Early Sign Language Acquisition and the Development of Hand Preference in Young Children

Bonvillian, John D.; Richards, Herbert C.; Dooley, Tracy T.

doi:10.1006/brln.1997.1754

Cited by 51 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Even here, 76% were classified as dextral (7 1 % of those who became deaf after birth), which was not significantly different from the proportion of the hearing participants who were classified as dextral. This finding is consistent with the literature on lateral asymmetry in deaf persons, with slightly larger proportions of left-handedness being reported among deaf participants, presumably because this group was less likely to have been exposed to appropriate sign language from birth, and given that early exposure to sign language-indeed, any language-is important to the development of conventional cerebral dominance (Bonvillian et al, 1997). In addition, Studies 1 and 2 revealed that 83% of the participants rated their right hand as preferred for signing, a figure that is also consistent with previous findings (Bonvillian et al).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

The Leftward Cradling Bias and Prosody: An Investigation of Cradling Preferences in the Deaf Community

Turnbull

Rhys-Jones

Jackson

2001

The Journal of Genetic Psychology

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Popular theory on the tendency to cradle an infant to the left side points to the specialization of the right hemisphere for the perception and expression of emotion. J. S. Sieratzki and B. Woll (1996) recently suggested that more emphasis be placed on the auditory modality, specifically focusing on the role of prosodic information. In this study, the direction of the lateral cradling bias in a group of profoundly deaf children, a group of deaf adults, and a control group of adults with no hearing impairment was investigated. The authors found a strong leftward cradling bias in all groups, a bias that was, if anything, stronger in the deaf participants. Given that people who are profoundly deaf, especially those who have been deaf from birth, have not been exposed to auditory prosody, the data do not support the suggestion that such prosodic information is the basis for the leftward cradling bias.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

The Leftward Cradling Bias and Prosody: An Investigation of Cradling Preferences in the Deaf Community

Turnbull

Rhys-Jones

Jackson

2001

The Journal of Genetic Psychology

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“…For example, in investigations of deaf and hearing children learning to sign, a large majority developed a strong right-hand preference for sign production. Moreover, right-handedness appeared earlier and proved to be much stronger for sign production than for nonsign actions that were contemporaneously observed (Bonvillian, Richards, & Dooley, 1997;Seal & Bonvillian, 1996). These findings, together with those of earlier case study accounts (Bellugi et al, 1986;Marentette, Girouard, & Petitto, 1990;Vaid, Bellugi, & Poizner, 1989), provide strong evidence that sign-language production in most instances emanates primarily from the left side of the brain.…”

supporting

confidence: 62%

Hand preferences in sign-learning students with autistic disorder

Bonvillian¹,

Gershoff²,

Seal³

et al. 2001

Laterality

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The purpose of the study was fourfold: (a) to document the hand preferences of nonspeaking individuals with autism as they produced signs and nonsign actions; (b) to find out if sign-language proficiency in such individuals is associated with directionality or consistency of signing hand preference; (c) to explore the link between hand preference for signing and standardised measures of cognitive and motor development; (d) to compare the hand preferences (sign and nonsign actions) of such individuals to sign-learning children with normal cognitive functioning. In this study, the hand preferences of 14 nonspeaking students with autistic disorder were determined from videotape records of their sign production and nonsign actions. In their sign production, four students strongly favoured their right hands, four had a distinct left-hand preference, and six did not significantly favour either hand. There was little evidence linking sign-language proficiency, cognitive maturity, or motor development to strongly lateralised signing or

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“…It has been suggested that this hemispheric specialization for language evolved from a lateralized manual communication system that arose in a common human and chimpanzee ancestor [6]. Consistent with this theory are data that indicate that chimpanzees intentionally and referentially communicate via manual gestures [7,8], and, like humans [9], preferentially use their right hand for communicative gestures [10,11]. Humanlike left hemisphere neuroanatomical asymmetries also have been identified in both the posterior temporal lobe and inferior frontal regions of the chimpanzee brain [12,13], regions considered homologous to Broca's and Wernicke's areas, respectively.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 80%

Gesture handedness predicts asymmetry in the chimpanzee inferior frontal gyrus

2006

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Neuroanatomical asymmetries have been identified in chimpanzee frontal and temporal lobes including regions believed to be homologous to human Broca's and Wernicke's areas. This study examined whether or not neuroanatomical asymmetries in chimpanzees are associated with hand use during gestural communication. Analyses revealed that those chimpanzees that reliably employ their right hand for manual gestures have larger inferior frontal gyri in the left hemisphere than those apes that do not show consistent hand use for gestures. These findings are the first to provide a direct link between neuroanatomical asymmetries and the production of lateralized communicative behavior in non-human primates.

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Early Sign Language Acquisition and the Development of Hand Preference in Young Children

Cited by 51 publications

References 28 publications

The Leftward Cradling Bias and Prosody: An Investigation of Cradling Preferences in the Deaf Community

The Leftward Cradling Bias and Prosody: An Investigation of Cradling Preferences in the Deaf Community

Hand preferences in sign-learning students with autistic disorder

Gesture handedness predicts asymmetry in the chimpanzee inferior frontal gyrus

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