Key Facts

Kindergarten Readiness

An alarming of Deaf and Hard of Hearing children enter school without language. Our goal is language acquisition independent of the language used, whether ASL or English, or both. Deaf and Hard of Hearing children who have language are Kindergarten-ready.

The Brain Needs Language

By age of 5, a child’s brain is already 90% developed, yet most deaf children enter kindergarten without language.

Language Milestones

What we want is for the child to meet language milestones. When these milestones are met, the language leads to developing the language foundation of the brain. And, when the language foundation is being established, this leads to developing skills in literacy.

Lack of Accessibility

The lack of early and full accessibility to visual language exposure may be a contributing factor to the low levels of reading achievement in the deaf population.

Lack of Preparation

Children are born ready to learn, but for a quarter of a million U.S. children who are deaf, they enter school not prepared to succeed.

Literacy: Deaf and hard of hearing children who have the foundation of language will acquire English literacy.

Career/Employment: Language foundation gives preparation for success in a competitive workforce and lifelong learning

Economy: Positive contribution to society as tax paying, law-abiding citizens

Health and Quality of Life: Staggering statistics of subpar language skills among deaf and hard of hearing children leading to illiteracy, unemployment and dependence Healthy early child development, including language and education, is recognized as a social determinant of health by the World Health Organization. With proper language acquisition and development, the DHH child will grow to have good health and quality of life.

Social Interaction: DHH children need peer interaction of the same language to foster their personal and language growth. Also, the quality of life for DHH people is enhanced when they are given access to a community of the same language, which increases their self-acceptance, acceptance by others, access to information, and social participation.