Greg Leigh is the director of NextSense which provides education and clinical services for deaf children and adults across the country, he says early education and language immersion is critical.
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00:00We know from decades of research that babies are critically primed very early on to develop
00:09the language of their community.
00:11We come into the world, we're ready to interact with our families, to hear language, to take
00:18part in that process, it's absolutely critical for the language learning process.
00:22So we want to start early, we need to get involved so that families can be part of that
00:28language learning process with their children, and to do that we need to be able to provide
00:33them with a means to communication, whether that's through hearing aids and cochlear implants
00:38or through access to sign language, or both.
00:41Typically in an early intervention program like the one at NexSense it will involve a weekly
00:46session with typically a specialist teacher of the deaf or a speech pathologist who will
00:53be engaged with the family, often through play, in promoting those language learning opportunities,
01:00but importantly in coaching families about how they can develop their child's language
01:04by participating in those opportunities.
01:07We know that we might get to see the child for two hours a week, but there's 80 hours plus
01:14a week where they can be part of that process guiding their child's language.