Your ASL journey
Language cannot wait.
The rest, you decide together. This is a plain-language map of the first years after you learn your child is Deaf or hard of hearing: what happens when, what you can start today, and how ASL fits with any other choice your family makes.
Jump to: Where we stand · The first weeks and birth to 3 · Ages 3 to 5 and the school years · Growing up · ASL and hearing technology · Read more
This page is general information written for families, not medical advice. Your child’s care team knows your child.
Where we stand
Three things we believe.
They shape everything on this page and in our classes.
Language from day one.
A child needs a full language as early as possible. ASL is a complete language your child can see and take in fully from the start, whatever their hearing and whatever devices they use. It should be offered right away, not held back until something else has been tried.
Not against devices. Against waiting.
We are not against hearing aids, cochlear implants, or speech. We are against a child going without language while the adults decide. Families choose devices and approaches with their medical team, and ASL never has to wait for those choices.
Your child’s voice grows.
Children grow into their own say over how they communicate, what they wear on their ears, and who they are. We want every child to have the words, in any language, to tell us what works for them.
What this page is not.
It is not medical advice, and it does not tell you what to choose. It gives you the timeline, the plain facts, the questions worth asking, and where to read more from more than one point of view.
The early years
The first weeks, and birth to 3.
Most of what matters in this stretch is simple to say and hard to do while you are tired: get the follow-up test, start language, and find your people.
The first weeks: screening and testing.
National goals are a hearing screening by 1 month, a full hearing evaluation by 3 months, and early intervention starting by 6 months. In Tennessee, the Department of Health sends a letter to every family whose baby did not pass the first screening. Call your baby’s doctor or a hearing provider right away to book the follow-up test; it is the step everything else waits on. Tennessee newborn screening program · The 1-3-6 timeline (CDC)
It is normal to feel a lot right now, including relief at finally knowing. None of it means you are behind.
What you can do this week. Book the follow-up test. If your baby is under 3, call the Tennessee Early Intervention System at (800) 852-7157; it is voluntary, at no cost, and any parent can refer. Learn five signs tonight (milk, more, all done, mom, dad) and use them at every feeding. Six things to know this week · Free ways to learn ASL at home
Birth to 3: language now, learning as a family.
Birth to 2 is a critical time for language and thinking for every child, and the months do not wait. Early intervention should follow your family’s preferences and goals, and you have a right to information about all the programs and approaches, not just one. What helps most is language in the everyday moments: meals, diaper changes, bedtime, the car, the grocery store. NAD on early language · JCIH 2019 guidelines
Who can help. TEIS brings services to your home. Tennessee Schools for the Deaf’s Deaf Mentor and Parent Advisor Program sends a Deaf mentor or a parent advisor to your home for children from birth to 5, in ASL or spoken English by your choice; spots are limited, so ask early. Tennessee Hands & Voices connects you with parents who have been here, with no bias about how your child communicates. TEIS · Deaf Mentor and Parent Advisor Program · Tennessee Hands & Voices
About devices. Hearing aids and cochlear implants are decisions you make with your audiologist and ENT, on the timeline they lay out for your child. Signing does not have to wait for any of it. How ASL and hearing technology fit together
Our classes. Our family classes are designed for this age: parents and caregivers learn alongside their children. See where classes stand
Preschool and school
Ages 3 to 5, and the school years.
Access at school is not a seat in the room. It is being able to follow everything, ask anything, and be understood.
Ages 3 to 5: preschool and the first IEP.
In Tennessee, public school special education services start at age 3, so the hand-off from early intervention to the school district begins before your child’s third birthday. Your district’s exceptional education office is the door. An IEP is the written plan for what your child will get, and TNSTEP, Tennessee’s parent training center, will walk you through it at no cost. TNSTEP
What you can do. Ask TEIS about the transition plan around your child’s second birthday. Ask the school what the communication plan will be, who on the team signs, and whether a Deaf adult can be part of it. Visit the West Tennessee School for the Deaf in Jackson, which serves preschool through grade 6 and hosts free family events. Keep signing at home; our family cohort for ages 3 to 6 is built so you keep learning together. West Tennessee School for the Deaf · Our family classes
School years: access, interpreters, and speaking up.
A child sitting in a classroom without full communication access is not really included. Ask what access looks like hour by hour: who interprets, how qualified they are, what happens at lunch, on the bus, on the field trip, in the fire drill.
