Expanding on deaf children’s language in early intervention: additional findings

Recent research has found that young deaf children can achieve typical language milestones; however, this finding is not the norm as many researchers still find a large part of their sample has language delays. Findings from these studies show that the youngest children are showing acquisition of many early linguistic skills in both sign and spoken languages. This language acquisition frequently becomes “spotty,” without the smooth, typical growth from early language skills to later acquisition as the child ages. Using the Visual Communication Sign Language (VCSL) checklist to evaluate sign language and the Spoken Language Checklist (SLC) to evaluate spoken language within a descriptive monitoring and assessment study, families recruited were willing to collaborate with their early interventionists and evaluate all languages that their child was acquiring. Together, the checklists were completed and findings were consistent with previous research showing that most of the participants’ language acquisition, whether spoken or signed, continues to be delayed. Findings supported earlier work showing that early attentional skills often are not mastered in spoken language or, in some cases, even in sign language. Importantly, some children are using both languages with the younger ones showing better acquisition.