scholarly journals No effects of modality in development of locative expressions of space in signing and speaking children

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (6) ◽  
pp. 1101-1131
Author(s):  
Beyza SÜMER ◽  
Aslı ÖZYÜREK
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Relations ◽  
Deaf Children ◽  
Sign Languages ◽  
Developmental Patterns ◽  
Spatial Expressions ◽  
Locative Expressions ◽  
Complex Forms ◽  
Description Task ◽  
Hearing Children ◽  
Representations Of Space

AbstractLinguistic expressions of locative spatial relations in sign languages are mostly visually motivated representations of space involving mapping of entities and spatial relations between them onto the hands and the signing space. These are also morphologically complex forms. It is debated whether modality-specific aspects of spatial expressions modulate spatial language development differently in signing compared to speaking children. In a picture description task, we compared the use of locative expressions for containment, support, and occlusion relations by deaf children acquiring Turkish Sign Language and hearing children acquiring Turkish (age 3;5–9;11). Unlike previous reports suggesting a boosting effect of iconicity, and/or a hindering effect of morphological complexity of the locative forms in sign languages, our results show similar developmental patterns for signing and speaking children's acquisition of these forms. Our results suggest the primacy of cognitive development guiding the acquisition of locative expressions by speaking and signing children.

Affixes and function words in the written language of deaf children

1988 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 385-401 ◽  
Author(s):  
Traute Taeschner ◽  
Antonella Devescovi ◽  
Virginia Volterra
Keyword(s):  
Written Language ◽  
Deaf Children ◽  
Deaf Students ◽  
Function Words ◽  
Developmental Patterns ◽  
Grammatical Aspect ◽  
Written Form ◽  
Hearing Children ◽  
And Function ◽  
Age Range

ABSTRACTThe goal of this article is to investigate whether the acquisition of some morpho-syntactic aspects in Italian deaf adolescents is simply delayed with respect to hearing children, or whether it follows significantly different developmental patterns. Twenty-five deaf students (age range: 11–15 years) and a group of 125 hearing controls (age range: 6–16 years) performed four tests, administered in written form, relative to different grammatical aspects: plurals, articles, and clitic pronouns. Results showed three different patterns of development depending on the grammatical aspect considered. Deaf children compared to hearing controls showed normal development in the pluralization task, delayed development in the pronoun task, and a qualitatively different pattern in the article task.

scholarly journals Using Spatial Image Schemata in the characterization of spatial relations

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Maria Engracinda dos Santos Ferreira ◽  
Luciene Stamato Delazari
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Spatial Relations ◽  
Spatial Description ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Spatial Image ◽  
Image Schemata ◽  
Locative Expressions ◽  
Description Task ◽  
Everyday Task

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> Spatially describing objects or environments is a natural and everyday task present in the daily lives of individuals. To portray the existing relationships between present elements of the scene described, it is necessary to use terms known as spatial relations. Frequently, such descriptions are performed using Natural Language (NL), both spoken and written. The existence of a constant interaction of human with the environment makes NL rich in terms that characterize space, resulting in a diversity of such words. The variety of terms used as spatial relations makes it difficult to implement spatial localization systems that use NL. Therefore, to understand how spatial relations are used, the present article aimed to detect and categorize such spatial relations. For this, an experiment of a spatial description of environments unknown by users was performed. The volunteers were native speakers of Brazilian Portuguese language and from the spatial descriptions were obtained locative expressions that allowed the definition and categorization of spatial relations using the Spatial Image Schemata. The results obtained demonstrated an attempt to understand the spatial relations used in spatial descriptions. In the future, we aim to define a set of spatial relations representative of the words used in a spatial description task.</p>

Psychosocial Development of Hard-of-Hearing Preschool Children

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina Jakhelln Laugen
Keyword(s):  
Early Intervention ◽  
Psychosocial Development ◽  
Hard Of Hearing ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Deaf Child ◽  
Deaf Children ◽  
Child Research ◽  
Universal Newborn Hearing Screening ◽  
Newborn Hearing ◽  
Hearing Children

In some respects, hard-of-hearing children experience the same difficulties as deaf children, whereas other challenges might be easier or more difficult to handle for the hard-of-hearing child than it would be for the deaf child. Research has revealed great variability in the language, academic, and psychosocial outcomes of hard-of-hearing children. Universal newborn hearing screening enables early identification and intervention for this group, which traditionally has been diagnosed rather late; however, best practices regarding the scope and content of early intervention have not yet been sufficiently described for hard-of-hearing children. This chapter summarizes the current knowledge concerning psychosocial development in hard-of-hearing children. Risk and protective factors, and their implications for early intervention, are discussed with a special emphasis on preschoolers.

