Family ASL:

Deaf Children and Hearing Parents Learning ASL Together

Diane Lillo-Martin, Deborah Chen Pichler, Elaine Gale

University of Connecticut; Gallaudet University; CUNY Hunter College

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Early language experiences of deaf children

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~95% of deaf children

have hearing parents who don’t know any sign language (DOH)

~5% of deaf children

have Deaf parents who already use a sign language (DOD)

Mitchell & Karchmer (2004) Mitchell et al. (2006); Compton (2014); slide courtesy of Wanette Reynolds

Variability and low outcomes for DOH children

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Niparko et al. (2010)

Some hearing parents learn to sign

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Hearing parents who use a sign language at home

(with or without spoken language)

When hearing parents learn to sign…

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…does signing obstruct deaf children’s English development?

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…can they support deaf children’s ASL development?

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The Family ASL project

• Hearing parents with DHH children

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• ASL specialist supports the family’s development in ASL

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• We observe development of ASL and spoken English

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Participants

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Families with hearing parents who use ASL with their DHH child ages 2-5

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ASL Services

An ASL specialist supports the family’s development in ASL through online meetings

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Methods

Tasks assess children’s development of ASL, English; and parents’ ASL.

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Results - Parents

American Sign Language Proficiency Interview (ASLPI)

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Interview format

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Conducted at end of one-year project with us

Typical distribution of scores for all test-takers in the US

Results - Parents and Children

ASL-CDI - A measure of ASL vocabulary

# of words unknown

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Task: Caselli et al. (2020), shortened version (100 signs)

Results - Children (ASL)

Visual Communication and Sign Language Checklist

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Task: Simms et al. (2013), Allen & Morere (2022); Results: Blau et al. (2025)

Results - Children (English)

English vocabulary comprehension (PPVT-5)

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Task: Dunn (2019)

Overall average:

92.5

Discussion

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sign language

cognitive development, social-emotional health, literacy,

academic success

Take-aways to support parents

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Take-aways to support parents

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The next presentation gives specific strategies!

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See also Caselli et al. (2021); Chen Pichler et al. (2024); Clark et al. (2020, 2024); Delcenserie et al. (2024); Hall et al. (2019); Humphries et al. (2013, 2019 ); Lieberman et al. (2022); Lillo-Martin et al. (2023); Pontecorvo et al. (2023, 2024)

Thank you!

This research could not take place without the support of participants and their families. THANK YOU all for your tireless support.

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Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R01DC016901. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

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References Cited

Allen, T. E., & Morere, D. A. (2022). Psychometric Characteristics of the Visual Communication and Sign Language Checklist. The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 27(3), 297–309. https://doi.org/10.1093/deafed/enac011

Blau, S., Chen Pichler, D., Gale, E., & Lillo-Martin, D. (2025). Sign Language Acquisition by Deaf Children with Hearing, Signing Families: Visual Communication and Vocabulary. Linguistic Society of America Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA.

Caselli, N. K., Lieberman, A. M., & Pyers, J. E. (2020). The ASL-CDI 2.0: An updated, normed adaptation of the MacArthur Bates Communicative Development Inventory for American Sign Language. Behavior Research Methods, 52, 2071–2084. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-020-01376-6

Caselli, N. K., Pyers, J., & Lieberman, A. M. (2021). Deaf children of hearing parents have age-level vocabulary growth when exposed to ASL by six-months. The Journal of Pediatrics, 232, 229–236. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2021.01.029

Chen Pichler, D., Conte, M. C., Creamer, P., Dale-Hench, M., Gale, E., Gan, L., Goodwin, C., Gu, S., Kraus, Lee, M. C.-Y., Lillo-Martin, D., Palmer, J. L., Petersen, B., & Shaw, M. (2024). Profile of a Family’s Bimodal Bilingual Development. In H. A. A. AlThagafi & J. Ray (Eds.), Proceedings of the 48th annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (pp. 158–168). Cascadilla Press.

Clark, M. D., Cue, K. R., Delgado, N. J., Greene-Woods, A. N., & Wolsey, J.-L. A. (2020). Early Intervention Protocols: Proposing a Default Bimodal Bilingual Approach for Deaf Children. Maternal and Child Health Journal. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-020-03005-2

Delcenserie, A., Genesee, F., & Champoux, F. (2024). Exposure to sign language prior and after cochlear implantation increases language and cognitive skills in deaf children. Developmental Science, 27(4). https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13481

Dunn, D. M. (2019). Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (5th ed.). NCS Pearson.

Greene, A. N., Goyette, D., Metcalf, H. V., Dixon, L. K., Eberwein, A. A., & Clark, M. D. (2024). Language is caught not taught: Parents’ use of bimodal bilingualism with their deaf children. International Journal of Bilingualism. https://doi.org/10.1177/13670069241287693

Hall, M. L., Hall, W. C., & Caselli, N. K. (2019). Deaf children need language, not (just) speech. First Language, 39(4), 367–395. https://doi.org/10.1177/0142723719834102

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References Cited

Humphries, T., Kushalnagar, P., Mathur, G., Napoli, D. J., Rathmann, C., & Smith, S. (2019). Support for parents of deaf children: Common questions and informed, evidence-based answers. International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology, 118, 134–142. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijporl.2018.12.036

Humphries, T., Kushalnagar, R., Mathur, G., Napoli, D. J., Padden, C., Rathmann, C., & Smith, S. (2013). The Right to Language. Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 41(4), 872–884. https://doi.org/10.1111/jlme.12097

Lieberman, A. M., Mitchiner, J., & Pontecorvo, E. (2024). Hearing parents learning American Sign Language with their deaf children: A mixed-methods survey. Applied Linguistics Review, 15(1), 309–333. https://doi.org/10.1515/applirev-2021-0120

Lillo-Martin, D. C., Gale, E., & Chen Pichler, D. (2023). Family ASL: An early start to equitable education for deaf children. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, 43(2), 156–166. https://doi.org/10.1177/02711214211031307

Mitchell, R. E., & Karchmer, M. A. (2004). Chasing the mythical ten percent: Parental hearing status of deaf and hard of hearing students in the United States. Sign Language Studies, 4(2), 138–163.

Mitchell, R. E., Young, T. A., Bachleda, B., & Karchmer, M. A. (2006). How many people use ASL in the United States? Why estimates need updating. Sign Language Studies, 6(3), 306–335. https://doi.org/10.1353/sls.2006.0019

Niparko, J. K., Tobey, E. A., Thal, D. J., Eisenberg, L. S., Wang, N.-Y., Quittner, A. L., & Fink, N. E. (2010). Spoken language development in children following cochlear implantation. JAMA, 303(15), 1498–1506.

Pontecorvo, E., Higgins, M., Mora, J., Lieberman, A. M., Pyers, J., & Caselli, N. K. (2023). Learning a sign language does not hinder acquisition of a spoken language. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 66(4), 1291–1308. https://doi.org/10.1044/2022_JSLHR-22-00505

Pontecorvo, E., Mitchiner, J., & Lieberman, A. M. (2024). Hearing parents as sign language learners: Describing and evaluating the ASL skills of parents learning ASL with their deaf children. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2024.2359634

Simms, L., Baker, S., & Clark, M. D. (2013). The standardized Visual Communication and Sign Language Checklist for signing children. Sign Language Studies, 14(1), 101–124. https://doi.org/10.1353/sls.2013.0029

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