Caregivers Use Joint Attention to Support Sign Language Acquisition in Deaf Children

Area of Science:

• Developmental Psychology
• Linguistics
• Child Language Acquisition

Background:

• Joint attention is vital for language development, but research is primarily speech-centric.
• Understanding joint attention in sign language acquisition is limited.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate joint attention in deaf children learning American Sign Language (ASL).
• To explore how caregivers facilitate word learning through joint attention in ASL interactions.
• To compare joint attention patterns in sign language with those in spoken language acquisition.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of naturalistic play sessions involving 54 caregiver-child dyads using ASL.
• Utilized a multimodal coding scheme to identify joint attention and object labeling.
• Examined correlations between joint attention characteristics and children's expressive vocabulary.

Main Results:

• ASL dyads establish joint attention using linguistic, visual, and tactile cues.
• Most object naming occurred within successful joint attention episodes.
• Joint attention characteristics correlated with expressive vocabulary size, similar to spoken language acquisition.
• Sign familiarity and mention order influenced naming timing within joint attention.

Conclusions:

• Caregivers using ASL are attuned to children's visual attention and adapt joint attention strategies for familiar and novel object labels.
• Joint attentional episodes effectively support word learning in sign language, mirroring spoken language development.
• This study broadens the understanding of joint attention's role across different language modalities.