There is a main factor to the education of the deaf child. That being that medical personnel and hearing parents realize the importance of introducing the child to their natural language, American Sign Language. When the child is introduced to ASL very young they have a way of communicating with the world around them and will have better success in learning English. While hearing parents find it difficult to accept that their child is deaf it is important that they learn to sign as well so that they have the ability to communicate with their child. If they have the support of the deaf community so that the child realizes there are other deaf individuals and can communicate with them then his or her ASL will become better at a younger age.
By introducing the deaf child to ASL from birth will help prevent them from being language delayed and educationally delayed. If the deaf community would be more involved in the education and support of these young children and their families the benefit would be a better educated and stronger Deaf community. The Deaf community could be more involved in the early introduction of their natural language to these children. They need to make these parents aware of the opportunities that the child has for the future.
Learning English is very difficult for Deaf children. Research shows that they do better if they learn in ASL first and English as a second language. Parents and the Deaf community need to be assertive in their approach for their child’s education. Then why not as a community work together to provide the child this approach. In a mainstream classroom there is not a teacher of the deaf and they rarely have and interpreter. This needs to change and when the parents and the Deaf community come together this can change.
In the movie, Sound and Fury Heather who is 5 year old is fluent in ASL and she is able to communicate and she has a language ability of the age she is at. This is what all deaf children who...