Special education _ Deaf_3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Special education _ Deaf_3 - Essay Example It is evident from the beginning that acquisition of sign language is usually a more technical approach than the spoken language. At an early stage, deaf children begin to practice manual babbling as opposed to vocal babbling witnessed in hearing children (Emmorey, 2002 page170 line 5). The American Sign Language (ASL) which is a natural and direct sign language is first developed among deaf infants and it later results in the production of lexical signs. It is role of the parents especially mothers to deaf children to develop and adopt lexical signs that make sense (Andrews, 2003 page 18-19 line 3-7). Mothers of deaf children begin by making signs on the bodies of their deaf children as well as molding their hands to make signs. The motor nerves in the hands deaf children developed faster hence they are able to quickly use their hands to make signs. This makes deaf children to begin their process of language acquisition earlier than hearing children. Due to their very sensitive and mature visual cortex as opposed to their auditory cortex, they are able to clearly distinguish between objects (Andrews, 2003 page 18-19 line 8-9). Hearing babies are in a position to listen and watch or view an object being displayed at the same time and this forms a key difference between them and the deaf babies. Deaf children produce what is known as baby signs while hearing children produce baby words (Meier, 2002 page 882, line 5). Owing to the fact that speech can be heard in the womb by the unborn child, it is a clear prove that mothers have a big role to play in process of developing speech among children at the pre-natal stage. It is therefore the role of mothers to ensure that their children only listen to soothing sounds that will have positive impact in their lives later in life. Mothers can influence language type among their children at a tender age and this shows why children will quickly learn the