7. Use of Manual Signs and Gestures by Hearing Persons

2020 ◽  
pp. 235-280
Author(s):  
John D. Bonvillian ◽  
Nicole Kissane Lee ◽  
Tracy T. Dooley ◽  
Filip T. Loncke
Keyword(s):  
Intervention Strategy ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Language Performance ◽  
Cognitive Domains ◽  
Effective Intervention Strategy ◽  
Academic Settings ◽  
Hearing Children ◽  
Iconic Signs ◽  
Deaf Persons

In Chapter 7, the authors change focus from the use of signs by deaf persons and with individuals with disabilities to how signing may enhance the learning and processing of spoken language by typically developing hearing children and adults. The first topic examined is the use of signs to foster infants’ and young children’s acquisition of their principal spoken language. Signs may further serve as an effective intervention strategy in academic settings for children with ADHD or as a means to improving vocabulary acquisition and reading comprehension for children who lag behind their age group on various language performance measures. Iconic signs and representative gestures may also be used to facilitate the acquisition of foreign language vocabulary when the signs are paired with the to-be-learned words. Finally, various studies concerning the positive benefits of learning to sign promote the possibility that using the visual-gestural modality may confer increased skills in various cognitive domains such as spatial memory, mental rotation, and facial discrimination.

scholarly journals Properties of Spoken Persuasive Language Samples From Typically Developing Adolescents

2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 441-456 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Heilmann ◽  
Thomas O. Malone ◽  
Marleen F. Westerveld
Keyword(s):  
Latent Variables ◽  
The United States ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Performance Data ◽  
Persuasive Communication ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Language Performance ◽  
Language Sampling ◽  
Persuasive Discourse ◽  
Language Measures

Purpose Persuasive communication skills are vital for achieving success in school, at work, and in social relationships. To facilitate assessment of persuasive discourse, we developed a clinically feasible persuasive speaking protocol and used it to compile a database of language samples. This database allowed us to describe the properties of adolescents' persuasive speaking skills. Method We collected spoken language samples from 179 typically developing students in Grades 8–12, recruited from the United States and Australia. Participants were asked to persuade an authority figure to make a change in a rule or policy. Results Language performance data reflecting both microstructural and macrostructural properties of spoken language were summarized and broken down by grade. We completed a factor analysis that documented three latent variables (syntax, discourse difficulties, and content). To test the validity of the persuasive measures, a subset of the participants completed an additional battery of assessments, which revealed weak to moderate relationships between the persuasive measures, general language ability, and working memory. There was no significant relationship between the persuasive language measures and an assessment of personality. Conclusion Our persuasive language sampling protocol facilitated the collection of valid language performance data. The summary data can be used as benchmarks for clinical evaluations of adolescents suspected of having language difficulties.

3. Deaf Persons and Sign Languages

2020 ◽  
pp. 55-92
Author(s):  
John D. Bonvillian ◽  
Nicole Kissane Lee ◽  
Tracy T. Dooley ◽  
Filip T. Loncke
Keyword(s):  
American Sign Language ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Historical Development ◽  
The United States ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Sign Languages ◽  
Distinct Structure ◽  
Hearing Children ◽  
Deaf Persons ◽  
International Conventions

Chapter 3 introduces the reader to various aspects of sign languages, including their historical development and use within educational contexts by Deaf communities in Europe and the United States. Also covered is the initiation of the field of sign language linguistics by William C. Stokoe, a linguist who systematically proved that American Sign Language (ASL) was indeed a language with its own distinct structure and properties that differed from any spoken language. The phonological parameters of signs receive considerable attention, highlighting ways in which the unique properties of sign languages allow them to represent meaning in ways that are more consistently transparent and iconic than similar phenomena in the speech modality. Despite these similarities across sign languages, the differences among the sign languages of the world led Deaf persons to create and develop the lingua franca of International Sign (previously Gestuno) for use at international conventions. Finally, the similarities and distinctions between the processes of language development and acquisition across the modalities of speech and sign are discussed, as well as how signing benefits the learning of spoken language vocabulary by hearing children.

