainly be experienced and acquired long before arrival at school. This indicates that bilingual programmes where language is introduced for the first time, in school are too late in their intervention. What does it mean? · Deaf children need a language. · Educators and Parents need two. · Deaf children will acquire two. · The Deaf community can take responsibility for the education of their own children. But we/they (the deaf community) need help to understand the issues from the simplest to the most detailed: · "how does a deaf person put a deaf child to bed?" - most deaf parents do not have deaf children · "what resource material can I use to encourage my child to learn about the world?" - deaf adults when they were children did not experience satisfactory parenting and may not have recollection of early childhood · "how much signing should be used at different times of the day and in different circumstances?" - the pattern of life in deaf homes with hearing children, may be quite different. Deaf parents may not sign to their hearing children. · "what is the normal development pattern for sign language?" - relatively few people, deaf or hearing, can answer this adequately These are more complex questions than at first they seem but we need to begin to answer them. But we can receive guidance form other models of bilinguality in children. In spoken language bilinguals, there is often a language divide - one parent uses one language and the other uses the other. Or there are periods of language use - the child uses one language during the day at school or in majority situations and then the minority language at home. Sometimes, the minority language becomes a majority when the family returns "home" to meet the grandparents and other relatives. Deaf children inhabit a different sort of bilingual environment. First of all, the people they meet who use the minority language are usually majority group members. They (the parents, relatives, teachers, professionals) are using sign language as second language users. In contrast, most hearing-speaking bilinguals are meeting first language users of both of the languages which they use. This has implications for the levels of fluency and commitment and the duration of the signed input. Hearing signers often speak when other hearing speakers are present, even when the child is watching. School is populated by second language users of sign language and often there are deaf children who have not yet acquired a language. The deaf child's sign competence may be ahead of the teacher's. Opportunities for access to the deaf community may be limited. There are few deaf associations which offer facilities to signing parents and to deaf children, either formally or informally. Deaf clubs tend to be for deaf adults - not for deaf children from hearing families and certainly not for hearing parents of deaf children. We have quite a lot of work to do. Conclusions There is a wide and helpful literature on bilingualism which deaf education can use. The prime focus has to be on minority children attempting the majority language and we have to take into account the socio-cultural issues as well as the socio-linguistic issues. Bilingual schools need to understand their bicultural nature if they are to function effectively. The issues of methods are less important than these points.
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