Infants with congenital deafness: On the importance of early sign languageacquisition

Two boys who both had a profound bilateral hearing impairment met at a spec ialized sign preschool. Their preconditions were quite different, since in one of them the hearing impairment was detected in the maternity ward with the aid of otoacoustic emissions, and habilitation had begun at age 4 month s. The other boy's impairment was not detected until age 2 years; habilitat ion was thus much delayed. Data were collected on the two boys using interv iews with parents and teachers, observation, and video recording in the chi ldren's own environment at home and in the specialized sign preschool Chara cteristic differences between the boys are described regarding their social and linguistic development relating to the time of detection of the hearin g impairment. This illustrates the importance of early detection and habili tation so as to avoid separation of individuals into different groups with differing social and academic prospects, depending on the lack of early lin guistic stimulation and consequent poor language acquisition. Giving childr en the possibility of developing a language is the primary consideration.