Similar use of intonation structure in early implanted children and hearing children: The case of Italian

2021 ◽  
pp. 014272372098605
Author(s):  
Paola Zanchi ◽  
Laura Zampini ◽  
Luca Pancani ◽  
Roberta Berici ◽  
Mariapaola D’Imperio
Keyword(s):  
Chronological Age ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Control Groups ◽  
Generation Task ◽  
Story Generation ◽  
Italian Children ◽  
Children's Stories ◽  
Hearing Children ◽  
First Time

This work presents an analysis of the intonation competence in a group of Italian children with cochlear implant (CI). Early cochlear implantation plays a crucial role in language development for children who were born deaf in that it favours the acquisition of complex aspects of language, such as the intonation structure. A story-generation task, the Narrative Competence Task, was used to elicit children’s stories. Narrations produced by 8 early implanted children and by 16 children with typically hearing (TH) (8 one-to-one matched considering the chronological age, TH-CA, and 8 considering the hearing age, TH-HA) were analysed considering intonation features (pitch accent distribution, edge tones and inner breaks). Results show that children with CI produce intonation patterns that are similar to those of both TH-CA and TH-HA control groups. Few significant differences were found only between children with CI and children matched for TH-HA in the use of rising edge tones. These results are discussed in light of the role of cognitive development in using prosody and intonation and the importance of early CI implantation. This study shows for the first time that intonation use of early implanted children is not different from that of typically developing children with the same chronological age.

Discussion of Issues Related to Assessment of Signed or Spoken Language Development in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

2021 ◽  
pp. 145-152
Author(s):  
Amy Kissel Frisbie ◽  
Aaron Shield ◽  
Deborah Mood ◽  
Nicole Salamy ◽  
Jonathan Henner
Keyword(s):  
Language Development ◽  
Developmental Disorders ◽  
Language Assessment ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Pragmatic Language ◽  
Signed Language ◽  
Pragmatic Language Skills ◽  
Language Assessments ◽  
Hearing Children

This chapter is a joint discussion of key items presented in Chapters 4.1 and 4.2 related to the assessment of deaf and hearing children on the autism spectrum . From these chapters it becomes apparent that a number of aspects associated with signed language assessment are relevant to spoken language assessment. For example, there are several precautions to bear in mind about language assessments obtained via an interpreter. Some of these precautions apply solely to D/HH children, while others are applicable to assessments with hearing children in multilingual contexts. Equally, there are some aspects of spoken language assessment that can be applied to signed language assessment. These include the importance of assessing pragmatic language skills, assessing multiple areas of language development, differentiating between ASD and other developmental disorders, and completing the language evaluation within a developmental framework. The authors conclude with suggestions for both spoken and signed language assessment.

Establishing a Bimodal Bilingual Co-Enrollment Program in Germany: Preconditions, Policy, and Preliminary Data

2019 ◽  
pp. 149-164
Author(s):  
Johannes Hennies ◽  
Kristin Hennies
Keyword(s):  
Sign Language ◽  
Hard Of Hearing ◽  
Preliminary Data ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
The Political ◽  
Bilingual Programs ◽  
Regular School ◽  
Schools For The Deaf ◽  
Hearing Children

In 2016, the first German bimodal bilingual co-enrollment program for deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) students, CODAs, and other hearing children was established in Erfurt, Thuringia. There is a tradition of different models of co-enrollment for DHH children in a spoken language setting in Germany, but there has been no permanent program for co-enrollment of DHH children who use sign language so far. This program draws from the experience of an existing model in Austria to enroll a group of DHH children using sign language in a regular school and from two well-documented bimodal bilingual programs in German schools for the deaf. The chapter describes the preconditions for the project, the political circumstances of the establishment of bimodal bilingual co-enrollment, and the factors that seem crucial for successful realization.

scholarly journals A unified neurocomputational bilateral model of spoken language production in healthy participants and recovery in poststroke aphasia

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (51) ◽  
pp. 32779-32790
Author(s):  
Ya-Ning Chang ◽  
Matthew A. Lambon Ralph
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Language Production ◽  
Right Hemisphere ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Partial Recovery ◽  
Language Performance ◽  
Unified Framework ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Formal Basis ◽  
Healthy Participants

