Acquisition of spoken and signed English by hearing-impaired children of hearing-impaired or hearing parents.

Abstract

This study examines the degree to which hearing-impaired children of hearing-impaired parents (HIP) demonstrate an advantage in their acquisition of signed and spoken English over hearing-impaired children of hearing parents (HP). A subset from the normative sample of the Grammatical Analysis of Elicited Language, 50 HIP children and 50 HP children, were matched in terms of their educational program, hearing level, and age. Results indicate that both groups had comparably poor expressive English language ability at 5 and 6 years of age. However, at age 7 and 8 HIP children demonstrated a significant linguistic advantage in both their spoken and signed English over HP children. Because the production of English by HIP children closely resembled that of orally educated hearing-impaired children of hearing parents, consistent language stimulation throughout the child's early years may be a critical factor in the development of English, regardless of the language or mode of expression.