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In the UK there is a growing interest among hearing people to learn British Sign Language (BSL). Many mainstream schools are starting BSL clubs. This is a positive development in some ways as there is a shortage of BSL interpreters nationally and the more hearing people that have a basic knowledge of BSL the more inclusive our society will become for deaf people. However, this also highlights a contradiction, as many deaf children with cochlear implants are still denied access to sign language as a result of poor advice from professionals that learning sign language will be confusing for them or prevent them from learning to speak. Dr Maarte de Meulder, a leading Deaf academic, has argued that this is deeply problematic. Hearing children receive the benefits of BSL while deaf children are prevented from accessing language which could have multiple benefits for them (de Meulder, 2018). Dr Katie Rogers (University of Manchester) and Dr Kate Rowley (University College London), have recently made the case that there is no evidence that BSL has a detrimental impact on speech development or literacy (see O’Dell, 2025).

In fact, new research is showing that there are many benefits to deaf (and hearing) children in learning sign language. This is the case even if they go on to prefer to use spoken language as they get older. If they access sign language before they are six months old they can develop age-appropriate vocabularies (Casselli et al., 2021). There are also cognitive benefits to deaf children learning sign language. Multiple studies have shown enhanced visual-spatial abilities (see for example Kubicek & Quandt, 2021) and improvements in phonological working memory (Pierce, 2017). These aspects of brain development pave the way for future academic success.

Academic benefits

Recently, I was honoured to present at the conference. The conference marked 135 years of the (BDA) championing the rights of deaf people and safeguarding BSL. The focus of my presentation, and hence of this blog post, was how we can encourage schools to include sign languages more.

Photo credit: Charlie Swinborne Photography

For my presentation, I drew on a recent meta-analysis that we conducted last year on deaf children’s language learning. The meta-analysis (see Zhang et al., 2024) was led by my former colleague at Exeter University, Professor Dongbo Zhang, in collaboration with Dr Junhui Yang, a Deaf academic at the University of Central Lancashire, and Dr Sihui Ke from Hong Kong Polytechnic University. We analysed the cross-linguistic correlations between sign language skills and spoken and written language skills. The evidence was clear that deaf children’s second language development benefited from their first language signing skills. This was particularly the case for sign language skills such as fingerspelling and sign language comprehension which correlated with reading comprehension. We also found that the bilingual learning environment was associated with the strongest transfer effects for deaf children.

‘The evidence was clear that deaf children’s second language development benefited from their first language signing skills.’

However, only 27 per cent of specialist schools for deaf children in the UK follow a bilingual approach, according to their websites. The majority adopt a Total Communication, which means a flexible use of either English or BSL but often results in Sign Supported English in practice.

Emotional benefits

Sadly, we know that there is a growing mental health crisis among deaf young people. A recent study in Ireland (Mathews, 2024) showed that deaf young people have three times the rate of mental health difficulties as hearing young people. However, evidence shows that being a regular sign language user has emotional benefits and a positive effect on wellbeing (Pẽnacoba et al., 2020).

After my presentation, an older member of the Deaf community stood up, supported by her grandson, to express her frustration that so little had changed for deaf children over the years. I’m hopeful that the growing research interest in the benefits of sign language will finally contribute to positive change. It is clear that further research is needed into the benefits of bilingualism for deaf children. However, we also need to ensure that the new research is filtering through to professionals and families. My concern is how we can ensure that the growing interest in BSL benefits deaf children and the Deaf community and leads to much-needed improvements in deaf education.

See Zhang et al. (2024) for the full study including a BSL summary.

References

Caselli, N., Pyers, J., & Lieberman, A. M.(2021). Deaf children of hearing parents have age-level vocabulary growth when exposed to American Sign Language by 6 months of age. Journal of Pediatrics, 232, 229–236.

De Meulder, M. (2019). ‘So, why do you sign?’ Deaf and hearing new signers, their motivation, and revitalisation policies for sign languages. Applied Linguistics Review, 10(4), 705–724.

Kubicek, E., & Quandt, L. C. (2021). A positive relationship between sign language comprehension and mental rotation abilities. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 26(1), 1–12.

Mathews, E. S. (2024). Rates of socio-emotional difficulties among deaf and hard of hearing children in Ireland. Deafness & Education International, 27(3), 284–300.

O’Dell, L. (2025, July 19). ‘No evidence’ BSL harms speech or literacy, as researchers stress benefits of early access.

Peñacoba, C., Garvi, D., Gómez, L., & Álvarez, A. ( 2020). Emotional functioning, positive relationships, and language use in deaf adults. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 25(1), 22–32.

Pierce, L. J., Genesee, F., Delcenserie, A., & Morgan, G. (2017). Variations in phonological working memory: Linking early language experiences and language learning outcomes. Applied Psycholinguistics, 38(6), 1265–1300.

Zhang, D., Ke, S., Yang, J., & Anglin-Jaffe, H. (2024). Sign language in d/deaf students’ spoken/written language development: A research synthesis and meta-analysis of cross-linguistic correlation coefficients. Review of Education, 12(3), article e70016.