A New Brunswick mother has written to the federal government to ask that sign language become the third official language of Canada.

Heather Chandler of Saint John says American Sign Language has greatly helped her family communicate with their four-year-old daughter, Allison, who was born deaf.

"It's really made our family solid,” she said. “My son calls it our super power … We don't have to yell across rooms.”

Chandler wrote to the federal government and received word that her request had been forwarded to Minister of Canadian Heritage Melanie Joly.

Documents obtained by The Canadian Press last year, showed the federal Liberals were studying sign language legislation in other countries, such as New Zealand, Scotland and Sweden.

In Canada, such legislation would likely require federal information and services to be available in American Sign Language and Quebec Sign Language, in addition to English and French.

The change could be an expensive undertaking to serve a relatively small number of people. Statistics Canada found in 2011 that fewer than 25,000 people use sign languages on a regular basis at home.

Still, Lynn LeBlanc, Executive Director of Saint John Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services Inc., says official language status would open doors for the hearing impaired and should be supported.

LeBlanc says official language status would provide the hearing impaired with more opportunities in education and employment, and allow them “to finally be recognized as a cultural linguistic minority.”

With a report from CTV Atlantic’s Mary Cranston