Abstract
Spoken language acquisition depends on aural exposure to the language. A child must hear a language spoken. But more than this, the child must have the language directed at her in conversational context. Because spoken language acquisition requires something that may be beyond the capabilities of the State, and because language acquisition is an educational issue, the responsibility for providing a program to ensure that hearing children of deaf parents master spoken English rests on the State. The State should create programs to ensure that these children are properly exposed to spoken English during the brief period in life in which language acquisition is easy and nearly effortless, and in doing so prevent children from being harmed. This note argues for the implementation of a special educational program to provide hearing children of deaf parents exposure to spoken English in order to meet the State's obligation to provide a sound education to all children.
Recommended Citation
Julie Ruschin,
The Voice of the Unheard: An Evaluation of and Proposed Solution to the Special Educational Needs of Hearing Children of Deaf Parents,
15 Hastings Women's L.J. 137
(2004).
Available at: https://repository.uclawsf.edu/hwlj/vol15/iss1/4