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If you would like to print or have trouble reading on the black background, the entire paper is also available in a black-on-white printable format. The deaf present a unique challenge to educational systems. The inability of deaf children to hear leads to potential deficiencies and delays in their learning in a typical classroom setting. Comprehension of spoken language presents an obvious hurdle to the deaf student. In an oral-only classroom, they understand less than half of all utterances made by the teacher (Schirmer 2001). Deaf students also have a harder time learning to read and write because of their inability to connect spoken and written language (Bellugi, Tzeng, Klima, and Folk, 1989). Such delays in comprehension and literacy often lead to delays in math and science because of the inability of curriculum created for hearing students to bridge the gaps in language that the deaf often experience (Nunes and Moreno, 2002; Yore, 2000). While there are numerous potential weaknesses for deaf learners, they can develop certain advantages. Many of the deaf use sign language as their primary form of communication.* The unique traits of sign language provide the deaf with potential benefits which can be used to improve their learning. Next Section: Sign as a Visuo-Spatial Language *In this paper, sign language refers to natural sign systems which have developed naturally among the deaf and not artificial sign systems that have been created outside of deaf communities to mimic spoken languages. American Sign Language is one such example of a natural sign system; these sign systems tend to be preferred forms of communication among the deaf (Meyer and Akamatsu, 1999).
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