Your child needs to communicate with you and other family members as soon as possible. Early language helps your child feel connected, secure and understood. Whether through spoken language, sign language, or both — what matters most is that your child can share moments, emotions, and needs with you.
Language isn’t just for talking — it helps your child develop essential thinking skills. It’s how they understand how things work, solve problems, and express themselves. A child’s ability to learn and grow in other areas — emotionally, socially, and intellectually — can be affected without access to language.
Language helps your child make sense of everything around them. From naming objects to asking questions and understanding your answers, language gives them the tools to explore and appreciate their environment.
Just like every other child, your deaf child needs to be able to communicate with the people who matter in their lie — family, friends, teachers, and the wider community. Whether they use sign language, spoken language, or both, the most important thing is that communication is clear and shared.
Language development takes place in the context of a child’s everyday world—shaped by their surroundings, relationships, and the language they see and hear around them.
Language, social, and cognitive development are all closely connected. As children learn to communicate, they’re also building their thinking skills and learning how to relate to others. Each area supports the others as they grow.
Children’s early experiences play a big role in how their language develops. The people they interact with and the language they’re exposed to all help shape their language journey from the very beginning.
All natural languages—whether spoken or signed, and no matter the country or culture—are learned in similar ways. Children pick them up through interaction, exposure, and meaningful communication with the people around them.
