Early Language Acquisition of Deaf Babies & Toddlers

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Why is it important for Deaf babies to acquire American Sign Language (ASL) or other signed languages as their first language? By having full access to a natural, rich, and visual language, their age-appropriate language development will allow them to enter kindergarten ready to learn, preventing them from falling behind in their education.



Phonology is the earliest state of acquisition. For spoken languages, phonology is the distribution and patterning of speech sounds that, when uttered as a whole, speech becomes a word. In sign languages, phonology includes handshapes, eye-hand coordination, space and movement, and facial expression. Starting at 4 months, babies, deaf and hearing, develop phonology skills by fixating on specific signs or sounds. They play with these signs and sounds on their own, which then leads them into lexical meaning.



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