Understanding the processes underlying normal, impaired, and recovered language performance has been a long-standing goal for cognitive and clinical neuroscience. Many verbally described hypotheses about language lateralization and recovery have been generated. However, they have not been considered within a single, unified, and implemented computational framework, and the literatures on healthy participants and patients are largely separated. These investigations also span different types of data, including behavioral results and functional MRI brain activations, which augment the challenge for any unified theory. Consequently, many key issues, apparent contradictions, and puzzles remain to be solved. We developed a neurocomputational, bilateral pathway model of spoken language production, designed to provide a unified framework to simulate different types of data from healthy participants and aphasic patients. The model encapsulates key computational principles (differential computational capacity, emergent division of labor across pathways, experience-dependent plasticity-related recovery) and provides an explanation for the bilateral yet asymmetric lateralization of language in healthy participants, chronic aphasia after left rather than right hemisphere lesions, and the basis of partial recovery in patients. The model provides a formal basis for understanding the relationship between behavioral performance and brain activation. The unified model is consistent with the degeneracy and variable neurodisplacement theories of language recovery, and adds computational insights to these hypotheses regarding the neural machinery underlying language processing and plasticity-related recovery following damage.

The Efficacy of Phonological Awareness Intervention for Children With Spoken Language Impairment

2000 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 126-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gail T. Gillon
Keyword(s):  
Phonological Awareness ◽  
Speech Production ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Reading Development ◽  
Control Program ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Language Intervention ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Speech And Language

Purpose:This study investigated the efficacy of an integrated phonological awareness intervention approach for children with spoken language impairment (SLI) who demonstrated early reading delay. Ninety-one, 5- to 7-year-old New Zealand children participated in this study: 61 children with SLI and 30 children with typically developing speech and language skills. All of the children with language impairment exhibited expressive phonological difficulties and some also had delayed semantic and syntactic development.Method:The children with SLI participated in either: (a) an integrated phonological awareness program, (b) a more traditional speech-language intervention control program that focused on improving articulation and language skills, or (c) a minimal intervention control program over a 4 1/2-month time period.Results:Effects of the interventions on phonological awareness ability, reading performance, and speech production were examined. The children who received phonological awareness intervention made significantly more gains in their phonological awareness ability and reading development than the children receiving the other types of speech and language intervention. Despite significant delays in phonological awareness prior to training, children who received the phonological awareness intervention reached levels of performance similar to children with typically developing speech and language skills at post-test assessment. The phonological awareness intervention also improved the children's speech articulation.Clinical Implications:The findings suggest that integrated phonological awareness intervention may be an efficient method to improve phonological awareness, speech production, and reading development of children with SLI. Findings are discussed with reference to a speech-literacy link model.

Comprehension of indefinite pronouns and quantifiers by hearing-impaired students

1985 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 417-434 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronnie B. Wilbur ◽  
Wendy C. Goodhart
Keyword(s):  
Spoken Language ◽  
Hearing Impaired ◽  
Deaf Students ◽  
Comic Strips ◽  
Theoretical Predictions ◽  
Comparison Of The Results ◽  
Hearing Children ◽  
Written Materials ◽  
Indefinite Pronouns ◽  
Hearing Impaired Students

AbstractDeaf students' recognition of indefinite pronouns and quantifiers was tested using written materials in the form of comic strips that provided pragmatically appropriate context. One hundred and eighty-seven profoundly hearing-impaired students, aged 7–23 years, served as subjects. There were significant developmental trends for both the indefinite pronouns and the quantifiers, with the quantifiers significantly more difficult than the indefinite pronouns. A comparison of the results with predictions drawn from theoretical linguistics and with predictions drawn from Developmental Sentence Scoring (Lee, 1974) data for hearing children indicates that theoretical predictions are more accurate for hearing-impaired students. This may be due to differences in methodology (DSS reports spontaneous spoken language; the present study reports comprehension of written English) and to educational practices with hearing-impaired students.

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