CHAPTER 25

"Why do so many Deaf people have trouble with English?"

English is primarily a spoken language, hearing infants are born into a world that is full of people interacting with one another. A child unconsciously absorb this dialect the moment they are born. However, think about a child who is born deaf. A child who hears nothing from the moment they are born. Hearing children can hear and imitate what the people around them are saying but a deaf child can only see the expressions on ones face. A deaf child with parents who do not know any sign are forced to go to school with no language established at all. Can you imagine how hard that could be?
I couldnt imagine.
This could have a negative effect on a deaf childs educational development throughout their life time.
ASL and English are two different languages, so if a deaf person is just learning ASL they have to learn English as well and because English is a spoken language it makes the learning process so much more difficult. Just like any language that you will learn, it takes lots of practice!