Word recognition and learning in signing deaf toddlers.

Area of Science:

• Child language acquisition
• Developmental psychology
• Linguistics

Background:

• Deaf children acquiring American Sign Language (ASL) must map objects to referents using visual attention.
• Word learning in a visual language presents unique attentional challenges.
• Understanding factors influencing early word recognition is crucial for language development.

Purpose of the Study:

• Investigate how perceptual experience and language modality affect word recognition and learning in deaf children.
• Analyze factors predicting familiar word recognition in ASL.
• Examine the relationship between familiar word recognition and novel sign learning.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of eyetracking data from two experiments involving 52 deaf children (18-71 months).
• Focus on familiar word recognition trials after initial word exposure.
• Assessment of accuracy and speed of word recognition and correlation with novel sign recognition.

Main Results:

• Familiar word recognition accuracy increases with developmental age in deaf children.
• No significant differences in looking behavior were found based on parent hearing status or word exposure.
• Performance on familiar word recognition correlated with accuracy in novel sign recognition.

Conclusions:

• Deaf children's familiar word recognition improves developmentally, similar to spoken language acquisition.
• Despite visual modality demands, parallels exist between signed and spoken language word learning.
• Word recognition is linked to novel sign learning in deaf children.