Legislation introduced in Lansing would improve early childhood education, particularly in language development, for children with hearing impairments.
Supporters call the legislation, a bill of rights for deaf children. The proposal would provide parents with resources to teach hearing impaired children how to communicate when they’re still young.
State Representative Martin Howrylak sponsored the legislation. He said learning language typically comes easier for children ages zero to three.
“Language acquisition years, which are the years between ages zero and three, are critical years to ensure that children are ready for and can fully get a good quality education. If you can not communicate it’s a stumbling block to a good education”.
Howrylak said studies show hearing impaired students in K-12 classes often perform worse than their hearing classmates.
“If you look at the M-step scores deaf, deafblind, and hard of hearing students perform at a rate that is only about 40% that of hearing students. So, in other words the pass rate if you will is 36% for the total population and it’s only about 13% for the deaf. It’s actually a lower rate than the autistic population”.
Howrylak said the hope is that focusing on teaching communication to hearing impaired children while they’re toddlers will lead to better educational outcomes later in life.
Howrylak said the legislation has bipartisan support. He expects it to be voted on by the end of January.