American Sign Language and English Proficiency among Children with Disabilities

Abstract

A continuous cycle of mistreated children is being neglected in the education system. The debate on using American Sign Language (ASL) as a teaching mechanism in the education system for disabled children is ongoingly debated without a decisive conclusion. In order to advance this field of study and promote impartiality to disabled children in their educational pursuits, this
study pitches this question: how does teaching in ASL impact the English grades of children with disabilities? A case study revealed many research papers, experiments, and studies that persistently contrasted each other. One paper detailed the negative side effects of learning ASL as a first language on the children’s English language skills while another asserted ASL as
directly factoring to improvements in the children’s English proficiency. Based on this case study, a methodology and study design are spelled out circling on applying a field experiment with a control group and an experimental group dividing up a section of 16-18 year-old children with autism, dyslexia, and deafness. In this experiment, the control and experimental groups will receive teaching on an English language skill, one in pure English and the other in ASL. Once the lesson is concluded, both groups will partake in a pop quiz and the results are compared. The expected result is a positive correlation between ASL and English proficiency.