Abstract
Education of deaf children has shifted from the previous oral approach aimed at acquisition of spoken language to the era of bilingual education using sign language. Initially, signed Japanese that corresponds to Japanese was adopted in the field of education of deaf children. Thereafter, reassessment of Japanese sign language, which has a different grammatical structure from Japanese, has raised an issue over which of the two sign languages is more suitable. Anyway, the value of sign language on education of deaf children needs to be considered in the relationships with Japanese literacy education. The reason is that deaf children are placed in the unavoidable reality of subject learning based on learning of textbooks written by character text. Therefore, both sign language and written language are essential elements in that reality.
