ASL Mythbusters
The most frequent of the FAQs
Lately I’ve been working with a few education-related nonprofits trying to provide support to families interested in American Sign Language and man! there’s a lot of misinformation floating around about ASL and its use in modern deaf education. Some of it is garden variety ignorance, some of it more willful, but all of it can be hard to navigate on the (increasingly polluted by AI-bots who fully make sh*t up) internet. SO, I thought I’d create a space here to collect some mythbusting evidence, featuring links to some of my go-to sources (written by real humans).
1. Myth: ASL will delay a child’s speech/multiple languages will “confuse” a child.
Reality: Nope. (1, 2). ASL is a full language, and knowing ASL and another language confers the full cognitive benefits of bilingualism. ASL can support early language development and reduce frustration-based behaviors for young children, regardless of hearing sensitivity. For deaf and hard-of-hearing (D/HH) children, ASL access prevents language deprivation, supports academic and language outcomes including in spoken language, especially phonological memory and expressive grammar. When counting “words” for a child’s milestones, signs count as words, and if a child can sign and speak a word, that counts as two words.
2. Myth: A caregiver must be a fluent signer to impact a child’s language development.
Reality: Early exposure for D/HH children by hearing, nonfluent signing parents still confers huge benefits. Deaf children whose parents signed with them consistently (even if not fluently) as infants had age-expected vocabulary size and receptive skills when studied through age 5. Kids whose parents started later had smaller vocabularies, but strong receptive skills and made rapid gains. The takeaway? Learning alongside your child is totally ok! And introducing later is way better than never!
3. Myth: People who use cochlear implants (CIs) don’t need ASL.
Reality: This is a biggie. The short of it is all D/HH people can benefit from access to a signed language. A sign language like ASL (used here in North America, but there are over 200 in the world) is the only language that’s inherently 100% accessible to deaf folks 100% of the time, without additional assistive tech, tools, modalities or systems. The data regarding language acquisition in children with CIs is stark: The majority of children with CIs in the US today do not acquire age-expected language (sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ). As noted above, those who have access to both CIs and ASL do better in language assessments than those without ASL.
One of the areas we fail children with CIs in particular is by setting unrealistic expectations for them and their families. We use audiograms, which measure hearing sensitivity, and LING 6 tests (the ability to identify different speech sounds), but we don’t live in airtight audiologist booths, and functional results in real life can be both very individualized, and very environment-dependent. A 2018 study showed that 50% of children with CIs were identifying about 80% of words in quiet environments, but 93% of them couldn’t identify any words in a noisy environment. (You know, noisy like, say, a classroom?) CIs can be helpful tools, but relying on them alone for language development is high-risk, with no reward. The binary that a family must choose technology or sign language is false and has had devastating affects on generations of D/HH children.
4. Myth: Oral-only approaches like LSL or AVT are science-backed and more modern takes on deaf education.
Reality: Because oral-only approaches to language acquisition are coupled with surgery and technology, parents assume they are the most modern or best practices within the field. But oral deaf education in the US is rooted not in evidence-based pedagogy, but from a xenophobic political movement in the late 19th century called nativism. At the time, an influx of immigrants had white Protestant Americans—self-proclaimed “nativists”—concerned about the future of the nation’s “culture,” specifically whether newcomers would submit to assimilation into WASP English language use and values.
The push for English-only education became a main tentpole of nativist concern, and Alexander Graham Bell—a nativist and eugenicist, who also happened to come from a line of elocution teachers—applied the same ideology to deaf education with fervor. As a eugenicist, he sought to reduce the proliferation of deaf people, and as a nativist, he knew that from language grew community, which might encourage more intracommunity deaf marriages. (He was, of course, wrong that deaf partners tend to produce deaf children, but that’s for another day.) Oralism was never about the most effective way for deaf children to learn; it was about the efficacy with which cultural diversity might best be stamped out. For a deep-dive on ye olde AG Bell, I recommend Katie Booth’s The Invention of Miracles.)
Over a century later, the “pure oral method” is now called Listening Spoken Language (LSL) or Auditory Verbal Therapy (AVT). These are neither languages in their own right, nor speech therapy, nor a degree program conferred by universities. LSL and AVT are certifications issued by a private organization. Experiments that favor oral-only approaches to deaf education are typically funded by implant companies, small in sample size, focus on structured listening environments, and remove underperforming children who, rather than being included in result, are pulled and labeled with additional disabilities or disorders, or seen as not having tried hard enough.
