Ongoing Sign Processing Facilitates Written Word Recognition in Deaf Native Signing Children.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Linguistics
• Developmental Psychology

Background:

• Proficient readers demonstrate a strong connection between signed and written language.
• Understanding how deaf learners utilize their native sign language for reading acquisition is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if deaf native signers can use ongoing sign language to speed up written word recognition.
• To compare this facilitation effect with that observed in hearing children using spoken language.

Main Methods:

• Deaf children (native signers) and hearing children (matched for reading ability) participated.
• Participants performed a lexical decision task using sign or spoken word onsets as primes for written word targets.
• Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded to measure neural processing.

Main Results:

• Sign language onsets facilitated written word recognition in deaf children, mirroring the effect of spoken word onsets in hearing children.
• Similar priming effects were observed in both groups, evident in ERPs starting around 200 ms.
• This indicates that beginning readers leverage their native language, signed or spoken, for written word processing.

Conclusions:

• Beginning readers, including deaf signers, can utilize their native language's lexical processing to enhance written word recognition.
• The close relationship between sign and written language supports reading acquisition in deaf learners.
• These findings highlight the potential of sign language to facilitate literacy development in deaf children.