A functional approach to self-points and self-reference in a deaf signing child and the (dis)continuity issue in child language

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-140
Author(s):  
Stéphanie Caët ◽  
Fanny Limousin ◽  
Aliyah Morgenstern
Keyword(s):  
American Sign Language ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Deaf Child ◽  
Deaf Children ◽  
Language Abilities ◽  
Complex Syntax ◽  
Hearing Children ◽  
Reversal Errors ◽  
Self Reference

Abstract Based on her observation of two deaf children acquiring American Sign Language (ASL) who stopped pointing to persons at around 12 months and then produced reversal errors, Petitto (1987) argued that the discontinuous development of gestures and signs gives support to the hypothesis that language does not arise from general cognitive processes. However, since then, a large amount of studies on hearing children have suggested that early pointing was strongly related to later language abilities. In this paper, we follow up on these socio-cognitive approaches, with a dataset comparable to Petitto’s. We study the development of pointing and self-reference in a deaf child acquiring French Sign Language (LSF). We focus on self-reference rather than self-points, and suggest that, despite the apparent discontinuity in the production of self-points, there is continuity in the establishment of self-reference. In our data, the child produces self-points early on. She then uses predicates without overt subject before entering more complex syntax by combining predicates and self-points. The deaf signing child constructs self-reference similarly to speaking children and uses specific forms provided by her linguistic environment according to her cognitive, social and linguistic development.

Language and Reading Comprehension Abilities of Elementary School-Aged Deaf Children

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 159-169
Author(s):  
Peter K Crume ◽  
Amy Lederberg ◽  
Brenda Schick
Keyword(s):  
Bilingual Education ◽  
American Sign Language ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Sixth Grade ◽  
Deaf Children ◽  
American Sign ◽  
Education Programs ◽  
Language Abilities ◽  
Language Of Instruction ◽  
Significant Difference

Abstract Bilingual education programs for deaf children have long asserted that American Sign Language (ASL) is a better language of instruction English-like signing because ASL is a natural language. However, English-like signing may be a useful bridge to reading English. In the present study, we tested 32 deaf children between third and sixth grade to assess their capacity to use ASL or English-like signing in nine different languages and reading tasks. Our results found that there was no significant difference in the deaf children’s ability to comprehend narratives in ASL compared to when they are told in English-like signing. Additionally, language abilities in ASL and English-like signing were strongly related to each other and to reading. Reading was also strongly related to fingerspelling. Our results suggest that there may be a role in literacy instruction for English-like signing as a supplement to ASL in deaf bilingual schools.

Developing Sign Language Measurements for Research With Deaf Populations

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Henner ◽  
Robert Hoffmeister ◽  
Jeanne Reis
Keyword(s):  
American Sign Language ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Hard Of Hearing ◽  
Assessment Instrument ◽  
Deaf Children ◽  
American Sign ◽  
Language Deprivation ◽  
Signed Language ◽  
Language Assessments ◽  
Hearing Children

Limited choices exist for assessing the signed language development of deaf and hard of hearing children. Over the past 30 years, the American Sign Language Assessment Instrument (ASLAI) has been one of the top choices for norm-referenced assessment of deaf and hard of hearing children who use American Sign Language. Signed language assessments can also be used to evaluate the effects of a phenomenon known as language deprivation, which tends to affect deaf children. They can also measure the effects of impoverished and idiosyncratic nonstandard signs and grammar used by educators of the deaf and professionals who serve the Deaf community. This chapter discusses what was learned while developing the ASLAI and provides guidelines for educators and researchers of the deaf who seek to develop their own signed language assessments.

BILINGUALISM AND IDENTITY IN DEAF COMMUNITIES. Melanie Metzger (Ed.). Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, 2000. Pp. xii + 317. $55.00 cloth.

2002 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 497-497
Author(s):  
Christine Monikowski
Keyword(s):  
American Sign Language ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Deaf Child ◽  
Deaf Children ◽  
Washington Dc ◽  
Deaf People ◽  
Deaf Community ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Semiotic Analysis ◽  
Linguistic Rights

In this volume of the Sociolinguistics in Deaf Communities series, Metzger has edited 11 diverse topics addressing two themes: the perception of Deaf people and Deaf communities, and bilingualism. Deaf people's perception of themselves and their community is explored by authors who discuss an excellent array of topics, ranging from “miracle cures” for Deaf children in Mexico to the nature of name signs in the New Zealand Deaf community; from the linguistic rights of Deaf people in the European Union to a search for the roots of the Nicaraguan Deaf community; from a semiotic analysis of Argentine Sign Language to an analysis of how a Deaf child (American Sign Language) and his hearing family (English) make sense of each other's world views.

