Spoken language bilingualism in deaf children

Content

More than 7000 deaf children in the UK use another spoken language in addition to English, with or without British Sign Language (BSL) as well (CRIDE, 2019). When a deaf child is born, parents must decide whether they will communicate with them using a spoken language, a signed language or both. For parents who use more than one spoken language, spoken language bilingualism is an additional option. As most deaf children are born to hearing parents, with little or no knowledge of deafness, the decision-making process can be very challenging and professional advice can be very influential.

In this session, Emily Wright presented the results from two new UK based studies. The first study investigated the professional beliefs of 108 professionals (Teachers of the Deaf, Speech and Language Therapists and Audiologists) on spoken language bilingualism in deaf children and on the advice that they provide to parents from multilingual families. The second study explored the decision-making process from the parents' perspective to discover what factors influenced their decision to raise their deaf children with two spoken languages.

Target Audience

SLTs, (Q)ToDs and audiologists who work with deaf children with spoken language bilingualism, other professionals who work with young deaf children, parents/carers of deaf children who are, or are considering, raising their child with multiple spoken languages and researchers/academics in this field.

Presenter

Emily Wright is a PhD student at the University of Reading, investigating spoken language bilingualism in deaf children. Her PhD is exploring the decision-making process of parents who decide whether to raise their deaf child with two spoken languages, as well as the cognitive and language abilities in deaf children with spoken language bilingualism. The PhD is being supervised by Prof Ludovica Serratrice and Prof Vesna Stojanovik, and is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). Prior to starting her PhD, Emily qualified as a Speech and Language Therapist.