The social context of early sign language development

Harris, Margaret; Clibbens, John; Chasin, Joan; Tibbitts, Ruth

doi:10.1177/014272378900902507

Cited by 88 publications

(61 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Such mothers need to be taught how to enhance their children's engagement with an object or a picture book. They also need to become sensitive to their children's focus of attention when they provide linguistic input (Harris, Clibbens, Chasin, & Tibbitts, 1989). Intervention programs for young children with hearing loss and their families should address clinical goals related to the establishment ofjoint attention by showing mothers how to relocate objects as well as how to share interest in picturebooks.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Analogous and Distinctive Patterns of Prelinguistic Communication in Toddlers With and Without Hearing Loss

Zaidman‐Zait

Dromi

2007

J Speech Lang Hear Res

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Purpose: This study was conducted to compare the prelinguistic communicative abilities of toddlers with hearing loss and without hearing loss during the 2nd year of life and shortly before the emergence of productive single-word lexicons. Method: The participants were 28 toddlers with hearing loss who participated in an early intervention program and 92 toddlers with normal hearing at similar language levels and close chronological ages. The assessment consisted of the Hebrew Parent Questionnaire-Communication and Early Language (HPQ-CEL; E. Dromi, H. Ben-Shahar-Treitel, E. Guralnik, & D. Ringwald-Frimerman, 1992) that guided parents' observations of their toddlers in 6 contexts at home. Parents reported on a range of prelinguistic communicative abilities. Results: Profile analysis indicated that the 2 groups used a remarkably similar overall profile of prelinguistic behaviors. Interrelationships among behaviors were noticeably similar, too. Two communication properties unique to toddlers with hearing loss were relatively lower spontaneous use of words and reduced involvement in triadic book reading interactions. In addition, the associations between use of words and gestures in toddlers with hearing loss were slightly different from the toddlers with normal hearing, and the range of innovative gestures that they produced was greater. Conclusion: The remarkable similarity between the 2 groups support the feasibility of adopting goals and principles known to hold true in typical development for fostering communication in toddlers with hearing loss.KEY WORDS: deafness, communication strategies, parents, linguistics, infants and toddlers t the outset of the second year of life and shortly before the emergence of conventional words, typically developing toddlers with normal hearing demonstrate impressive communicative abilities when interacting with adults. Extensive scientific research has endeavored to describe the richness of prelinguistic systems in hearing toddlers (see reviews in Dromi & Ringwald-Frimerman, 1996;Reddy, 1999).In hearing toddlers, nonverbal communication systems manifest themselves in various domains. In the visual domain, toddlers follow the gaze of others and can identify which external object is the focus of adults' attention (Butterworth & Jarrett, 1991;Carpenter, Nagell, & Tomasello, 1998). In the vocal domain, toddlers produce canonical babbling and long sequences of jargon babble that sound like adult speech (Dromi, 2002;Stoel-Gammon, 1998). Joint attention comprises the major developmental achievement that emerges toward the end of the first year of life and may be regarded as the crown of prelinguistic development. Adult-child visual interactions, which during the first 9 months of life involve either social transactions or physical manipulation of objects, now become integrated. The coordination ofsocial and object schemes represents a qualitative change in infants' cognition (Adamson, 1995;Adamson & Chance, 1998;Sugarman, 1978Sugarman, , 1983. Following this developmental achievement,...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Likewise, mothers should learn strategies for timing of input. They should learn to wait until their child with hearing loss focuses on their face or hands before providing the linguistic input for the child (Dromi & Ringwald-Frimerman, 1996;Harris et al, 1989;Mohay et al, 1998).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analogous and Distinctive Patterns of Prelinguistic Communication in Toddlers With and Without Hearing Loss

Zaidman‐Zait

Dromi

2007

J Speech Lang Hear Res

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“…M. Harris, Clibbens, Chasin and Tibbitts, 1989) and with children with Down syndrome. The research with deaf children learning sign language will be briefl y discussed in a later section of this paper.…”

Section: Joint Attention and Early Language Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Signing and Lexical Development in Children with Down Syndrome

Clibbens¹

2001

Downs Syndr. Res. Pract.

