Deaf advocates and child abuse specialists gradually have become aware of a unique form of abuse. Neglect of an individual's communication needs can be severe enough to leave a person out of many fundamental aspects of a full life experience, including independence, self-care, self-protection, autonomy. decision-making, significant relationships, and family, and can result in serious emotional and functional impairments

Communication abuse is abuse of a child through the refusal of a caregiver or teacher to provide a language, the provision of an inadequate language, or the failure to provide full access to communication. Furthermore, communication abuse can include fostering an unhopeful or negative perspective toward the cultural group that uses American Sign Language (ASL) or depriving a child of the awareness of that cultural group's existence.

Although various forms of abuse can affect adults as well as children, our focus is on the impact of communication abuse on children, the expanding body of knowledge related to child abuse, and strategies for prevention. In addition, although communication abuse may affect children of any cultural group and children with various disabilities, our focus is on deaf culture, the unique needs of the deaf child, and aspects of communication abuse that affect deaf children and their culture. It should be noted that the above definition of communication abuse is an operational definition and will likely need revision as more research is done.

Communication abuse has been viewed as a socio-linguistic phenomenon. A socio-linguistic perspective of deaf people emphasizes the deaf person as bilingual and/or bicultural. This is to say that deaf people have the potential to sign, write, and/or know two languages-ASL and English-and to participate in both deaf and hearing cultures. The socio-linguistic perspective also emphasizes the need for awareness of cultural issues among deaf children acquiring ASL and/or English literacy.

A direct cause of communication abuse may be the medical perspective on deafness. This perspective defines a child, or his or her capacity to function, in terms of hearing deficits or defective ears. This view is fostered primarily by audiologists, speech and language pathologists, doctors, teachers, and administrators. Deaf children and their parents who unwittingly acquire this perspective may often generalize from the idea that the child's ears are defective to a belief that the child as a whole is defective.

This information on abuse of deaf children was taken from:
"Post Milan ASL & English Literacy: Issues, Trends & Research" Bruce D. Snider, Editor. For more information on communication abuse or abuse of deaf children contact: Advocacy Council on Abused Deaf Children, Amanda Somdal, Chair, Fax: (310) 829-8455 or Email: deaflcsw@socal.rr.com.