Cole and Lisa are the hearing parents of a Deaf child. They discovered his deafness when he was eight months old. Until the baby turned three years old, the couple, believing this would help him ‘fit’ more into the hearing world, would only communicate with him through speech instead of signs. How can we best describe what the child went through?

(1 point)
Responses

language deprivation

language deprivation

oral cognitism

oral cognitism

proximalization

proximalization

latent linguistic deficit

1 answer

The best description of what the child went through is language deprivation. This term refers to the lack of access to language during critical developmental periods, which can impact a child's ability to acquire language skills effectively. In this case, by not providing sign language and instead solely relying on speech, the parents may have hindered the child’s language development.