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-Language development in children with Down syndrome is delayed, on average, relative to general cognitive, motor and social development, and there is also evidence for specifi c delays in morphology and syntax, with many adults showing persistent problems in these areas. It appears that the combined use of signed and spoken input can boost early language development signifi cantly, this evidence coming initially from single case-studies, and more recently from larger scale controlled studies. Research with typically developing hearing and deaf children, as well as children with Down syndrome, has demonstrated the importance of establishing joint attention for vocabulary development. Furthermore, studies carried out with children with Down syndrome indicate that reducing attentional demands may be especially important in scaffolding language development in this group. The use of signing strategies which have been found to facilitate language development in deaf children when signing to children with Down syndrome is discussed, as is the need for further research on this topic and on the importance of joint attention for the use of other augmentative and alternative communication systems, such as graphic symbol and picture systems.Keywords -Down syndrome, language, lexical development, signing, augmentative and alternative communication, joint attention Language and cognitive development in children with Down syndromeIt is now well established that people with Down syndrome typically experience specifi c delays and defi cits in language relative to other cognitive domains, with many adults showing persistent problems in the areas of morphology and syntax (Fowler, 1990; Miller, 1992;Rondal & Comblain, 1996;Tager-Flusberg, 1999). There is, however, much variability between individuals, with some developing to a much higher level of linguistic competence (Rondal, 1995). The profi le of abilities can also change over time in the same individual. Miller (1999) found evidence for several distinct cognitive profi les in children with Down syndrome. The most common pattern was one in which receptive language and nonverbal mental age were in advance of expressive language, but there were smaller groups who showed different patterns, including a substantial group whose expressive language was at the same level as their receptive language and nonverbal ability, and others who showed delays in both receptive and expressive language. The same individuals could show different profi les when tested at different times over a two-year period. Recent work by Paterson (2000; see also Paterson, Brown, Gsödl, Johnson & Karmiloff-Smith, 1999) also indicates that cognitive profi les in both Down syndrome and Williams syndrome change over time, emphasising the importance of developmental processes and the problems that can be encountered when applying an adult neuropsychological model to genetic disorders. Joint attention and early language developmentOne major infl uence on early language development, and particularly lexical...

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“…The task of deaf children learning to communicate in sign language would appear to be particularly difficult, because of the visual nature of the language -but for this very reason sign language development provides a useful test case for theories about how this mapping occurs. Harris, Clibbens, Chasin and Tibbitts (1989), in a follow up to the Harris et al (1986) study discussed above, investigated the strategies employed by deaf mothers to enable their children to perceive both the signs addressed to them and the nonverbal contexts to which the signs related.…”

Section: Maternal Strategiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One strategy which Rachel's mother was observed to use from 12 months, and which did not occur at all in the sample of deaf children and their parents studied by Harris et al (1989), was the strategy of moulding the child's hands into the shape of a sign. It is important to recognise that this is a form of input to the child despite the fact that it is the child's hands that are being manipulated.…”

Section: Pilot Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

From theory to practice in child language development

Clibbens¹

1993

Downs Syndr. Res. Pract.

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This paper addresses current theoretical perspectives on child language development, and their implications for intervention. It is argued that language is a complex system consisting of a number of distinct, interacting, components, and that no single explanation for its development is likely to be adequate: the evidence suggests, rather, that different factors predominate in the development of different parts of the system. Some recent work with deaf children -on the development of sign phonology, and on maternal strategies for presenting signs to their children in context -is then discussed together with its implications for the use of signs with other groups, focusing particularly on the use of signed input with children with Down's syndrome.

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The social context of early sign language development

Cited by 88 publications

References 11 publications

Analogous and Distinctive Patterns of Prelinguistic Communication in Toddlers With and Without Hearing Loss

Analogous and Distinctive Patterns of Prelinguistic Communication in Toddlers With and Without Hearing Loss

Signing and Lexical Development in Children with Down Syndrome

From theory to practice in child language development

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