Deaf children and CODAs

The point that I would like to focus on for this week is language acquisition. Even though there are other views besides the behaviorist view and the nativist view, I would like to focus on these two. Each of these views seems to focus on just one assumption. The behaviorist view focuses on the idea that language is learned like anything else. On the contrary, the nativist view focuses on the idea that language develops so quickly that regular learning cannot account for this speed. Of course both of these views have problems explaining certain aspects of language. I would like to discuss a reason why I believe that it is both. (This is aside from the other views that we discussed in class that seem to combine a little of both of these views). We had some discussion about deaf children and CODAs (children of deaf adults). But one thing that we did not talk about was how many CODAs have to undergo language therapy to learn to speak correctly. This suggests that, to some extent, language needs some “help” in order to develop normally. This rejects the nativist view. However, as we talked about in class, deaf babies still babble out loud and use their voices even though they cannot hear. This rejects the behaviorist view. This is why I suggest that it really is a little of both. One other way of studying deaf children that can help support the behaviorist view is looking at children that have had cochlear implants. A cochlear implant is a device that is inserted into the child’s brain that uses electrical impulses that get translated into sounds that the brain can recognize. In order to learn anything about these children, we have to look at children that have been implanted that have deaf parents, and children that have been implanted and have hearing parents. If we look at implanted children that have deaf parents we can see how this information would support the behaviorist view. When a child is implanted and begins to use the implant they start to use their voice. However, when children are implanted and have deaf parents they will still carry on their “deaf accent.” With time, the accent will start to diminish but it will never go away. When comparing children of deaf parents and children with hearing parents there is a large difference in how these children speak. Since children with deaf parents do not hear language in their home, they have to rely on practice and learning outside the home in a hearing situation. They do not hear language enough at their primary place of residence and their language develops much more slowly, and it might never be at the level of children with hearing parents. This supports the behaviorist view because these children are not learning at the same rate because of the exposure they have to language. Also, one other important piece of information about language and deaf children is their ability to read. If a deaf child is in a Deaf (refers to the Deaf community that uses sign language) home then their first language is ASL. Since ASL has a different structure than English these children learn to read at a slower rate. It is also known that some of the Deaf community will never read past the fourth grade level. This again supports the behaviorist view by demonstrating that grammar must also be learned when English is not the first language and ASL is. This information about deaf children and CODAs suggests that both views are right about some aspects and wrong about others.