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International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology 118 (2019) 134–142 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijporl Review Article Support for parents of deaf children: Common questions and informed, evidence-based answers T ∗ Tom Humphriesa,1, Poorna Kushalnagarb, Gaurav Mathurc, Donna Jo Napolid, , Christian Rathmanne, Scott Smithf a Education Studies and Department of Communication, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA b Department of Psychology, Gallaudet University, Washington, DC, USA c Department of Linguistics, Gallaudet University, Washington, DC, USA d Department of Linguistics, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA, USA e Deaf Studies and Sign Language Interpreting, Humboldt-Universität, Berlin, Germany f Office of the President, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY, USA ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Keywords: To assist medical and hearing-science professionals in supporting parents of deaf children, we have identified Deaf children common questions that parents may have and provide evidence-based answers. In doing so, a compassionate and Sign language positive narrative about deafness and deaf children is offered, one that relies on recent research evidence re- fi Sensitive period for rst language acquisition garding the critical nature of early exposure to a fully accessible visual language, which in the United States is Linguistic deprivation American Sign Language (ASL). This evidence includes the role of sign language in language acquisition, cog- Cognitive development nitive development, and literacy. In order for parents to provide a nurturing and anxiety-free environment for Family well-being early childhood development, signing at home is important even if their child also has the additional nurturing and care of a signing community. It is not just the early years of a child's life that matter for language acquisition; it's the early months, the early weeks, even the early days. Deaf children cannot wait for accessible language input. The whole family must learn simultaneously as the deaf child learns. Even moderate fluency on the part of the family benefits the child enormously. And learning the sign language together can be one of the strongest bonding experiences that the family and deaf child have. 1. Introduction of a solid language foundation may be the major culprit [4]. Many deaf children are raised in a zero-tolerance-to-alternatives oral environment, 96% of deaf babies are born to hearing parents who, initially, are that is, strictly orally, but the auditory information they receive through uninformed about and unprepared to raise a deaf child [1]. (We use cochlear implants (CIs) or hearing aids may not assure language access. deaf to include all levels of hearing loss.) They need advice, and they Early exposure to language is critical, starting at birth. Human beings often turn to doctors for it. Doctors, on the other hand, may have an- are hardwired to acquire language – any natural language, including xiety about what to say to parents following newborn hearing screening sign languages and spoken languages [5,6] – but the window of op- [2]. How they advise those parents can have decisive influence on both portunity on full first language acquisition is drastically reduced after the cognitive and psycho-social health of the children (as we argue the first few years of life [7]. If a child becomes deaf after this sensitive below). The present paper aims to help doctors as they advise these period for first language acquisition, that child may already have en- parents. ough of a foundation in the spoken language to thrive or, at the least, manage linguistically in a strictly oral environment. But the con- 1.1. Our starting point: the case for bimodal-bilingualism genitally deaf child is our focus here, the child who needs frequent and regular exposure to an accessible language while the brain is still plastic Deaf children in general are academically at risk [3], where the lack enough to acquire language. If that child is left without accessible ∗ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (T. Humphries), [email protected] (P. Kushalnagar), [email protected] (G. Mathur), [email protected] (D.J. Napoli), [email protected] (C. Rathmann), [email protected] (S. Smith). 1 He is emeritus. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijporl.2018.12.036 Received 17 September 2018; Received in revised form 15 November 2018; Accepted 27 December 2018 Available online 29 December 2018 0165-5876/ © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. T. Humphries et al. International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology 118 (2019) 134–142 language during the sensitive period, that child may experience lin- to make inferences, a skill that relies on a firm language foundation, guistic deprivation, which leads to serious language delays and cogni- where signing, being totally accessible, can provide that [44]. The tive deficits [8–10], as well as other health [11] and psycho-social biggest predictor of good reading skills is, in fact, a firm language problems [12–16]. foundation [45–52], including vocabulary knowledge [53–57]; where a This means lack of language access is a medical issue that must be wide vocabulary in a sign language helps in developing a wide voca- addressed and, importantly, addressed without the baggage of the he- bulary in reading. A firm language foundation has been shown re- ated debate concerning sign versus speech – a debate that has been cast peatedly to be the best longitudinal predictor of reading skills whether a as cultural [17]. The relevant issue is, instead, language versus lack of child has a CI or not [57–59]. Studies have concluded that deaf children language. The International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology fo- with good signing skills ultimately do better at language skills, reading, cusses on prevention, cure, and care of otorhinolaryngological disorders writing, and other academic areas, and understand and produce the in infants and children, including disorders of communication and ambient spoken language better than those who do not use a sign language. The paper here is a contribution toward the prevention of language [43,52,56,60 –70], whether their parents are hearing or deaf linguistic deprivation and of the wider cognitive, health, and psycho- [71], although socio-demographic factors do play a secondary role in social harm that accompanies it [18]. Further, deaf children who academic success [72]. An overview of studies over the past two dec- cannot communicate fully with those around them are more often ades makes clear that general language skills – the skills one gets from victims of abuse [19–21], and as adults experience a higher rate of daily language interactions, those sorts of interactions common to imprisonment [22] and unemployment [23] – all factors indicated in signing deaf children but uncommon to many strictly speech-only deaf poor health. We aim to guide medical professionals as they advise children – are foundational for reading in a multitude of ways [73]. parents so that cognitive disability and other health problems not be Better reading skills in a deaf child translates into stronger compre- caused where none need be. hension of narrative and better reading scores as a deaf adult [51], In short, speech is accessible to only some deaf children, including which then translates into more opportunities for personal and pro- those with CIs, whereas sign is accessible to all deaf children, including fessional satisfaction. deaf/blind children through a tactile modality [24,25]. We do not here Other studies have concluded that the addition of signing does not address or review the research on CIs, which is extensive and which contribute to better language skills [74] and some have concluded that shows fine success for some deaf children, other than to note that CI more research is needed to determine if signing improves spoken lan- with a speech-only protocol does not guarantee first language acquisi- guage [75]. There is no evidence, however, that bilingual-bimodalism is tion. A parent may ‘do everything right’, and still the child may not detrimental to the child's development [75], while, we repeat, re- access speech sufficiently to acquire language [26–31]. No one can searchers recognize that a substantial number of prelingually deafened reliably predict which children will benefit from using a CI and which children with CI do not acquire a first language via CI alone. will not; results are highly variable [32–34]. While a variety of studies If a deaf child should do well with accessing a spoken language of children with CI in a variety of journals concludes that the device is (orally and/or by text) as well as signing, the child will be bilingual and valuable, and while researchers are constantly searching for factors that receive the cognitive benefits of bilingualism [76–80]. One bimodal- correlate to improved success of CI [35], the results reported can cause bilingual advantage is that, when the same information is available to alarm. For example, in a study that the authors considered to show two or more sensory systems, the redundancy aids in making the in- success of CI, 20%–36% of deaf children with CI performed between the formation more salient [79] and aids children in learning how to direct 25th and 75th percentile or better compared to hearing peers when their attention [81,82], where