Patricia Elizabeth Spencer

Language and Literacy Development of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children: Successes and Challenges.

Childhood hearing loss presents challenges to language development, especially spoken language. In this article, we review existing literature on deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) childrens patterns and trajectories of language as well as development of theory of mind and literacy. Individual trajectories vary significantly, reflecting access to early identification/intervention, advanced technologies (e.g., cochlear implants), and perceptually accessible language models. DHH children develop sign language in a similar manner as hearing children develop spoken language, provided they are in a language-rich environment. This occurs naturally for DHH children of deaf parents, who constitute 5% of the deaf population. For DHH children of hearing parents, sign language development depends on the age that they are exposed to a perceptually accessible 1st language as well as the richness of input. Most DHH children are born to hearing families who have spoken language as a goal, and such development is now feasible for many children. Some DHH children develop spoken language in bilingual (sign-spoken language) contexts. For the majority of DHH children, spoken language development occurs in either auditory-only contexts or with sign supports. Although developmental trajectories of DHH children with hearing parents have improved with early identification and appropriate interventions, the majority of children are still delayed compared with hearing children. These DHH children show particular weaknesses in the development of grammar. Language deficits and differences have cascading effects in language-related areas of development, such as theory of mind and literacy development.

Advances in the sign language development of deaf children

1. Understanding Sign Language Development of Deaf Children 2. Issues of Linguistic Typology in the Study of Sign Language Development of Deaf Children 3. The Development of Gesture in Hearing and Deaf Children 4. Patterns and Effects of Language Input to Deaf Infants and Toddlers from Deaf and Hearing Mothers 5. Acquiring a Visually-Motivated Language: Evidence from Diverse Learners 6. Lexical Development of Deaf Children Acquiring Signed Languages 7. Deaf Children Are Verb Attenders: Early Sign Vocabulary Development in Dutch Toddlers 8. Learning to Fingerspell Twice: Young Signing Childrens Acquisition of Fingerspelling 9. The Form of Early Signs: Explaining Signing Childrens Articulatory Development 10. Acquisition of Syntax in Signed Languages 11. How Faces Come To Serve Grammar: The Development of NonManual Morphology in American Sign Language 12. Deaf Childrens Acquisition of Modal Terms 13. The Development of Narrative Skills in British Sign Language 14. Natural Signed Language Acquisition within the Social Context of the Classroom

Word-learning skills of deaf preschoolers : The development of novel mapping and rapid word-learning strategies

Word-learning skills of 19 deaf/hard-of-hearing preschoolers were assessed by observing their ability to learn new words in two contexts. The first context required the use of a novel mapping strategy (i.e., making the inference that a novel word refers to a novel object) to learn the new words. The second context assessed the ability to learn new words after minimal exposure when reference was explicitly established. The children displayed three levels of word-learning skills. Eleven children learned words in both contexts. Five were able to learn new words rapidly only when reference was explicitly established. Two children did not learn new words rapidly in either context. The latter seven children were followed longitudinally. All children eventually acquired the ability to learn new words in both contexts. The deaf childrens word-learning abilities were related to the size of their vocabularies. The present study suggests that word-learning strategies are acquired even when children are severely delayed in their language development and they learn language in an atypical environment.

Word-Learning Abilities in Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Preschoolers: Effect of Lexicon Size and Language Modality

Deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) childrens ability to rapidly learn novel words through direct reference and through novel mapping (i.e., inferring that a novel word refers to a novel object) was examined. Ninety-eight DHH children, ranging from 27 to 82 months old, drawn from 12 schools in five states participated. In two tasks that differed in how reference was established, word-learning abilities were measured by childrens ability to learn novel words after only three exposures. Three levels of word-learning abilities were identified. Twelve children did not rapidly learn novel words. Thirty-six children learned novel words rapidly but only in the direct reference task. Forty-nine children learned novel words rapidly in both direct reference and novel mapping tasks. These levels of word-learning abilities were evident in children who were in oral-only and in signing environments, in children with cochlear implants, and in deaf children of deaf parents. Childrens word-learning abilities were more strongly correlated to lexicon size than age, and this relation was similar for children in these different language-learning environments. Acquisition of these word-learning abilities seems based on linguistic mechanisms that are available to children in a wide range of linguistic environments. In addition, the word-learning tasks offer a promising dynamic assessment tool.

Communicative Interactions of Deaf and Hearing Children in a Day Care Center: An Exploratory Study

Interactions were observed in a day care center serving deaf and hearing children. Observations focused on eight children (two deaf with deaf parents, two deaf with hearing parents, two hearing with deaf parents and two hearing with hearing parents) between 2 and 3 years of age. Center classes included deaf and hearing teachers and all children were encouraged to sign. Deaf and hearing children alike frequently interacted with other children and teachers whose hearing status differed from their own. However, each group showed a stronger tendency to initiate communication with same hearing status peers. Hearing children displayed the ability to modify their communications modes to match the hearing status of their intended communication partner. Language ability not hearing status, was associated with the frequency of communication experienced by each child