Intelligence cannot be understood outside its cultural context

• In the Past, Hearing was the Baseline of Intelligence
• Psychologist deemed Deaf people less intelligent
• Deaf children experience language delays
• Deaf children and Adults have been misdiagnosed (having intellectual disabilities and being placed in inappropriate facilities/institutions)
• Concrete Thinkers: experience the world through familiar objects and events
• Abstract THinkers: find principles in recurring events and solve problems

Today, Deaf person are evaluated using nonverbal intelligence or IQ tests to assist in planning for educational, vocational, and mental health services.

"Language is a powerful system which we can use to translate thoughts and ideas into speech, signs, gestures, and written symbols... lack of access to language can create cognitive delays, mental health difficulties, lower quality of life, higher trauma, and limited health literacy... [furthermore], language can naturally unfold if the environment is set up so that spoken, signed, or tactile language can be acquired" (Irene W. Leigh et al., 2018, pg. 96-105)

• Lack of access to language can create cognitive delays, mental health difficulties, lower quality of life, higher trauma, and limited health literacy
• If children do not have a language, they cannot develop thinking and social skills to their maximum potential

Combined with cultural beliefs, the type and extent of sensory input impacts cognitive abilities, thinking, and language skills

Some forms of cognitive organization or thinking do not need language

Deaf, DeafDisable, and DeafBlind children access information through their available sensory avenues will provide for them their own unique path in developing thinking, language, and learning skills

Knowledge is acquired through conversation with others

The use of the senses -vision, touch, hearing- to acquire information, knowledge, develop language, cognitive abilities, and build concepts

Logical reasoning, numerical and spatial reasoning, critical thinking, empathy, use of analogy for learning, and creativity.

Cognitive abilities that use visual input and memory (i.e. visual attention, scanning visual material, forming pictures on their mind, detecting motion and recognizing faces)

Theory of Mind: Social and emotional development

Executive Funtion: organization and problem solving

Gestures:

• Language is not always accessible for Deaf children (who usually learn a formal sign language later in childhood)
• For hearing children, early gestures turn into spoken wrods about 1 year of age
• Both hearing and Deaf babies use gestures, vocalizations, naming of objects, and action to build communication that assists in their development of language, thinking, and social skills
• When symbolic behavior or language becomes important, some Deaf children experience delays

Multillingualism:

• Using three or more languages affects the structure of the brain as well as increases the brain's capacity for plasticity
• Bimodal bilinguals two different modaalities -signing and speaking) use different strategies as in the use of code-blends.
• Code-blend means both languages are blended together to form a communication exchange
• Code-switching means using one language and then changiing/switching to the second language within a sentence, paragraph, or longer segment of discourse
• Multilingualism is ideal for Deaf babies and children from multicultural homes
• The best time to receive exposure to multiple languages for children, both Deaf and hearing, is before age 5.