Rob Myers - DOOR

Did you know that some medical professionals still recommend that hearing parents withhold sign language from their deaf children?

Strange as this may sound, people used to believe that if deaf children gain access to sign language, then they will be hindered in their acquisition of their family's spoken/written language.

This turns out not to be true. This article in the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research shows that there is no hindrance in English acquisition when a deaf child is exposed to sign language. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36972338/ #:~:text=Children%20with%20large%20ASL%20vocabularies,not%20harm%20spoken%20vocabulary%20acquisition.

In fact, the opposite appears to be true: The size of a deaf child's ASL vocabulary is positively correlated to the size of their English vocabulary, based on this article published by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA): https://pubs.asha.org/doi/10.1044/2022_JSLHR-22-00505

Many hearing parents introduce "baby signs" to their very young hearing children. This is incredibly effective, as a child's gross motor skills (like the use of their hands) develop much sooner than their fine motor skills (like vocal chords). That means that the sign for "milk" is easier than voicing the word "milk" for a 9-month-old. Having a way to express need reduces frustration and builds a bond of communication.

It's ironic that hearing children are encouraged to learn sign early, but it is withheld from deaf children.

Let's change the narrative on this. Let's make sure parents of deaf children have good information to refer to as they try to do what is best for those children. Share this post and spread the word so other parents and professionals have access to the latest information.

If you are a parent of a deaf child and looking for ways to learn ASL, check out the resources available at this link: https://ischoolsjsu.libguides.com/c.php?g=934212&p=6739331

Did you know that only about 1/3 of countries around the world recognize their country's sign language as an official language, and of those, 20% happened within the last 5 years?

Here is an infographic put out by the World Federation for the Deaf that shows which countries have official recognition, and when and how that came about.

Official recognition opens so many doors for Deaf people: access to information, Deaf education, interpreters, job opportunities, and more.

It also helps correct some misunderstandings in the community regarding sign language. Sometimes Deaf people are told that sign language is inferior, or "missing information," or even "monkey language." But that is not true; sign languages are full, rich languages capable of communicating any concept that written languages can. (In fact, when that concept is visual, sign languages can often convey information much more clearly than written or spoken languages.)

Most recently, South African Sign Language was officially recognized in an amendment to the country's constitution, making it the 12th official language of the country. Check out a video about that in the comments.

Let's spread the word and see more and more countries recognize sign languages!

What would you do if you had to lead a church, but you had to use a Bible that everyone in the church (including you) struggled to understand?

This is exactly the situation that the leaders of a Deaf church in Kenya found themselves in. They approached DOOR's Deaf 2-by-2 (evangelism, discipleship, and church planting) leaders to seek help help.

This church had never seen God’s Word in Kenyan Sign Language, and they had been using written English Scriptures in their weekly services. (Many hearing people assume that Deaf people can read because they can see, but we forget that we learned language by hearing and speaking it from a very young age. We then learned to read by sounding out letters to make words connected to a language we know. That is not the experience for many Deaf people globally; reading written language means trying to decipher meaning that doesn't come naturally.)

Every Sunday, the church leaders brought out a Bible in the simplest English version they could find. Someone would try to read God’s Word in English, and then different people would go up to the front and try to help decipher what the text meant. It was a group effort and an arduous process, often ending with everyone in the church unsure if they understood the meaning of the passage.

At the next service, one of the DOOR 2-by-2 leaders was invited up to the front. He told the story of creation in Kenyan Sign Language, based on the Bible translation work of a Kenyan Sign Language team. After sharing the passage, he took the congregation through an interactive dialogue, and everyone participated. After the dialogue, Kennedy shared a few key lessons from the passage about the nature of God and of this world.

After the service ended, many people shared with the 2-by-2 leaders that they had felt connected to this passage on a new level. They didn’t know that the Bible could be this clear and understandable. The 2-by-2 leaders gave out SD cards with the Kenyan Sign Language Bible translation on them, and encouraged them to engage directly with God's Word in their heart language, both on their own and on Sundays.

This situation happens in many, many Deaf contexts around the world. It takes both a clear, accurate Bible translation in the local sign language, as well as trained Deaf leaders to model good discipleship, to see true transformation happen in these communities.

Help DOOR International continue to support both sign language Bible translation and training of Deaf leaders, two of the key ingredients to seeing gospel transformation in Deaf communities. Go to our website, https://doorinternational.org/give-a-gift to find out more information about how financial support can impact Deaf lives for eternity and for generations to come.