Family ASL: Longitudinal Study of Deaf Children and Hearing Parents Who Receive Services to Support the Learning of ASL

Family ASL: Longitudinal Study of Deaf Children and Hearing Parents Who Receive Services to Support the Learning of American Sign Language (ASL)

This study examines the development of American Sign Language by deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) children and their parents.

After being informed about the study and potential risks, adult participants who give written informed consent and children whose parents who give written permission will be enrolled in the study. They will participate in preliminary language tasks to assess baseline performance on American Sign Language (ASL) measures. Subsequently they will have weekly sessions with an ASL Specialist to support their development of ASL, following a 6-week on/6-week off ABABABAB sequence.

Inclusion Criteria:

Children:

• Children ages 2;00 - 2;11 at the start of the longitudinal project
• Child is Deaf/ Hard-of-Hearing
• Participating in a program utilizing a bimodal bilingual philosophy

Adults:

- One adult caregiver for each child

Exclusion Criteria:

• Children with previously-diagnosed conditions other than deafness known to affect language and cognitive development
• Families without access to internet (at home or other locations)