Now that we have your attention…

As a father of two toddlers who were born to Deaf parents, Ryder and Jordan, the movie “CODA” hit home.

It was wonderful to see appropriate representation from the Deaf community – Troy Kotsur was simply amazing as Frank Rossi, as were Marlee Matlin and Daniel Durant in their respective roles. For a change, it was simply nice to watch a movie that was largely in my primary language, American Sign Language (ASL).

While the Deaf community is split on the storyline and how Deaf individuals were portrayed, it is important to note that the story was clearly written for the broader audience, not necessarily to appease potential Deaf and hard of hearing viewers. Could they have done a better job with making sure the story was in line with the current times? Most definitely! Could they have done away with the daughter being an interpreter and the family’s “savior?” Of course!

But that’s a conversation for another day.

During the movie, I kept thinking about something that children of Deaf adults (CODAs) have that many deaf and hard of hearing children do not have: access to ASL and English, as well as Deaf culture.

I thought about how Ryder and Jordan have thrived with access to ASL and English, and how many other CODAs have strong academic skills due to their bilingual background.

On that note, Xinjie Chen and Amado Padilla discuss the beneficial outcomes of bilingualism and biculturalism in this September 2019 article published in Frontiers in Psychology, “Role of Bilingualism and Biculturalism as Assets in Positive Psychology: Conceptual Dynamic GEAR Model.” In this article, they highlighted how earlier research regarding bilingualism and biculturalism were flawed and incomplete. They also discussed how the beneficial outcomes of bilingualism and biculturalism can be “classified into four positive dimensions (psychological Growth; cognitive Exploration; linguistic Awareness; and social Reinforcement).”

With that said, why aren’t we extending the same opportunities to deaf and hard of hearing children?

These children need access to ASL and English, as well as Deaf culture.

Along these lines, in a Boston University article that discussed language acquisition for deaf children, it was suggested that many deaf children–perhaps as many as 70 percent–are deprived of language.

In February 2017, Dr. Wyatte Hall’s article “What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You: The Risk of Language Deprivation by Impairing Sign Language Development in Deaf Children” was published in the Maternal and Child Health Journal. In this article, Dr. Hall shared that the lack of language access for deaf children has numerous negative implications, including cognitive delays, mental health difficulties, lower quality of life, higher trauma, and limited health literacy. Unfortunately, as iterated by Dr. Hall, “Language deprivation, through the exclusion of a fully accessible visual language such as sign language, appears to be a more likely cause of poor language outcomes in deaf people.” Dr. Hall advised that the “priorities of deaf child development should focus on healthy growth of all developmental domains through a fully-accessible first language foundation such as sign language, rather than auditory deprivation and speech skills.”

As he accepted his Oscar win for Best Supporting Actor yesterday evening, Troy Kotsur emphasized that the world is now paying attention to Deaf people.

Let’s take it a step beyond giving the first Deaf man an Oscar and make sure every deaf and hard of hearing child is given access to ASL and English, as well as a bilingual education. Here’s a great place to start: National Association of the Deaf’s Position Statement On ASL and English Bilingual Education.