The American sign language specialist: The development of a model position in deaf education

Abstract

Deaf children often lack signed language competence due to a lack of a rich linguistic environment in their homes during the critical language acquisition period. In order to facilitate language development in deaf children, signed language development programs should be staffed with appropriate personnel with a background in ASL acquisition. The American Sign Language (ASL) Specialist model has been proposed to meet the linguistic needs of deaf children. Results of the survey indicate that there are some positions in American deaf education that partially meet the proposed model. The objectives and responsibilities of those positions need to be refined so that the focus of the position is to facilitate linguistic, cognitive, social, and emotional development in deaf children prior to their learning English as a second language. This thesis also explores the possibility of establishing standards for a new profession of ASL Specialist.