The problem with an LSL approach is not that it involves hearing technology or learning to speak. Many deaf people benefit from technology (I have hearing aids, so does my kid), and learning to use spoken English can be useful or even fun (my son loves speech therapy at school). The problem is that LSL methodology is extremely restrictive, banning not only signed language, but also cued speech, other visual cues, or even lipreading. Deaf children must learn through audition alone, a difficult thing for even some people with typical hearing to do. They are also limited in access to one another and to deaf adults, as they need “good” speech models, who must be typical hearing people.
Removing visual language and supports from deaf ed is a risk that can and often does result in language deprivation. In 2023, the American Association of Pediatrics (AAP) updated their guidelines on deaf children. Among other things, they’ve noted that speech therapy and ASL can be used together, a stance at odds with the LSL method.
5. Myth: Visual Takeover Theory
Reality: In 1999, a study* of a deaf sign language user’s brain noted that areas typically related to auditory processing were engaged when the person saw sign. The theory was exciting to neurologists in that it suggests the capacity of the brain to “retrain” areas specialized use as needed. The anti-ASL cohort used this study to warn parents that if their deaf children were exposed to sign language, their brain would respecialize to a visual modality, and they would never learn to speak or listen.
Further study revealed that (obviously) the brain does not reorganize if the area in question is already in use.** Meaning, if a deaf child is receiving auditory input from hearing aids or cochlear implants, the auditory processing areas of their brain would be in use and not “up for grabs,” regardless of exposure to signed language. (The brain can also reorganize cross modality whether or not it is formally “taught” in that alternative mode.) The TLDR here is that deaf people’s brains function the same as hearing people’s, duh.
*Nishimura, H., Hashikawa, K., Doi, K., Iwaki, T., Watanabe, Y., Kusuoka, H., Nishimura, T., & Kubo, T. (1999). Sign language ‘heard’ in the auditory cortex. Nature, 397.
**Lyness, C. R., Woll, B., Campbell, R., & Cardin, V. (2013). How does visual language affect crossmodal plasticity and cochlear implant success? Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews (37), 2621-2630.
6. Myth: Families of deaf children need to choose either speech or sign language.
Reality: This is false! The binary is made up! You can have both! Monolingualism is not a flex. Please return to top of page.
7. The most F of the AQs: How do I Learn ASL?
While much of the above is relevant specifically to D/HH children, probably the number one question I get from hearing people is, “how do I learn ASL?”
Learn from a deaf person! Really, this is important. You can’t learn ASL effectively from a hearing person signing and talking at the same time any more than you would be able to learn Spanish by me trying to explain it to you in English. Take the leap and you will learn faster (and the signs will be correct, too.)
Check in with your local deaf school. Every deaf school I’ve visited offers inexpensive ASL classes to the surrounding community. If there’s one near you, take advantage! Some deaf schools also offer virtual options.
Virtual courses: There are many, but just remember the deaf teacher thing! Some favorites include DHCC.org, The Sign Language Center, Queer ASL, and ASL Connect
If you have a Philly library card, you can get access to basic ASL lessons for free here. Ask your library to sign up, too!
Bonus Resources
More deaf books: I have a list of some books by deaf authors on this newsletter. But if you’re looking to dive deeper, check out the Library of Virginia’s virtual and searchable Deaf Culture Digital Library, featuring deaf authors, books about deaf history and culture, magazines, videos, and more!
If you have a D/HH child who could benefit from being in community with other D/HH kids, Sign On Connect offers a virtual program called Friends Like Me, where children are matched with same-age peers and a deaf mentor to chat and play games together. Matches for multiple communication modalities are available, too.
One Book, One Philly Wrap-up
True Biz One Book One Philly remains a source of delight for me personally, and I hope for readers across the city. Here’s a photo of this book that was feared to be “too niche” on the back of a motherf**king bus!
Anyway, to follow along with the last of the One Book branch programming for True Biz discussions, presentations on related topics, and companion reads for YA and children, check out the full listing here. And if you can, please join Ilya Kaminsky and me for the closing event at the Parkway Central Library on May 22nd, 7:30 PM. You can register for free here. (ASL interpretation provided, book signing afterward)