The Development of Semantic Associations in Profoundly Deaf Children

1973 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 309-318 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan D. Tweney ◽  
Harry W. Hoemann
Keyword(s):  
American Sign Language ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Word List ◽  
Deaf Children ◽  
American Sign ◽  
Paradigmatic Shift ◽  
Language System ◽  
Semantic Associations ◽  
Lexical Items ◽  
Hearing Children

Studies of the development of associations in profoundly deaf children using English words and English associations have not presented clear evidence of a syntagmatic-paradigmatic shift. This study used stimulus words in and allowed responses in American Sign Language. Forty-Six profoundly deaf children (CA 9–CA 13) were tested and compared to 30 hearing children (CA 7, CA 9, CA 13) given the same word list in English. Both groups manifested a clear syntagmatic-paradigmatic shift, though the level of paradigmatic responding was lower for deaf children, suggesting quantitative but not qualitative differences. The results provide clear evidence for a syntagmatic-paradigmatic shift in deaf children’s American Sign Language lexical items, in contrast to previous reports using English lexical items. The results further suggest that evaluation of a deaf child’s psycholinguistic functioning may be more appropriate when conducted in the child’s aominant language system, whether sign language or English.

The Acquisition of Question Formation in Spoken English and American Sign Language by Two Hearing Children of Deaf Parents

1979 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 196-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael L. Jones ◽  
Stephen P. Quigley
Keyword(s):  
American Sign Language ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Dual Language ◽  
Deaf Children ◽  
American Sign ◽  
Spoken English ◽  
Deaf Parents ◽  
Question Formation ◽  
Hearing Children ◽  
Parallel Fashion

This longitudinal study investigated the acquisition of question formation in spoken English and American Sign Language (ASL) by two young hearing children of deaf parents. The linguistic environment of the children included varying amounts of exposure and interaction with normal speech and with the nonstandard speech of their deaf parents. This atypical speech environment did not impede the children’s acquisition of English question forms. The two children also acquired question forms in ASL that are similar to those produced by deaf children of deaf parents. The two languages, ASL and English, developed in parallel fashion in the two children, and the two systems did not interfere with each other. This dual language development is illustrated by utterances in which the children communicated a sentence in spoken English and ASL simultaneously, with normal English structure in the spoken version and sign language structure in the ASL version.

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.

The Development of American Sign Language–Based Analogical Reasoning in Signing Deaf Children

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-105
Author(s):  
Jon Henner ◽  
Rama Novogrodsky ◽  
Catherine Caldwell-Harris ◽  
Robert Hoffmeister
Keyword(s):  
American Sign Language ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Analogical Reasoning ◽  
Developmental Trajectory ◽  
Home Language ◽  
Deaf Children ◽  
Chronological Age ◽  
American Sign ◽  
Reasoning Abilities ◽  
Development Of Language

Purpose This article examines whether syntactic and vocabulary abilities in American Sign Language (ASL) facilitate 6 categories of language-based analogical reasoning. Method Data for this study were collected from 267 deaf participants, aged 7;6 (years;months) to 18;5. The data were collected from an ongoing study initially funded by the U.S. Institute of Education Sciences in 2010. The participants were given assessments of ASL vocabulary and syntax knowledge and a task of language-based analogies presented in ASL. The data were analyzed using mixed-effects linear modeling to first see how language-based analogical reasoning developed in deaf children and then to see how ASL knowledge influenced this developmental trajectory. Results Signing deaf children were shown to demonstrate language-based reasoning abilities in ASL consistent with both chronological age and home language environment. Notably, when ASL vocabulary and syntax abilities were statistically taken into account, these were more important in fostering the development of language-based analogical reasoning abilities than were chronological age and home language. We further showed that ASL vocabulary ability and ASL syntactic knowledge made different contributions to different analogical reasoning subconstructs. Conclusions ASL is a viable language that supports the development of language-based analogical reasoning abilities in deaf children.

Discovering sign language

2019 ◽  
pp. 81-90
Author(s):  
François Grosjean
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
American Sign Language ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Research Program ◽  
Deaf Child ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Sign ◽  
The World ◽  
Set Up ◽  
The Right

The author discovered American Sign Language (ASL) and the world of the deaf whilst in the United States. He helped set up a research program in the psycholinguistics of ASL and describes a few studies he did. He also edited, with Harlan Lane, a special issue of Langages on sign language, for French colleagues. The author then worked on the bilingualism and biculturalism of the deaf, and authored a text on the right of the deaf child to become bilingual. It has been translated into 30 different languages and is known the world over.

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