People Are Less Susceptible to Illusion When They Use Their Hands to Communicate Rather Than Estimate

2021 ◽  
pp. 095679762199155
Author(s):  
Amanda R. Brown ◽  
Wim Pouw ◽  
Diane Brentari ◽  
Susan Goldin-Meadow
Keyword(s):  
American Sign Language ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
American Sign ◽  
Estimation Task ◽  
Sign Languages ◽  
Lyer Illusion ◽  
Description Task ◽  
The Way

When we use our hands to estimate the length of a stick in the Müller-Lyer illusion, we are highly susceptible to the illusion. But when we prepare to act on sticks under the same conditions, we are significantly less susceptible. Here, we asked whether people are susceptible to illusion when they use their hands not to act on objects but to describe them in spontaneous co-speech gestures or conventional sign languages of the deaf. Thirty-two English speakers and 13 American Sign Language signers used their hands to act on, estimate the length of, and describe sticks eliciting the Müller-Lyer illusion. For both gesture and sign, the magnitude of illusion in the description task was smaller than the magnitude of illusion in the estimation task and not different from the magnitude of illusion in the action task. The mechanisms responsible for producing gesture in speech and sign thus appear to operate not on percepts involved in estimation but on percepts derived from the way we act on objects.

scholarly journals Talker Discrimination by Prelingually Deaf Children with Cochlear Implants: Preliminary Results

2002 ◽  
Vol 111 (5_suppl) ◽  
pp. 113-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miranda Cleary ◽  
David B. Pisoni
Keyword(s):  
Cochlear Implants ◽  
Deaf Children ◽  
School Age Children ◽  
School Age ◽  
Sentence Condition ◽  
Language Outcome ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Hearing Children ◽  
Proportion Correct ◽  
Linguistic Content

Forty-four school-age children who had used a multichannel cochlear implant (CI) for at least 4 years were tested to assess their ability to discriminate differences between recorded pairs of female voices uttering sentences. Children were asked to respond “same voice” or “different voice” on each trial. Two conditions were examined. In one condition, the linguistic content of the sentence was always held constant and only the talker's voice varied from trial to trial. In another condition, the linguistic content of the utterance also varied so that to correctly respond “same voice,” the child needed to recognize that Two different sentences were spoken by the same talker. Data from normal-hearing children were used to establish that these tasks were well within the capabilities of children without hearing impairment. For the children with CIs, in the “fixed sentence condition” the mean proportion correct was 68%, which, although significantly different from the 50% score expected by chance, suggests that the children with CIs found this discrimination task rather difficult. In the “varied sentence condition,” however, the mean proportion correct was only 57%, indicating that the children were essentially unable to recognize an unfamiliar talker's voice when the linguistic content of the paired sentences differed. Correlations with other speech and language outcome measures are also reported.

scholarly journals Well-being, Opportunity, and Selecting for Disability

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Schroeder
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
Deaf Children ◽  
Disabled Children ◽  
Alternative Analysis ◽  
Opportunity Sets ◽  
Hearing Children ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

In this paper I look at the much-discussed case of disabled parents seeking to conceive (or “selecting for”) disabled children.  I argue that the permissibility of selecting for disability does not depend on the precise impact the disability will have on the child’s wellbeing.  I then turn to an alternative analysis, which argues that the permissibility of selecting for disability depends on the impact that disability will have on the child’s future opportunities.  Nearly all bioethicists who have approached the issue in this way have argued that disabilities like deafness unacceptably constrain a child’s opportunities.  I argue, however, that this conclusion is premature for several reasons.  Most importantly, we don’t have a good way of comparing opportunity sets.  Thus, we can’t conclude that deaf children will grow up to have a constrained set of opportunities relative to hearing children.  I conclude by suggesting that bioethicists and philosophers of disability need to spend more time thinking carefully about the relationship between disability and opportunity.  

scholarly journals Deaf children need language, not (just) speech

2019 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 367-395 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew L. Hall ◽  
Wyatte C. Hall ◽  
Naomi K. Caselli
Keyword(s):  
Sign Language ◽  
Cochlear Implants ◽  
Research Evidence ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Deaf Children ◽  
Full Potential ◽  
Sign Languages ◽  
Language Deprivation ◽  
Language Exposure ◽  
Harmful Effects

Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) children need to master at least one language (spoken or signed) to reach their full potential. Providing access to a natural sign language supports this goal. Despite evidence that natural sign languages are beneficial to DHH children, many researchers and practitioners advise families to focus exclusively on spoken language. We critique the Pediatrics article ‘Early Sign Language Exposure and Cochlear Implants’ (Geers et al., 2017) as an example of research that makes unsupported claims against the inclusion of natural sign languages. We refute claims that (1) there are harmful effects of sign language and (2) that listening and spoken language are necessary for optimal development of deaf children. While practical challenges remain (and are discussed) for providing a sign language-rich environment, research evidence suggests that such challenges are worth tackling in light of natural sign languages providing a host of benefits for DHH children – especially in the prevention and reduction of language deprivation.

