Hearing is measured in decibels, which measures the intensity of sound. When measuring a person’s hearing ability, hearing loss is recorded when the person cannot hear a sound lower than twenty-six decibels. In comparison, profound hearing loss is described when a person cannot hear a sound lower than ninety-five decibels (Clason). According to the Hearing Loss Association of America, twenty percent of Americans, which translates into forty-eight million people have some degree of hearing loss (“Basic Facts About Hearing Loss”). While this is a significant proportion of the population, much of society does not consider the hearing impaired. This is why hearing children should be taught sign language: it accelerates intellectual development,
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Children as young as six months can remember signs, with single word signs and imitated gestures at eight months, and compound words and full sentences by twenty-four months (Carrow). A study in 2000 examined the verbal reasoning skills of 80 five-year-old children enrolled in a comprehensive intervention program. The study found that regardless of degree of hearing loss, the children who were enrolled in the program by eleven months of age achieved higher scores on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test and the Preschool Language Assessment Instrument than the children who were enrolled at an older age (Moeller). A study conducted by the University of Cordoba compared the speech development in deaf children with cochlear implants. In a group of eighteen children between 4- and 8-years-old who received a cochlear implant between fifteen months and 5 years of age, each child was separated into two groups based on language: the first group was of children who used both sign and spoken language and the second was of children who only used spoken language. This study concluded that the bilingual group had better fluency and should be able to recall a greater number of words than the children who were only educated with spoken language (Herruzo et
Children as young as six months can remember signs, with single word signs and imitated gestures at eight months, and compound words and full sentences by twenty-four months (Carrow). A study in 2000 examined the verbal reasoning skills of 80 five-year-old children enrolled in a comprehensive intervention program. The study found that regardless of degree of hearing loss, the children who were enrolled in the program by eleven months of age achieved higher scores on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test and the Preschool Language Assessment Instrument than the children who were enrolled at an older age (Moeller). A study conducted by the University of Cordoba compared the speech development in deaf children with cochlear implants. In a group of eighteen children between 4- and 8-years-old who received a cochlear implant between fifteen months and 5 years of age, each child was separated into two groups based on language: the first group was of children who used both sign and spoken language and the second was of children who only used spoken language. This study concluded that the bilingual group had better fluency and should be able to recall a greater number of words than the children who were only educated with spoken language (Herruzo et