Course Overview

This course describes the early development of ASL and English in young deaf and hard of hearing children and their impact on cognitive development. The course examines how deaf and hard of hearing children go through developmental stages of acquiring and learning American Sign Language, which is similar to how hearing children go through developmental stages of acquiring a spoken language and how this development is tied to cognitive functions that are the precursors for further linguistic and academic growth (sign babbling, sign jargon, first words, ASL grammatical development and vocabulary expansion). In addition, the course will address factors intrinsic to the bilingual child as well as to the environment that promote and/or prevent their linguistic and cognitive development.

Faculty