Language Comprehension in Deaf Children

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Deaf people, unlike hearing people who typically acquire a spoken language naturally and without effort, do not have full access to spoken language. As a result of impoverished access to spoken language, the majority of deaf children in the U.K. have poor literacy skills and fail to achieve national curriculum benchmarks for GCSE results. Naturally, these failures to achieve expected standards for literacy and academic attainment have led to increased attention as to why deaf children are not performing on par to their hearing peers. It is clear that good language skills are a fundamental foundation for good literacy skills. This is a problem for most deaf children who do not have full access to spoken language and cannot use this to develop literacy skills. However, studies have shown that early access to a sign language - which is accessible for all deaf children - can also aid in reading and writing a spoken language. Indeed there is a small sample of deaf children where studies have shown a significant positive relationship between early access to signed and spoken language and literacy development, as well as cognitive and social benefits. In the current project, we investigate the role that British Sign Language (BSL) plays in developing the language skills integral for literacy in deaf children. Our primary aim is to develop a better understanding of signed and spoken language and literacy development in the deaf population in the UK. In doing so, we aim to develop new language measures to closely monitor and track language skills in deaf children. In developing those measures, we will learn more about how BSL skills develop in deaf children and young people between the ages of 4 and 20, which is a largely understudied group in the U.K., and worldwide. We can then gain a better understanding of BSL and its role in the development of literacy skills in the deaf population. This is important because many deaf children do not leave secondary school with adequate literacy skills. Furthermore, a new standardised assessment tool to assess BSL comprehension skills will be made available for both researchers and practitioners. This is a much needed assessment tool that will be used by educators, speech and language therapists, psychologists and researchers. This will enable both researchers and practitioners to monitor sign language development in this population. The ability to track sign language development will enable practitioners to identify language difficulties as early as possible, which means they will then be able to create targeted interventions when necessary.