Multimedia Dictionary and Synthesis of Sign Language

2011 ◽  
pp. 268-281 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franc Solina ◽  
Slavko Krapez ◽  
Ales Jaklic ◽  
Vito Komac
Keyword(s):  
American Sign Language ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
The United States ◽  
Written Language ◽  
Deaf Children ◽  
Deaf People ◽  
Sign Languages ◽  
Proper Nouns ◽  
Basic Meaning ◽  
The World

Deaf people, as a marginal community, may have severe problems in communicating with hearing people. Usually, they have a lot of problems even with such—for hearing people—simple tasks as understanding the written language. However, deaf people are very skilled in using a sign language, which is their native language. A sign language is a set of signs or hand gestures. A gesture in a sign language equals a word in a written language. Similarly, a sentence in a written language equals a sequence of gestures in a sign language. In the distant past deaf people were discriminated and believed to be incapable of learning and thinking independently. Only after the year 1500 were the first attempts made to educate deaf children. An important breakthrough was the realization that hearing is not a prerequisite for understanding ideas. One of the most important early educators of the deaf and the first promoter of sign language was Charles Michel De L’Epée (1712-1789) in France. He founded the fist public school for deaf people. His teachings about sign language quickly spread all over the world. Like spoken languages, different sign languages and dialects evolved around the world. According to the National Association of the Deaf, the American Sign Language (ASL) is the third most frequently used language in the United States, after English and Spanish. ASL has more than 4,400 distinct signs. The Slovenian sign language (SSL), which is used in Slovenia and also serves as a case study sign language in this chapter, contains approximately 4,000 different gestures for common words. Signs require one or both hands for signing. Facial expressions which accompany signing are also important since they can modify the basic meaning of a hand gesture. To communicate proper nouns and obscure words, sign languages employ finger spelling. Since the majority of signing is with full words, signed conversation can proceed with the same pace as spoken conversation.

The effect of sociolinguistic factors on variation in the Kata Kolok lexicon

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-88
Author(s):  
Katie Mudd ◽  
Hannah Lutzenberger ◽  
Connie de Vos ◽  
Paula Fikkert ◽  
Onno Crasborn ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Family Member ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Preliminary Evidence ◽  
Deaf Community ◽  
Sign Languages ◽  
Lexical Variation ◽  
Supplementary Material ◽  
Picture Description ◽  
Description Task

Abstract Abstract (International Sign) Sign languages can be categorized as shared sign languages or deaf community sign languages, depending on the context in which they emerge. It has been suggested that shared sign languages exhibit more variation in the expression of everyday concepts than deaf community sign languages (Meir, Israel, Sandler, Padden, & Aronoff, 2012). For deaf community sign languages, it has been shown that various sociolinguistic factors condition this variation. This study presents one of the first in-depth investigations of how sociolinguistic factors (deaf status, age, clan, gender and having a deaf family member) affect lexical variation in a shared sign language, using a picture description task in Kata Kolok. To study lexical variation in Kata Kolok, two methodologies are devised: the identification of signs by underlying iconic motivation and mapping, and a way to compare individual repertoires of signs by calculating the lexical distances between participants. Alongside presenting novel methodologies to study this type of sign language, we present preliminary evidence of sociolinguistic factors that may influence variation in the Kata Kolok lexicon.

The Development of Referential Communication in Deaf and Hearing Children: Competence and Style

1981 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 295-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesus Alegria
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Communicative Competence ◽  
Referential Communication ◽  
Deaf Children ◽  
Cognitive Problem ◽  
Communication Situation ◽  
Hearing Children

The paper examines the development of communicative competence in deaf children and its interactions with the use of gestures and/or words to comunicate. Deaf children, in addition to the cognitive problem involved in communication, must also choose a particular channel to produce the verbal and/or gestural message. In the first experiment the experimenter designated one out of four drawings to the "transmitter", who had to produce a message for the "receiver" to enable him to identify the drawing. The data show that (1) the use of gestures to communicate increases with age while the speech used remains constant, and (2) the amount of gestures used is correlated with communicative accuracy. A possible explanation of these data is that the increased use of gestures has a cognitive base: i.e., that it comes from a better understanding of the communication situation. Experiment 2 is aimed to test this hypothesis. The main results show that individual differences in communicative competence are correlated with the use of gestures but not with the use of speech, and that children increased the number of gestures, but not the number of words, when communication difficulty increased.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document