Written language abilities in deaf Italians.

Area of Science:

• Linguistics
• Psycholinguistics
• Deaf Studies

Background:

• Written language acquisition in deaf individuals is complex.
• Previous research suggests sign language may influence written language development.
• Understanding specific linguistic challenges faced by deaf native signers is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze linguistic and orthographic features in written Italian produced by deaf native signers.
• To compare the written production of deaf signers with hearing individuals from deaf families and those with no deaf contact.
• To investigate the impact of text type on assessing deaf writing abilities.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of written texts from 10 Italian deaf native signers across four tasks.
• Comparison with two control groups: 10 hearing individuals with deaf parents (HD) and 10 hearing individuals with no deaf contact (HH).
• Focus on linguistic and orthographic nonstandard forms, particularly grammatical morphology and function words.

Main Results:

• Deaf subjects exhibited selective difficulties with Italian grammatical morphology, especially free-standing function words.
• Text type significantly influenced the assessment of deaf writing abilities.
• Findings align with previous studies indicating specific challenges related to deafness.

Conclusions:

• Difficulties in acquiring written Italian are primarily attributed to deafness, not the influence of Sign Language.
• Specific morphological challenges in deaf signers are not solely due to limited written Italian exposure.
• Deafness itself is the key factor influencing written Italian acquisition difficulties.