Sign language delays in deaf 3- to 5-year-olds with deaf parents.
Donna A Morere, Thomas E Allen, Maura Jaeger and 1 others
PMID 38079616WHAT IT FOUND
Deaf children of deaf parents are not automatically protected from language delays.
In this sample, 19% of individual children showed signs of delay. Clinicians should monitor sign language development in these children rather than assuming early exposure guarantees typical progress.
Key findings
01Approximately 19% of the individual children in the sample were rated as having some level of early language delay based on Rasch scoring.
02Children identified as very delayed showed widespread limitations across ASL grammar, general language skills, and cognitive aspects of communication, suggesting a need for multidisciplinary assessment.
03Rasch scoring provided more nuanced identification of delays than the standard basal difference method, particularly for children who did not achieve a basal score or had inconsistent use of skills.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The data are from an archival database, so information about the parents' signing fluency, age of acquisition, and the children's specific etiologies or co-occurring conditions was not available. Some children were rated more than once, which could skew incidence rates if children with concerns were evaluated more frequently, though the authors note this was not the primary driver. The study relies on rater judgment without independent verification of the child's actual language performance. The sample size for some subgroups, particularly the 'very delayed' 5-year-olds, was very small.
Declared interests
The study was funded by the National Science Foundation and Penn State University. The authors did not report financial conflicts of interest with commercial entities.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the delay rates as definitive prevalence in the general DOD population. The data comes from an archival set of clinical ratings, where children referred for evaluation may not represent all DOD children, and the lack of information on parental signing fluency means some 'delays' may reflect the quality of input rather than the child's capacity.