I'm writing a thesis on deaf culture, the deafness in children and their ability to learn the sign language of their own country, and sign language interpretation (in particular I'm focusing on Italian sign language, American sign language and English sign language).
I am particularly interested in children's ability to learn sign language and understand if the theory of LAD (valid for spoken language) is also valid for those born deaf. So... How long it takes a child to learn it?
The critical period is important in learning language by a human baby. Language learners possess innate principles building a Language acquisition device 'LAD' in the brain. Chomsky, 1969 asserts that environmental factors must be relatively unimportant for language emergence. It is during this period that the language acquisition device (LAD) is active for language learning. It is assumed that beyond this period, the LAD is inactive and therefore, one cannot acquire language.
Actually, there is a case of one girl, NON DISABLED, who was abused by her family. They neglected her and never spoke to her. When it was found out, she was already past the critical period. While the girl could learn words, she would never remember them. However, in Sign Language there was more improvement in grammar for her than with verbal language.
Her case is ambiguous! Because it's hard to know whether her language skills were lacking due to not learning a language before a "critical period" or parental abuse or a disability!
Here is a relevant source to read more:
Oliver Sachs (1989) Seeing Voices. The text includes a detailed discussion on language development and sign.
A simple answer to your question is: YES!
You can hypothesis that, I'm sure the results of your work will reveal astonishing facts.
Best wishes
A very nice question, yes, ma'am, in some cases, people with hearing impairments who are allowed to learn the language
Dependerá do tempo de cada criança. Há uma série de fatores que podem tanto contribuir para a aquisição da língua quanto podem prejudicar ela. Há um livro publicado intitulado "A linguagem do bebê" vou dar uma olhada e te repasso.
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