RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Discourses of prejudice in the professions: the case of sign languages
JF Journal of Medical Ethics
JO J Med Ethics
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and Institute of Medical Ethics
SP 648
OP 652
DO 10.1136/medethics-2015-103242
VO 43
IS 9
A1 Tom Humphries
A1 Poorna Kushalnagar
A1 Gaurav Mathur
A1 Donna Jo Napoli
A1 Carol Padden
A1 Christian Rathmann
A1 Scott Smith
YR 2017
UL http://jme.bmj.com/content/43/9/648.abstract
AB There is no evidence that learning a natural human language is cognitively harmful to children. To the contrary, multilingualism has been argued to be beneficial to all. Nevertheless, many professionals advise the parents of deaf children that their children should not learn a sign language during their early years, despite strong evidence across many research disciplines that sign languages are natural human languages. Their recommendations are based on a combination of misperceptions about (1) the difficulty of learning a sign language, (2) the effects of bilingualism, and particularly bimodalism, (3) the bona fide status of languages that lack a written form, (4) the effects of a sign language on acquiring literacy, (5) the ability of technologies to address the needs of deaf children and (6) the effects that use of a sign language will have on family cohesion. We expose these misperceptions as based in prejudice and urge institutions involved in educating professionals concerned with the healthcare, raising and educating of deaf children to include appropriate information about first language acquisition and the importance of a sign language for deaf children. We further urge such professionals to advise the parents of deaf children properly, which means to strongly advise the introduction of a sign language as soon as hearing loss is detected.