At a ceremony that took place last Thursday, the American linguist Donna Jo Napoli stressed the need for deaf children to acquire sign language right from the early years as a natural part of their personal development. Dr. Napoli made this statement in the context of the conference The right to language: Why all deaf children should be taught in sign language, on the importance of sign language in the development of deaf children, organized by the Catalan Sign Language Laboratory (LSC Lab) at UPF and the Directorate General for Language Policy.

At the same time, the American linguist warned of the risks of treating children diagnosed as deaf from an exclusively therapeutic viewpoint. In this regard, professor Napoli advocates an approach where sign language is always present in education to ensure children's proper cognitive development, which is especially important at between the ages of 0 and five years, when they acquire communication and language skills

The director general of Language Policy of the Department of Culture Ester Franquesa, and the director of the LSC Lab and ICREA research professor Josep Quer presented the conference to a large audience on the Poblenou campus. It was attended by specialists, lecturers and students of Catalan sign language, and representatives of various institutions for deaf and deafblind people in Catalonia. Among others, the Catalan Federation of Deaf People (FESOCA), the Association for the Dissemination of the Deaf Community (DIFUSORD), the Association of Parents of Deaf Children in Catalonia (APANSCE) and the Catalan Association for Deafblind People (APSOCECAT).

Catalan sign language is the language of the deaf and deafblind signers of Catalonia and is used by about 25,000 people.

A renowned specialist

Dr. Donna Jo Napoli is a professor at Swarthmore College (Pennsylvania) and a member of a team of specialists in education, linguistics, paediatric medicine and psychology. She has collaborated with several universities in the United States, such as Georgetown, Michigan North Carolina, among others. She is co-author of the article " Ensuring language acquisition for deaf children: What linguists can do", which aims to present the scientific arguments available to linguistics to defend the need to provide deaf children from the outset with a sign language, whether implemented or not, to ensure their language, social and psychological development.

Summary of the article in Catalan Sign Language