Philip M. Prinz

The Development of Idiomatic Meaning in Children.

This study examined the development of idiomatic expression. Sixty subjects were presented with a series of drawings corresponding to sentences exhibiting dual semantic representation (i.e., a literal and an idiomatic component). A literalization strategy appeared to be operating between the ages of 6 and 9 years and an idiomatization strategy predominated from the age of 9 through adulthood. Comprehension of idiomatic meaning appeared to develop prior to the ability to verbally interpret idioms.

Simultaneous Acquisition of ASL and Spoken English (in a Hearing Child of a Deaf Mother and Hearing Father): Phase I: Early Lexical Development

This study describes the linguistic development in American Sign Language (ASL) and spoken English by a hearing female child whose mother is profoundly deaf and father is hearing. The data were collected from the age of 7 months, 6 days, when the first sign emerged, to the age of 19 months, 8 days, when the child began systematically combining signifiers. The first phase in this longitudinal research focuses on early word meanings. The results confirm previous findings that (1) the child’s first sign emerges several months before the first spoken word, (2) lexical acquisition in ASL and spoken English progresses through similar stages, and (3) the child initially develops one lexical system, with separate entries from both languages.

Acquisition of ASL and Spoken English by a Hearing Child of a Deaf Mother and a Hearing Father: Phase II, Early Combinatorial Patterns

In this second phase of a longitudinal study of the simultaneous linguistic development in ASL and spoken English by a hearing girl whose mother is profoundly deaf and father hearing, the focus is on the “transitional” stage of language development between the one-word stage and the combinatorial stage. The results demonstrate (1) the existence of early combinations of manual and oral babbling strings; (2) the ability to convey communicative intent by combining oral and manual signifiers; (3) a preliminary code-switching ability across modalities; and (4) the development of two separate lexical systems but one syntactic system incorporating rules from both languages.

Early Reading in Young Deaf Children Using Microcomputer Technology

This research project involves a new method for teaching young deaf children to read prior to the primary grades. The study incorporated the use of a portable microcomputer in the classroom to allow the child to initiate communication from the very onset of instruction. Traditionally, children using computers have been instructed to respond to statements and questions and their responses have been required to fall within a small range of acceptable answers. Such an approach provides the child with limited opportunities to initiate language or to be an active catalyst in communication. The subjects in the present study included children between the ages of 2 and 6 years, with average or better intelligence. The children were enrolled in a preschool program at The Pennsylvania School for the Deaf in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They were trained to use a novel interactive microcomputer system with a special interface keyboard which builds in perceptual salience, individualized vocabulary, animation, and color graphics in a two-person-plus computer communication system. Each child was taught to press keys with pictures and words drawn from the childs own central interests and favorite expressions. This was possible because the keys were readily changeable; new words and graphic representations of pictures could be quickly and efficiently entered in the computer; and permanent disk storage allowed instantaneous access to many printed words and accompanying color graphics.Although the major objective of the project was to field test a computerized reading instructional system for young deaf children, it is possible that elaborated versions of this system will have wide application in instructional programs for preschool children, older school-aged children, and adults evidencing reading problems.

“Alligator eats cookie”: Acquisition of writing and reading skills by deaf children using the microcomputer

This research investigated the effects of microcomputer technology on the acquisition of writing and reading skills in 32 deaf children between the ages of 3.2 and 8.5 years. The children used a special interface keyboard which builds in perceptual salience and animation of color pictures and graphic representations of signs from American Sign Language (ASL). The learning mechanism underlying this novel instructional system is responsive, interactional, and exploratory, reflective of the way in which most children acquire a first language. Results have demonstrated improvement in writing, reading, and general communication skills. These advances are attributed to exploratory learning -not solely programmed instruction – which allows the child to investigate at will the representation of various printed forms which relate to the childs own primary mode of communication.

If Only You Could Hear What I See: Discourse Development in Sign Language.

This study described discourse development in sign language of 24 profoundly deaf children between the ages of 3 years, 10 months, and 11 years, 5 months. The children were videotaped during dyadic peer interactions in naturalistic play situations. The findings indicated that the children were acquiring appropriate discourse strategies comparable to those used by hearing children in spoken conversations and adult deaf signers. The children successfully achieved coherency across a multiplicity of sign strings through adherence to discourse rules involving rum taking, remediating interruptions, obtaining the attention of the addressee, handling topics, and establishing and maintaining eye contact.

An investigation of the need for sign language assessment in deaf education.

The attitudes of educators of the deaf and other professionals in deaf education concerning assessment of the use of American Sign Language (ASL) and other sign systems was investigated. A questionnaire was distributed to teachers in a residential school for the deaf in California. In addition to questions regarding the availability of sign language assessment at their schools, participants responded to items concerning their motivation to use a test for sign language measurement. Of the 100 distributed surveys, 85 were completed and returned. Results showed overwhelming agreement among respondents concerning the importance of sign language assessment, along with the need for tools that appropriately measure signing skills.

Children's Color Vocabulary

The purpose of this study was to examine the use of color terms by male and female elementary school children. Thirty-six children were asked to label colors. A significant difference was found between younger females and older females, tentatively indicating a developmental trend that may explain the differences in color term production between adult females and adult males. No significant differences were found between males and females, or between younger males and older males.

An investigation of the comprehension and production of requests in normal and language-disordered children.

The ability to comprehend and produce requests was investigated in a group of 15 3-5-yr old normally developing children and 15 5-7-yr-old language-disordered children. The requests were examined under two conditions: 1) during observations in a naturalistic setting; 2) while participating in an experimental task. An important developmental shift in the ability to accurately discriminate between polite and less-polite requests occurred between the ages of 3 and 4 yr for the normals and 5 and 6 yr for the language-disordered children. There appears to be preliminary support for the hypothesis of an underlying pragmatic deficit influencing the communicative performance of some children in this population, accounting for differential abilities in producing, comprehending, and modifying requesting strategies to fit a given communicative situation.

Lending a helping hand: Linguistic input and sign language acquisition in deaf children

This study examined the effects of adult “recasting” in sign language on the acquisition of specific syntactic-semantic structures by six deaf children between 9 and 76 months who were primarily at the one-sign utterance stage of development. In “recast” replies in conversation, the childs utterance is redisplayed in an altered sentence structure that still refers to the central meanings of the first sentence. Syntactic-semantic structures targeted for input intervention by teachers and parents using recasts included subject–verb relations, attribution, negation, subject–verb–object relations, conjunction, and conditionality. Recasting triggered the acquisition of new syntactic-semantic structures in American Sign Language and English which were evident in the spontaneous production of previously non-used sign utterances.