Taalontwikkeling Door Middel Van Gebaren En Gebarentaal Harder, Rita,, 24, 81-89 (1986), doi = https://doi.org/10.1075/ttwia.24.09har, publicationName = John Benjamins, issn = 0169-7420, abstract= In the last few years many different studies have shed light on the cognitive and linguistic development of deaf children of deaf parents, using sign language.Since hearing loss does not influence a visual modality, the assumption was made that the linguistic development of deaf children of deaf parents, in the acquisition of sign language, should be normal.Research has shown that the way deaf children of deaf parents acquire sign language is similar to the way hearing children acquire their language. Both groups use the same semantic relations first in the same syntactic structures, the vocabulary and length of utterance expand in the same manner, and they show the same sort of overgeneralizations.As a result of studies concerning the language development of deaf children of deaf parents hometraining-programs for deaf children of hearing parents have reconsidered their approach concerning the use of signs in their programs, that is in the Total Communication philosophy they consider signs as an important part of the communication between hearing parents and their deaf children., language=, type=