Challenges and Opportunities With Deaf Multilingual Learners

Introduction

There are an estimated 34 million children worldwide with hearing loss greater than 40dB (WHO, 2020), and this number is rising (Olusanya et al., 2019). It is a well-known fact that around 90% of children who are Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing (DHH) are born to parents with typical hearing (Mitchell & Karchmer, 2004). Due to this, there are often questions as to what language the child who is DHH could and should learn. While some argue that children who are DHH should learn sign language (Humphries et al., 2016; Humphries et al., 2018; Murray et al., 2018), others argue that these children are capable of learning spoken language (Fulcher et al., 2012; Geers et al., 2011; Moog et al., 2011). However, what is known is that for typically hearing parents who had no prior knowledge of sign language, the idea of having to learn another language to use with their children can be very daunting. Additionally, as the world becomes more bilingual or multilingual, many children who are DHH may live in a culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) community where the home language is not the same language as the community at large; these children are known as DHH Multilingual Learners (DMLs) (Cannon et al., 2016; Special Eurobarometer, 2006). This can cause additional potential language and cultural learning constraints on immigrant parents who are not yet familiar with their new community’s spoken language(s) and culture(s) and may also need to learn their new community’s sign language and culture (Alfano, 2018). This can result in an ever-increasing need for professionals who work with DMLs (e.g., educators, teachers of the deaf, therapists, early interventionists, etc.) to provide effective interventions that maximizes the engagement of minority language-speaking caregivers of DMLs (Kohnert et al., 2005). The purpose of this chapter is to describe the challenges faced by DMLs and what the opportunities can be to best serve DMLs and their families.