ABSTRACT

It is unknown if the developmental path of antonym knowledge in deaf children increases continuously with age and correlates with reading comprehension, as it does in hearing children. Using a receptive multiple-choice American Sign Language (ASL) antonym test, antonym knowledge depended more strongly on age for deaf children with deaf parents (DCDP) than for deaf children with hearing parents (DCHP). This indicates more developmentally typical acquisition for DCDP, consistent with early natural language exposure. Multiple regressions demonstrated that ASL antonym knowledge eliminated the advantage of deaf parents for reading. This establishes the strong language effect of ASL.