prelingual

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,

Actually, you are prelingually deaf if you are deaf before langauge

development. Whether you can get enough benefit from hearing aids or CI's

to develop speech or not, you're still deaf. Also, speech is NOT language,

there is a difference between learning to speak and acquiring language.

Prelingually deafened individuals can develop language through the use of

residual hearing, CI's, and/or sign language. Deaf children can learn

speech through practice and training, whether they can hear the speech or

not. A prelingually deafened child is going to have a more difficult time

acquiring language than a postlingually deafened child, and they will

require different methods of education to ensure that they do, in fact,

acquire language rather than simply learning to speak. One of the reasons

for the average reading level of deaf high school graduates being the at 4th

grade level is because of the lack of language development before the age of

six. This is true of both prelingually Deaf adults and prelingually deaf

adults. Those children who are provided with the access to language, either

spoken or signed, before the age of six generally do quite well, and the

earlier the access to a complete language is provided, the better the

outcome.

Beth

The mere imparting of information is not education. Above all things, the

effort must result in making a man think and do for himself.-- G.

Woodson