The Role of Sign Language for Deaf Children with Cochlear Implants: Good Practice in Sign Bilingual Settings

2007 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 214-231 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Swanwick ◽  
Isabel Tsverik
Keyword(s):  
Sign Language ◽  
Cochlear Implants ◽  
Good Practice ◽  
Deaf Children

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.

scholarly journals Tilegnelse af fortællerperspektiv og referentperspektiv i dansk tegnsprog: introduktion af en ny referent

2015 ◽  
Vol 48 (48) ◽  
pp. 9
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Engberg-Pedersen
Keyword(s):  
Facial Expression ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Eye Contact ◽  
Body Orientation ◽  
Gaze Direction ◽  
Deaf Children ◽  
Rhetorical Style ◽  
Strong Emphasis ◽  
Linguistic Means

Linguistic perspective can be used either to denote the way en event is described as seen from the perspective of one of the referents, or as a term for various linguistic means used to indicate whether a referent is new or given and whether an event is foreground or background. In this article, the former type is called referent perspective, the latter narrator perspective. In Danish Sign Language (DTS) narrator perspective is expressed by the signer’s eye contact with the addressee, the sign EN (‘one, a’) to indicate a new, prominent referent, and nonmanual signals indicating topicalization and accessibility. Referent perspective is expressed by combinations of predicates of motion and location with gaze, facial expression, and head and body orientation that represent a referent. Narratives elicited from DTS-signing adults by means of cartoons are shown to have a strong emphasis on referent perspective compared with narratives in spoken Danish elicited by means of the same cartoons. DTS-signing deaf children of six to nine years of age are shown to be well underway in acquiring the use of en, but they struggle with the expression of the referent perspective, especially the use of gaze direction and facial expression. The results are discussed in relation to Slobin’s (1996) notion rhetorical style and the role of iconicity in acquisition.

scholarly journals Listen and Speak: Power-Knowledge-Truth and Cochlear Implants in Toronto

2015 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tracey Edelist
Keyword(s):  
Cochlear Implant ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Cochlear Implants ◽  
Opportunity To Learn ◽  
Modern Medicine ◽  
Deaf Children ◽  
Deaf People ◽  
Deaf Community ◽  
Auditory Verbal Therapy ◽  
Insight Into

<span>Cochlear implants and auditory-verbal therapy are the latest techniques and technologies used to make deaf people learn to listen and speak. This paper provides a genealogical analysis of the Cochlear Implant Program at SickKids Hospital in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and shows how this program exemplifies the medicalization of deafness while denying deaf children the opportunity to learn sign language. Using Foucault's concept of governmentality, the relations between power, knowledge, truth and their influences on the program's practices are revealed in order to provide insight into Canadian society's conceptions of deafness. This analysis reveals the Cochlear Implant Program as a capitalist establishment that is supported by unquestioned reverence of modern medicine and technology, oriented by a quest for normalcy. The paper concludes by encouraging members of the Deaf community and their supporters to challenge the hegemony of normalcy by utilizing alternate research-based knowledge-truths of cochlear implants and sign language.</span>

Gesture and sign

1994 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Marschark
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Deaf Children ◽  
Signed Languages ◽  
Pragmatic Communication ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

ABSTRACTThe relationship of gesticulation to speech has received considerable theoretical and empirical attention from investigators interested in the verbal status of gesture, its use in prelinguistic children, and the role of gestures in social and pragmatic communication. The relationship of gesticulation to sign language, in contrast, has received less attention. Although the gestures of deaf children have been investigated in the contexts of language acquisition and linguistic flexibility, the functions of gestures used by deaf versus hearing individuals have not been examined. One difficulty for such a study stems from the fact that gesture and sign language occur in the same modality. Gesture and sign are considered here with an eye toward determining those aspects of manual communication that are specific to users of signed languages and those in common with users of oral languages. This examination reveals that gestures produced by deaf individuals can be distinguished from the sign language in which they are embedded, both in terms of their privilege of occurrence and their semantic and pragmatic functions.

scholarly journals Sign Language and Psychological Development of Deaf Children: State-of-the-Art (Foreign Studies Review)

