News Neuroscience

Early exposure to signing helps deaf kids on mental task

Developing language skills from birth has benefits in adulthood, study finds

little girl looking at signs

EARLY SIGNS  Exposure to signing before age 3 can boost brainpower in deaf children, a new study suggests.

Susan Stevenson/Shutterstock

By Laura Sanders

- More than 2 years ago

WASHINGTON — Deaf children who learn to sign early may boost their brainpower in ways unrelated to language.

“Most deaf children are born to hearing families, and most hearing parents do not sign with their newborn deaf children,” clinical neuropsychologist Peter Hauser, who is deaf, explained February 12 at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.