With a partnership between the California Department of Education’s Julie Rems Smario and CDERC’s Natasha Kordus and Jennifer Willey, they worked on this poster for 2019 EHDI Conference in Chicago, IL. This poster earned the top honors!
Learn how lack of early language input impacts a deaf or hard of hearing child.
Become informed on this issue and how you can support Deaf and Hard of Hearing children’s early language acquisition at the Nyle DiMarco Foundation’s Parent’s Corner:
The single greatest risk faced by Deaf people is inadequate exposure to a usable first language. Dr. Gulati reviews recent research which validates the anatomical basis and time course of the critical period for first language acquisition, and which shows the risks to the development of empathetic abilities among children who are language-deprived.
Today is Human Rights Day 2018. It is Deaf babies’ human right to have full access to sign language from birth. #HumanRightsDay #HumanRightsDay2018 #WhyISign
Unfortunately, 3 out of 4 Deaf babies do not have full access to sign language from birth and 98% of Deaf children do not have access to education in sign language. This is a gross violation of Deaf babies and children’s human rights.
Video also can be found at YouTube: https://youtu.be/jPaBuRzzykE
RELEVANT LINKS:
Human Rights Day 2018
by: United Nations
http://www.un.org/en/events/humanrightsday/
Deaf people as a linguistic and cultural group
By: World Federation of the Deaf
https://wfdeaf.org/…/LM-and-D-Discussion-Paper-FINAL-11-May…
WFD Position Paper on the Language Rights of Deaf Children by: World Federation of the Deaf https://wfdeaf.org/…/wfd-position-paper-language-rights-de…/
Human Rights of Deaf People – Bilingual Education
by: World Federation of the Deaf
https://wfdeaf.org/our-work/human-rights-of-the-deaf/
Annual Survey of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children and Youth 2011-12 Regional and National Summary by: Gallaudet Research Institute http://research.gallaudet.edu/Dem…/2012_National_Summary.pdf (page 11)
Nyle DiMarco unveils new language deprivation video: ‘We felt we could tell a story that touched the heart’
by: Nyle DiMarco Foundation
http://ew.com/…/nyle-dimarco-language-deprivation-awarenes…/
Mark Gerretsen Ian Arthur Mayor Paterson Carla Qualtrough Justin Trudeau
Every day, Deaf people “fail” the hearing test immediately after being born, face “language delays” with their hearing family that don’t learn their natural language, and attempt “perfect speech” in order to fit into the hearing world. They fight to use interpreters that benefit both the hearing and the Deaf, and deal with job discrimination — all simply because they cannot hear.

Medical and educational interventions for children with hearing loss often adopt a single approach of spoken language acquisition through the use of technology, such as cochlear implants. These approaches generally ignore signed languages, despite no guarantees that the child will acquire fluency in a spoken language. Research with children who have a cochlear implant and do not use a signed language indicates that language outcomes are very variable and generally worse than their non-deaf peers. In contrast, signing children with cochlear implants have timely language development similar to their non-deaf peers that also exceeds their non-signing peers with cochlear implants. Natural signed languages have been shown to have the same neurocognitive benefits as natural spoken language while being fully accessible to deaf children. However, it is estimated less than 2% of the 34 million deaf children worldwide receive early childhood exposure to a signed language. Most deaf children are, therefore, at risk for language deprivation during the critical period of language acquisition in the first five years of life. Language deprivation has negative consequences for developmental domains, which rely on timely language acquisition. Beyond the adverse effects on a child’s education, language deprivation also affects deaf people’s mental and physical health and access to health care, among others. Therefore, policies in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities are needed. Such policies would ensure early intervention and education services include signed languages and bilingual programmes where the signed language is the language of instruction.
Read more about this topic in Joseph Murray, Wyatte Hall, and Kristin Snoddon’s research paper.