Principle #2
Children learn language best through experience, play, and organic interactions.
Definition: Infants, toddlers, and young children learn language by interacting with others and observing others interacting. They need play for metacognitive development and emotional self-regulation5 and experiences to learn language in real-life contexts. They need opportunities for natural conversational turn taking or “serve and return” experiences.
This principle looks like:
Playing with the child’s preferred toy(s) and utilizing natural language
Field trips
Experiential play
Having a natural conversational exchange with a young child
Positive “serve and return” interactions6 (i.e. when they coo or babble, you respond)
Ensuring that the Deaf child has access to incidental learning (i.e. the ambient language around them)
This principle doesn't look like:
Teaching discrete skills in a specific order
Repeatedly telling a Deaf child to "say this word”2
One-way language interactions that do not allow the Deaf child to respond naturally
Exchanges where the Deaf child says what they think you want to hear
Regulating or controlling predetermined communication
Assuming a Deaf child with hearing devices can hear the ambient spoken language
Key concepts:
Language is learned best through natural interactions between people
Children learn language through experience and play
References
1. Comparison between asset and deficit based approaches. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.memphis.edu/ess/module4/page3.php
2. Gibbons, S.M. & Szarkowski, A. (2019) One tool in the toolkit is not enough: Making the case for using multisensory approaches in aural habilitation of children with reduced hearing. Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups 4, 345-355.
3. Kushalnagar, P., Mathur, G., Moreland, D.J., Napoli, D.J., Osterling, W., Padden, C., & Rathmann, C. (2010). Infants and children with hearing loss need early language access. Journal of Clinical Ethics 21(2), 143-154.
4. Soma, C. (2016). Strength-based versus deficit-based thinking. Retrieved from https://starr.org/strength-based-versus-deficit-based-thinking/
5. Whitebread, D., Basilio, M., Kuvalja, M., & Verma, M. (2012). The importance of play: A report on the value of children’s play with a series of policy recommendations. University of Cambridge.
6. Center on the Developing Child, Harvard University. (2007). The Science of Early Childhood Development (InBrief). Retrieved from www.developingchild.harvard.edu