Words worth practicing at home. “I missed that.” “Please face me.” “Please sign that.” “I need the interpreter.” “I do not understand.” “This is what works for me.” Children who can say these early carry them into every room for the rest of their lives.
Who can help. TNSTEP for IEP questions. The Tennessee Council’s regional centers in Memphis and Jackson for information and communication help. Our family cohorts for ages 7 to 10 and 10 and up, where the whole family keeps learning together. TNSTEP · Regional centers · Our family classes
Growing up
Identity, community, and their own choices.
Deaf adults are essential to a Deaf child’s sense of who they are. That is not a nice extra. It is part of the plan.
Deaf community and culture.
Deaf people have language, culture, history, art, humor, leadership, scholarship, careers, and families. A child who grows up around Deaf adults learns that a full life is not something to hope for; it is the normal thing. Family ASL events, Deaf mentors, storytimes, and community centers are where that starts. Deaf community in West Tennessee · National Association of the Deaf · Why Deaf adults matter to families (NCHAM)
Their own say.
By the teenage years, a Deaf young person should understand what an interpreter does, how to take part in their own IEP meeting, how to ask for accommodations, what transition planning is, and that their communication choices are theirs. That includes their devices: as they grow, they will have their own view of what works, and that voice is worth protecting.
What you can do. Bring your child into meetings about them early. Ask them what worked today and what did not. Meet Deaf adults who chose different paths, and let your child see that all of them are whole.
ASL and hearing technology
How they fit together.
Families ask us this more than anything else. Here is what the devices do, what is not in dispute, what the research honestly says, and questions worth taking to your care team.
What the devices do.
A hearing aid makes sounds louder. It does not restore normal hearing. A cochlear implant is placed by surgery and sends signals to the hearing nerve; it can give a useful representation of sound and help a person understand speech, and it does not restore normal hearing. Results range widely, from near-normal understanding of speech to no hearing benefit. Whether and when a child is a candidate, and for which device, is decided with the child’s medical team; approved ages are set device by device and have changed over time. Hearing aids (NIDCD) · Cochlear implants (NIDCD) · Benefits and risks (FDA)
What is not in dispute.
Every child needs a full language early. No single treatment or approach is the answer for every child or family, and the communication skills a family chooses can be used together with hearing aids, implants, and other devices. ASL reaches a Deaf child’s eyes completely from day one; it does not depend on surgery, batteries, a good day for the device, or how much sound gets through. Devices can add access to sound. They do not replace a language a child can take in whole. Treatment and intervention (CDC) · How people with hearing loss learn to communicate (CDC)
What the research says, honestly.
Studies on how early signing relates to spoken-language results for children with cochlear implants do not agree. A 2017 study reported better spoken-language results for implanted children who had no early sign exposure. A 2023 study found that children’s ASL vocabulary and spoken English vocabulary grew together, and found no evidence to support telling families to avoid sign language. Both kinds of study show patterns, not causes. Anyone who tells you the question is settled, in either direction, is telling you less than the whole story. The 2017 study (Pediatrics) · The 2023 study (JSLHR)
How families put it together.
Some families choose one approach. Others take building blocks from two or more. Many children sign and use devices; the National Association of the Deaf recommends ASL as early as possible in addition to access to spoken language through technology. Whatever you choose, and however it changes, your child can have ASL now. Building communication skills (CDC parent guide) · Early intervention (NAD)
Questions to take to your care team.
What does this device do, and not do, for my child’s hearing?
What does the timeline look like for us, and why?
What happens in the hours the device is off: bath, sleep, swimming, repairs?
How will my child have full language every day, with the device and without it?
Who on our team knows ASL, and who can connect us with Deaf adults?
Where can we hear from families who chose each path?
Read more
More than one point of view.
We say who each source is so you can weigh it. Every link was checked in September 2026.
Medical and device information.
Overviews that do not pick a side.
Groups that advocate for ASL access.
Position statement on early hearing detection and intervention (National Association of the Deaf)
ASL resources for families (American Society for Deaf Children)
Research briefs for parents (Gallaudet Visual Language and Visual Learning)
Deaf adults working with families.
Questions welcome
Wherever you are starting, your questions are welcome.
Send us a note. You do not need to know the right words to ask. Our family classes are where you learn with your child; see where classes stand.