Sign Language Structure
Stokoe, Jr.
‘The relation of the deaf child to his family has not been entirely investigated. It is generally
understood that many parents do not learn of their child’s deafness until the child is two or three
years of age. Patterns of reaction ranging from rejection to over solicitous behavior have been
observed. The role of the parent in the life of the deaf child, the effect of parental rejection or
overprotection, the relation of the deaf child to the other members of the family (i.e. sibling
relationship) . . . indeed the total family environment of the child during the first six years of life
have not been adequately investigated.
‘The social isolation of the deaf child may be interested in the play group experience. While
few studies are available in this area it is obvious that lack of verbal communication must be a
retarding factor operating to limit interpersonal experience in peer-group relationships.
Brunschwig (1936) found, for example, that deaf children had a smaller number of playmates at
any one time than hearing children and they engaged more frequently in solitary activities.
‘The typical deaf child next enters the school for the deaf. In 1955 there were 23,033
children being taught in educational institutions for the deaf in the United States (Annals, January
1956). Of these, 66.3 per cent were full-time residential children and 33.7 per cent were day-school
or day-class children. With respect to social isolation some preliminary studies have indicated that
the institutional experience may further remove the child from contact with the hearing world as
compared to the day school, from which the child returns daily to the normal environment of home
and community associations. Some data tend to support the hypothesis that the residential school
experience retards social development (Streng & Kirk, 1938; Burchard & Myklebust, 1942; Avery,
1948). Burchard and Myklebust found that the longer the period of residence in a residential school
the lower the social maturity quotients on standard tests (p. 241-50). There is not sufficient
evidence to warrant any conclusions concerning the effect of attending a school for the deaf; if
there are negative aspects, there are also positive aspects, which should also be investigated.
‘The curricular programs in schools for the deaf vary and progress for each student is
individualized to a considerable extent. The burden of teaching basic communication,
speechreading, reading and writing, takes precedence over course work as such. The omission of
sign language is significant. (Neither Dr. Lunde nor the writer knows of any school where
instruction in sign language itself is part of language itself is part of the curriculum.) The deaf
child, already retarded in communication ability, now is further limited in academic development.
Thus the system of education as well as the institutionalization itself plays a role in comparative
retardation, the deaf child being trained academically at a pace much slower than the hearing child.
This further widens the gap between the hearing and the deaf, taken as groups.
‘The education of the deaf is further restricted by the fact that there are only twelve
accredited high schools for the deaf in the United States (Annals, January 1956). The majority of
the deaf do not obtain a high-school education or its equivalent. This places them as a group on
the lower levels of educational achievement, another factor in group segregation and which affects
their chances for higher education and better employment opportunities.
‘It is at the school for the deaf that most deaf children meet other children like themselves
for the first time and enter into peer-group associations without the restrictions the special handicap
imposed in their relation with hearing groups. They begin to develop feelings of identity with the
deaf group and to acquire the group attitudes which tend to set them apart. Preliminary studies at
Gallaudet College reveal that the deaf institutional adults recalls his first days at the school for the
deaf in three categories:--first, his misery at begin taken away from home and family, second, his
SASLJ, Vol. 2, No. 2 – Fall/Winter 2018
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