Parents often don't know how to communicate with their deaf baby or child.
They often think it's easiest if they use their own language, like spoken Dutch or English, for example.
And they think it's best to use a sign with every spoken word.
They use their own language and the children get exposure to spoken language.
They think it helps with lipreading and when children have to learn written language later on.
Parents assume that's the simplest way.
But scientific research has pointed out that a baby is really like a language machine, extraordinarely good at processing language.
A baby's brain is wired to look for elements of language.
The brain does that by searching for patterns in language.
Some sounds are distinguish features of the language and that helps determine what is and isn't a word.
When a cow goes "moo", you know immediately that it's not a language, for example.
If you hear something that isn't a part of your own language at a later age, the sounds will tell you it's a different language.
It's very important for children to be exposed to language at a young age so they can learn those distinguishing elements.
That's important for any further development of language skills.
If the brain isn't exposed to language from an early age, it becomes more difficult to learn other things later in life.
That's why it's very important to be exposed to language early on.
If parents speak and occasionally use a sign, the two languages won't match.
The brain will keep trying to recognize the language.
Children are exposed to spoken language with an occasional sign, but the rhythm of the two languages doesn't match.
If I were to sign really slowly, for example, and would slowly sign every spoken word...
...then the brain can't pay attention to the language being offered anymore.
This is an often recurring issue.
If every spoken word is matched with a sign, the rhythm of the two languages is off.
This happens because sign language is used in a different modality than spoken language.
Sign language uses the hands and spoken language uses the mouth.
The mouth produces sounds at a certain speed, which is what makes the sounds and the language recognizable.
The same thing applies to sign language and the hands.
But they're two very different ways of using a language.
In order to offer a language the right way, you have to use a certain rhythm.
Spoken languages and signs don't have the same rhythm because of their different modalities and that makes them a mismatch.
If you're signing while adhering to the structure of the spoken language, the brain won't recognize it as sign language.