Deaf Children of Hearing Parents Have Age-Level Vocabulary Growth When Exposed to American Sign Language by 6 Months of Age

Caselli, Naomi; Pyers, Jennie; Lieberman, Amy M.

doi:10.1016/j.jpeds.2021.01.029

Cited by 47 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 70 publications

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“…Deaf children, particularly those with hearing parents, have highly variable early language learning environments, as parents may be learning ASL alongside their children. Emerging evidence suggests that deaf children with hearing parents can acquire ASL at age-appropriate rates (Caselli et al, 2021),…”

Section: Word Learning In Asl Across Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Flexible fast‐mapping: Deaf children dynamically allocate visual attention to learn novel words in American Sign Language

Lieberman

Fitch

Borovsky

2021

Developmental Science

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Word learning in young children requires coordinated attention between language input and the referent object. Current accounts of word learning are based on spoken language, where the association between language and objects occurs through simultaneous and multimodal perception. In contrast, deaf children acquiring American Sign Language (ASL) perceive both linguistic and non‐linguistic information through the visual mode. In order to coordinate attention to language input and its referents, deaf children must allocate visual attention optimally between objects and signs. We conducted two eye‐tracking experiments to investigate how young deaf children allocate attention and process referential cues in order to fast‐map novel signs to novel objects. Participants were deaf children learning ASL between the ages of 17 and 71 months. In Experiment 1, participants (n = 30) were presented with a novel object and a novel sign, along with a referential cue that occurred either before or after the sign label. In Experiment 2, a new group of participants (n = 32) were presented with two novel objects and a novel sign, so that the referential cue was critical for identifying the target object. Across both experiments, participants showed evidence for fast‐mapping the signs regardless of the timing of the referential cue. Individual differences in children's allocation of attention during exposure were correlated with their ability to fast‐map the novel signs at test. This study provides first evidence for fast‐mapping in sign language, and contributes to theoretical accounts of how word learning develops when all input occurs in the visual modality.

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Section: Word Learning In Asl Across Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Flexible fast‐mapping: Deaf children dynamically allocate visual attention to learn novel words in American Sign Language

Lieberman

Fitch

Borovsky

2021

Developmental Science

Self Cite

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“…Thus, we can exclude that the linguistic discrepancies between Cases 1–2 and Case 3 are attributable to maternal educational level. There is also recent research that shows that deaf children of hearing parents demonstrate age-level verbal vocabulary growth when exposed to American Sign Language (ASL) by 6 months of age [ 43 ]; the lack of access to sign language that characterized the children of the present study may has been a further negative factor for their language development. However, it is important to note that this negative condition affected all three children and not just the first two cases.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 84%

Morpho-Syntactic Deficit in Children with Cochlear Implant: Consequence of Hearing Loss or Concomitant Impairment to the Language System?

Benassi

Boria²,

Berghenti

et al. 2021

IJERPH

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Background: Among implanted children with similar duration of auditory deprivation and clinical history, the morpho-syntactic skills remain highly variable, suggesting that other fundamental factors may determine the linguistic outcomes of these children, beyond their auditory recovery. The present study analyzed the morpho-syntactic discrepancies among three children with cochlear implant (CI), with the aim of understanding if morpho-syntactic deficits may be characterized as a domain-specific language disorder. Method: The three children (mean age = 7.2; SD = 0.4) received their CI at 2.7, 3.7, and 5.9 years of age. Their morpho-syntactic skills were evaluated in both comprehension and production and compared with 15 age-matched normal-hearing children (mean age = 6.6; SD = 0.3). Results: Cases 1 and 2 displayed a marked impairment across morphology and syntax, whereas Case 3, the late-implanted child, showed a morpho-syntactic profile well within the normal boundaries. A qualitative analysis showed, in Cases 1 and 2, language deficits similar to those of normal hearing children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). Conclusions: We suggest that a severe grammatical deficit may be, in some implanted children, the final outcome of a concomitant impairment to the language system. Clinical implications for assessment and intervention are discussed.

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“…In contrast, sign languages are acquired by deaf children with adequate language exposure along a similar timeline to that of hearing children acquiring spoken language (e.g., Lillo-Martin & Henner, 2021). Recent findings show that DHH infants whose hearing parents began signing with them in early infancy show vocabulary sizes comparable to those of DHH infants who had deaf signing parents (Caselli et al, 2021). Furthermore, research has also demonstrated that DHH children acquiring both a signed and spoken language from birth can achieve ageappropriate spoken language skills (Davidson et al, 2014), possibly even outperforming their monolingual DHH peers (Hassanzadeh, 2012).…”

Section: Limitations and Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Language not auditory experience is related to parent‐reported executive functioning in preschool‐aged deaf and hard‐of‐hearing children

et al. 2021

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Much research has found disrupted executive functioning (EF) in deaf and hard‐of‐hearing (DHH) children; while some theories emphasize the role of auditory deprivation, others posit delayed language experience as the primary cause. This study investigated the role of language and auditory experience in parent‐reported EF for 123 preschool‐aged children (Mage = 60.1 months, 53.7% female, 84.6% White). Comparisons between DHH and typically hearing children exposed to language from birth (spoken or signed) showed no significant differences in EF despite drastic differences in auditory input. Linear models demonstrated that earlier language exposure predicted better EF (β = .061–.341), while earlier auditory exposure did not. Few participants exhibited clinically significant executive dysfunction. Results support theories positing that language, not auditory experience, scaffolds EF development.

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Deaf Children of Hearing Parents Have Age-Level Vocabulary Growth When Exposed to American Sign Language by 6 Months of Age

Cited by 47 publications

References 70 publications

Flexible fast‐mapping: Deaf children dynamically allocate visual attention to learn novel words in American Sign Language

Flexible fast‐mapping: Deaf children dynamically allocate visual attention to learn novel words in American Sign Language

Morpho-Syntactic Deficit in Children with Cochlear Implant: Consequence of Hearing Loss or Concomitant Impairment to the Language System?

Language not auditory experience is related to parent‐reported executive functioning in preschool‐aged deaf and hard‐of‐hearing children

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