My parents correctly believed that the illustrations would help us make the connection between the actions and the words. Our parents put a blackboard in our bedroom. They wrote on it different words each day from a picture dictionary. They read with us every night. Their activity and role served to make excellent readers and writers out of my brother and me.
Language learning through play is usually the best way.
For me, access to the hearing world was accomplished largely through literacy. Access does not mean mere physical presence or the ability to speak. It means being spiritually a part of a literate society. It is the ability to function and participate independently on one's own terms and within one's natural abilities. Access is the ability to fulfill one's own individual potential without artificial constraints.