My child wears a hearing aid or a cochlear implant. Do we have to learn sign language?
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Although in the past choosing the cochlear implant route implied that the family did not want to be part of the deaf community, this attitude is dissipating. An increasing amount of families choose cochlear implants for their children, and want to maintain sign language usage as well as participation in the deaf community.
A cochlear implant does not necessarily give access to a spoken language; it is important to insure the child has access to a language. Also, many recent studies indicate clearly that bilingualism (spoken and sign language) has clear advantages for the child. |
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For families that choose bilingualism for their deaf child (ASL-English or French-LSQ) :
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Use sign language as soon as possible, without neglecting speech. This way, you are opening doors for both types of communication.
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No matter which type of hearing aid the child uses, either external hearing aid or cochlear implant, continue to use both types of communication.
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At times where your child can't wear his hearing aid (broken, swimming, contact sport, infection, etc.) you will still be able to communicate using sign language.
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The bilingual option does not exclude the acquisition of other languages.
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Most bilingual deaf children that we know (LSQ/French) also use, with varying degrees of ease, ASL and English writing, and spoken is possible.
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