The importance of teaching Deaf Community Cultural Wealth in family-centered sign language curricula
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Foreign language classes typically include cultural components, and signed languages are no exception. This paper describes a family-centered American Sign Language (ASL) curriculum designed specifically for hearing parents with young deaf children and its approach to teaching deaf culture. The authors suggest teaching Deaf Community Cultural Wealth (DCCW) from two perspectives. The first includes asking learners to reflect on their own personal experiences with cultural capital, then providing specific examples of resources for each type of capital from a deaf perspective. The second includes asking families to consider how they can apply each type of cultural capital to raising their deaf child. Families of deaf children are often criticized for their choices, but lessons on Deaf Community Cultural Wealth in family-centered signed language curricula provide the tools to resist this criticism.