title: Should All Deaf Children Learn Sign Language?
abstract: Every year, 10,000 infants are born in the United States with sensorineural deafness. Deaf children of hearing (and nonsigning) parents are unique among all children in the world in that they cannot easily or naturally learn the language that their parents speak. These parents face tough choices. Should they seek a cochlear implant for their child? If so, should they also learn to sign? As pediatricians, we need to help parents understand the risks and benefits of different approaches to parent-child communication when the child is deaf [corrected].
authors.affiliation: Swarthmore College;
authors.forename: Donna Jo
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Napoli
authors.affiliation: The River School, Washington, District of Columbia;
authors.forename: Nancy K
authors.initials: NK
authors.lastname: Mellon
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, University of Southern California;
authors.forename: John K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Niparko
authors.affiliation: Institute for German Sign Language and Communication of the Deaf, University of Hamburg;
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Rathmann
authors.affiliation: Graduate School, Gallaudet University;
authors.forename: Gaurav
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Mathur
authors.affiliation: Department of Education Studies, University of California at San Diego;
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Humphries
authors.affiliation: Swarthmore College;
authors.forename: Theresa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Handley
authors.affiliation: King's College London; and.
authors.forename: Sasha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Scambler
authors.affiliation: Children's Mercy Hospital jlantos@cmh.edu.
authors.forename: John D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Lantos
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D003054:Cochlear Implants; D003638:Deafness / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007804:Language Development; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010290:Parents; D019986:Persons with Hearing Disabilities / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D012813:Sign Language; D014481:United States