%0 Journal Article
%T THE BENEFIT OF EARLY EXPOSURE TO SIGN LANGUAGE
%A Ljubica PRIBANIKJ
%A Marina MILKOIVKJ
%J Journal of Special Education and Rehabilitation
%@ 1857-663X
%D 2009
%I Faculty of Philosophy, Institute of Special Education and Rehabilitation
%X Early diagnosis and intervention are now recognized as undeniable rights of deaf and hard-of-hearing children and their families. The deaf childĄ¯s family must have the opportunity to socialize with deaf children and deaf adults. The deaf childĄ¯s family must also have access to all the information on the general development of their child, and to special information on hearing impairment, communication options and linguistic development of the deaf child.The critical period hypothesis for language acquisition proposes that the outcome of language acquisition is not uniform over the lifespan but rather is best during early childhood. Individuals who learned sign language from birth performed better on linguistic and memory tasks than individuals who did not start learning sign language until after puberty. The old prejudice that the deaf child must learn the spoken language at a very young age, and that sign language can wait because it can be easily learned by any person at any age, cannot be maintained anymore.The cultural approach to deafness emphasizes three necessary components in the development of a deaf child: 1. stimulating early communication using natural sign language within the family and interacting with the Deaf community; 2. bilingual / bicultural education and 3. ensuring deaf personsĄ¯ rights to enjoy the services of high quality interpreters throughout their education from kindergarten to university. This new view of the phenomenology of deafness means that the environment needs to be changed in order to meet the deaf personĄ¯s needs, not the contrary.
%K sign language
%K cultural approach
%K deaf/hearing mother
%K infant communication
%U http://jser.fzf.ukim.edu.mk/files/PDF%203-4%202009/28-39_DEFEKTOLOSKA%20STRUCNO%20NAUCNA%20PROBLEMATIKA_Ljubica%20Pribanikj%20i%20Marina%20Milkovikj.pdf