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<p>Deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children who experience language deprivation face heightened risk for long-term cognitive, social, and emotional harm. These outcomes are not due to parental unpreparedness but arise from entrenched social biases and professional practices that that frame deafness itself as a problem to be corrected rather than prioritizing early access to a fully accessible natural language. A&#xa0;natural signed&#xa0;language,&#xa0;American Sign Language (ASL), a visual language with its own grammar and syntax, provides full linguistic access for DHH children and supports healthy development across domains. This paper calls on deaf-aware&#xa0;social workers &#xa0;to&#xa0;challenge outdated models, advocate alongside families, and collaborate with medical professionals and policymakers to ensure culturally appropriate, rights-based interventions. Centering full language access from infancy is essential to preventing language deprivation and safeguarding the developmental, relational, and human rights of DHH children.</p>

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The Plight of Language Deprivation in Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children Born to Hearing Parents: A Call to Action

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

    开放获取

  • 发表日期：

    2026年3月24日

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  • Charleen K. Sculley,
  • Isabel Teller-Davis,
  • Liza Barros-Lane

摘要

Deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children who experience language deprivation face heightened risk for long-term cognitive, social, and emotional harm. These outcomes are not due to parental unpreparedness but arise from entrenched social biases and professional practices that that frame deafness itself as a problem to be corrected rather than prioritizing early access to a fully accessible natural language. A natural signed language, American Sign Language (ASL), a visual language with its own grammar and syntax, provides full linguistic access for DHH children and supports healthy development across domains. This paper calls on deaf-aware social workers  to challenge outdated models, advocate alongside families, and collaborate with medical professionals and policymakers to ensure culturally appropriate, rights-based interventions. Centering full language access from infancy is essential to preventing language deprivation and safeguarding the developmental, relational, and human rights of DHH children.