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Related Experiment Video

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Exploring Infant Sensitivity to Visual Language using Eye Tracking and the Preferential Looking Paradigm

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Deaf and Hearing American Sign Language-English Bilinguals: Typical Bilingual Language Development.

Corina Goodwin^1,2, Diane Lillo-Martin^1,2,3

¹Department of Linguistics, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA.

Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education

|July 29, 2023

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Deaf and hearing children learning American Sign Language and English show typical bilingual development. While both groups scored below monolingual English speakers, this highlights the need to support bilingual language acquisition in signing children.

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Area of Science:

Developmental Psychology
Linguistics
Deaf Education

Background:

Previous research has debated whether sign language hinders spoken language development in deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children.
Concerns exist about language deprivation in DHH children, yet the benefits of sign language exposure are often overlooked.
The bilingualism of children learning both signed and spoken languages has been under-researched.

Purpose of the Study:

To compare the spoken English development of deaf and hearing bilingual children who use American Sign Language (ASL).
To compare these bilingual groups to monolingual English speakers.
To investigate the influence of hearing status and age on language acquisition in bilingual DHH children.

Main Methods:

Compared spoken English language scores of 2-6-year-old deaf and hearing ASL-English bilingual children.
Used a comparison database of monolingual English speakers.
Analyzed the impact of age and hearing status on language development measures.

Main Results:

Age was a significant predictor of language scores for both bilingual groups.
Both deaf and hearing bilingual groups scored lower than monolingual English speakers.
Deaf bilinguals showed greater differences from monolinguals, possibly due to later English exposure or cochlear implant use.

Conclusions:

Results align with typical patterns of early bilingual language development.
Deaf and hearing children learning ASL and English should be recognized and studied as bilinguals.
Future research and practice must incorporate bilingual language development principles for signing children.