6>Language development in deaf children & the critical period

Question 1

misconceptions about sign language>

Answer 1

-all sign lang is the same around the world
- sign lang has no grammar
- all deaf people can lipread
- deafness is genetic
- cochlear implants cure healing
- the best way for a deaf child to acquire spoken lang is to raise them WITHOUT sign lang

Question 2

consequence of sign lang misconceptions>

Answer 2

> many deaf children (70%) are deprived of lang during the critical period in development

Question 3

what does ‘language deprivation’ of deaf children lead to> (3)

Answer 3

> this ‘language’ deprivation leads to:
(1) lack of strong lang skills (in sign/spoken)
(2) delays in cognitive development, social development, school readiness (i.e. lang learning & others perspectives)
(3) difficulties with literacy & numeracy skills

Question 4

critical period hypothesis=

Answer 4

language needs to be acquired before puberty, as this is the CRITICAL time for lang acquisiton

Question 5

critical period from U-B>

Answer 5

> due to matural changes in the brain (lateralization)
lateralisation= brain organising itself into>2 hemispheres
& lang in end being processed in left hemisphere (in L handed people=more balanced)

Question 6

critical period from G-N>

Answer 6

maturation of ‘innate language module’
- needs to be stimulated up until puberty
- if not stimulated by an linguistic input then cant be learnt any longer

Question 7

Alternative explanation to language critical period>

Answer 7

early neural plasticity

Question 8

alternative to ‘critical period’> early neural plasticity>

Answer 8

-children are generally better at learning new things
- children’s brains are more flexible than adult brains & can recognise when damaged
- brain damages studies show children can recover from trauma that would cause ‘aphasia’ in adults (as can remodel brains & use different areas to deal with lang processing)

Question 9

Problem with using feral children as evidence for crit period>

Answer 9

• feral children are vary rare
• written records may not be accurate

Question 10

Genie: context (5)

Answer 10

• locked away 11 years
• hardly any exposure to human lang
• hardly any social interaction
• no physical or visual stimulation
• discovered by social services aged 14

Question 11

Genie> lang development after 1 year of learning>

Answer 11

• looked promising (similar to 18-20 month)
• developed some knowledge of grammar> distinguished singular/plural nouns
• produced 2-word & some 3-word utterances

Question 12

Genie: what happened after 1 year point>

Answer 12

• plateaued development
• speech as similar to ‘telegraphic speech’
• struggled with possessives, negation, prepositions & more

Question 13

Genie: after 5 years> (3)

Answer 13

• couldn’t use negation
• couldn’t produce WH-qns correctly (“i where is graham cracker on top shelf?”)
• confused pronouns “you” and “me” (<indicates some perspective taking problems)

Question 14

problems with ‘Genie’ research>

Answer 14

• evidence appears to be selectively used
• other deprived input is not taken into account (not just ling that was deprived> also socialisation, physical & visual stimuli)

Question 15

Isabelle: context>

Answer 15

• raised alone by deaf-and-mute mother in 1930s
• discovered age 6 (BEFORE puberty)
• no evidence of active abuse

Question 16

isabelle: lang learning after 2 years>

Answer 16

• had vocabulary of 2000 words after 2 years
• could use complex grammar
• more promising lang development than genie

Question 17

what caused the difference in isabelle vs genie’s lang learning> (CRIT period explanation)

Answer 17

• age when found (before/after puberty)

Question 18

what caused the difference in isabelle vs genie’s lang learning> other explanations>

Answer 18

• genie found to have brain abnormalities (could have had prior & contributed)
• psychological factors>abuse
• lack of social interaction for genie, some for isabelle
• selection & interpretation of data

Question 19

what do hearing parents with deaf children often do>

Answer 19

• expect children to lip read (& only used spoken lang around)
• try to get cochlear implants (as believe can ‘cure’ them)

Question 20

features of sign language>general

Answer 20

• prosodic, phonological, morphological & syntactic structure
• greater degree of iconicity than spoken lang

Question 21

prosodic, phonological, morphological & syntactic structure of sign language>

Answer 21

> each element (hand shape, orientation, location, movement) can be articulated in multiple ways (similar to phonemes)
facial expression & upper body position expresses phonology
different morphemes can be expressed simultaneously (i.e. motion for verb, hand shape & orientation for noun)

Question 22

iconicity in sign lang>

Answer 22

• Greater degree of iconicity than in spoken lang (can be fairly straightforward link between the form & meaning of the sign
• but ASL & BSL are mutually unintelligible
• some signs do not have iconicity

Question 23

acquisition of sign languages>

Answer 23

• same milestones & time course as in spoken lang (manual babbling> first words> word combinations)
• manual babbling produced by children exposed to ASL can be distinguished from hand movements produced by (hearing) children exposed to English
• only sign-exposed babies produce low frequency hand movements in the area in front of the body

Question 24

comparison of ‘native signers’ to ‘late signers’> (6)

Answer 24

• age of acquisition has a greater effect on fluency in production & comprehension than years of exposure
• native signers outperform late signers (especially in grammaticality judgement tasks)
• early exposure to sign also gives an advantage for learning a spoken lang
• native signers are better at learning to read & write
• native signing deaf children often become fluent bilingual in both a sign & spoken lang (where late signers fail)
• native signers show advanced social-cognitive skills compared to non-native

Question 25

what do cochlear implants do?

Answer 25

• provide a partial sense of hearing to deaf individuals who have a functioning AUDITORY nerve
• neural impulses are created & are perceived as sounds

Question 26

when cochlear implants were developed in the 80s:

Answer 26

• they worked best for adults who had acquired and LOST a spoken lang
• but not for adults who never learned a spoken lang
• young children who received a CI in the 90s were also able to learn a spoken lang

Question 27

Cochlea implants today>

Answer 27

• usually implanted before 1st birthday
• the earlier the CIs are implanted, the better the outcome
• children implanted at 12;0+ tend to have very limited success

Question 28

limitations of cochlea implants>

Answer 28

• do not guarantee 1st lang acquisition
• many children who were born deaf/become deaf in first few years of life experience little to no success in lang acquisition with a CI & turn to sign lang AFTER crit period (^thus run risk of completely acquiring neither)

Question 29

cochlear implants (& native ASL) vs bilingual codas study>

Answer 29

• compared deaf children with CIS & exposure to ASL from deaf parents with bilingual (ASL/spoken eng) hearing children born to deaf parents
• no difference between groups
• thus exposure to sign does not weaken effect of CIs