Research has demonstrated that deaf children of deaf signing parents (DOD) are afforded developmental advantages. This can be misconstrued as indicating that no DOD children exhibit early language delays (ELDs) because of their early access to a visual language. Little research has studied this presumption. In this study, we examine 174 ratings of DOD 3- to 5-year-old children, for whom signing in the home was indicated, using archival data from the online database of the Visual Communication and Sign Language Checklist. Our goals were to (1) examine the incidence of ELDs in a cohort of DOD children; (2) compare alternative scaling strategies for identifying ELD children; (3) explore patterns among behavioral ratings with a view toward developing a greater understanding of the types of language behaviors that may lie at the root of language delays; and (4) suggest recommendations for parents and professionals working with language-delayed DOD children. The results indicated that a significant number of ratings suggested ELDs, with a subset significantly delayed. These children likely require further evaluation. Among the less delayed group, ASL skills, rather than communication or cognition, were seen as the major concern, suggesting that even DOD children may require support developing linguistically accurate ASL. Overall, these findings support the need for early and ongoing evaluation of visual language skills in young DOD children.

中文翻译：

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父母聋哑的 3 至 5 岁聋哑儿童手语发育迟缓


研究表明，聋人手语父母 (DOD) 的聋哑儿童具有发展优势。这可能会被误解为表明 DOD 儿童不会因为较早接触视觉语言而表现出早期语言延迟 (ELD)。很少有研究研究这一假设。在这项研究中，我们使用视觉传达和手语检查表在线数据库中的档案数据，检查了 174 名 DOD 3 至 5 岁儿童的评级，这些儿童在家中需要手语。我们的目标是 (1) 检查 DOD 儿童队列中 ELD 的发生率； (2) 比较识别 ELD 儿童的替代衡量策略； (3) 探索行为评级的模式，以更好地理解可能是语言发育迟缓根源的语言行为类型； (4) 向从事语言发育迟缓儿童工作的家长和专业人士提出建议。结果表明，大量评级表明 ELD，其中一部分评级明显延迟。这些孩子可能需要进一步评估。在延迟较少的群体中，美国手语技能，而不是沟通或认知，被视为主要问题，这表明即使是国防部儿童也可能需要支持来发展语言上准确的美国手语。总体而言，这些发现支持对国防部儿童的视觉语言技能进行早期和持续评估的必要性。