Language, Storytelling, and Meaning in Human Life

Many deaf adults experience linguistic dysfluency and lack the basic literacy that enables us to live as autonomous, productive members of society. When a deaf child is born into a family communicating in a spoken language, early language deprivation hinders the development of typical human cognitive abilities. By the time this child enters school, the cognitive impairments resultant from language deprivation are already limiting what she can learn.

The author explores this tragedy through her experience teaching English literacy to deaf adult students, and through wide reading in philosophy and psychology. The implications for all children, deaf or hearing, born into language-poor households and communities are stark. Government mandated intervention to ensure that every child is immersed from birth in a natural language (in this case, a signed language) is urged.

Deaf children entering school typically encounter an education founded on libertarian (parental rights) principles and the view that functional (fourth-grade) literacy is adequate. ESL pedagogies are inappropriate and ineffective, and deaf education is under-theorized, but philosophical discourse on language and human cognition provides many avenues to rethinking how the language-deprived deaf child can learn and grow.

There are many books celebrating sign language and deaf achievement, but none that demonstrates how and why so many deaf children fail to develop native signing skills, literacy, and typical adult competencies. This book is intended not only for parents and teachers, but also school reformers, disability activists, and philosophers interested in what the deaf tell us about language and cognition.