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 3-22
Author(s):  
T.G. Bogdanova
Keyword(s):  
Sign Language ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Deaf Children ◽  
Diagnostic Tools ◽  
Hearing Disorders ◽  
Linguistic System ◽  
Deaf Parents ◽  
Hearing Children ◽  
Positive Effect

The article presents a review of research conducted by foreign psychologists on the role of sign language in the communicative, cognitive and social development of children with hearing disorders. Each national sign language is a kind of linguistic system that has a complex grammar, specific vocabulary and syntax. The main problems that arise in deaf children in the situation of ignoring the possibilities of sign language are discussed. A number of studies have shown that deaf children of deaf parents are not inferior to hearing children in their cognitive capabilities, that the use of sign language has a positive effect on cognitive functions and leads to greater creative activity, a better understanding of spatial relationships, and greater flexibility in solving problems. Researchers recognize the need for early acquisition of sign language by deaf children, even in case of use of modern rehabilitation techniques. It is sign language that could make up for the lack of communication tools characteristic of the initial stages of a child's mental development, which would serve to develop the cognitive sphere and personality and create conditions for emotional well-being. The review focuses on the difficulties in using sign language that are observed when selecting diagnostic tools and conducting psychological examinations.

Sensitivity to conversational maxims in deaf and hearing children

2009 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 929-943 ◽  
Author(s):  
LUCA SURIAN ◽  
MARIANTONIA TEDOLDI ◽  
MICHAEL SIEGAL
Keyword(s):  
Sign Language ◽  
Pragmatic Competence ◽  
Deaf Children ◽  
Instructional Setting ◽  
Bilingual Instruction ◽  
Native Signers ◽  
Maxim Of Quality ◽  
Hearing Children

ABSTRACTWe investigated whether access to a sign language affects the development of pragmatic competence in three groups of deaf children aged 6 to 11 years: native signers from deaf families receiving bimodal/bilingual instruction, native signers from deaf families receiving oralist instruction and late signers from hearing families receiving oralist instruction. The performance of these children was compared to a group of hearing children aged 6 to 7 years on a test designed to assess sensitivity to violations of conversational maxims. Native signers with bimodal/bilingual instruction were as able as the hearing children to detect violations that concern truthfulness (Maxim of Quality) and relevance (Maxim of Relation). On items involving these maxims, they outperformed both the late signers and native signers attending oralist schools. These results dovetail with previous findings on mindreading in deaf children and underscore the role of early conversational experience and instructional setting in the development of pragmatics.

scholarly journals The Role of Multiple Articulatory Channels of Sign-Supported Speech Revealed by Visual Processing

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (6) ◽  
pp. 1625-1656
Author(s):  
Eliana Mastrantuono ◽  
Michele Burigo ◽  
Isabel R. Rodríguez-Ortiz ◽  
David Saldaña
Keyword(s):  
Cochlear Implants ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Deaf Children ◽  
Deaf Students ◽  
The Gaze ◽  
Overt Attention ◽  
Face Area ◽  
The Face ◽  
Contingent Condition

Purpose The use of sign-supported speech (SSS) in the education of deaf students has been recently discussed in relation to its usefulness with deaf children using cochlear implants. To clarify the benefits of SSS for comprehension, 2 eye-tracking experiments aimed to detect the extent to which signs are actively processed in this mode of communication. Method Participants were 36 deaf adolescents, including cochlear implant users and native deaf signers. Experiment 1 attempted to shift observers' foveal attention to the linguistic source in SSS from which most information is extracted, lip movements or signs, by magnifying the face area, thus modifying lip movements perceptual accessibility (magnified condition), and by constraining the visual field to either the face or the sign through a moving window paradigm (gaze contingent condition). Experiment 2 aimed to explore the reliance on signs in SSS by occasionally producing a mismatch between sign and speech. Participants were required to concentrate upon the orally transmitted message. Results In Experiment 1, analyses revealed a greater number of fixations toward the signs and a reduction in accuracy in the gaze contingent condition across all participants. Fixations toward signs were also increased in the magnified condition. In Experiment 2, results indicated less accuracy in the mismatching condition across all participants. Participants looked more at the sign when it was inconsistent with speech. Conclusions All participants, even those with residual hearing, rely on signs when attending SSS, either peripherally or through overt attention, depending on the perceptual conditions. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.8121191

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