User:Phlaremaster/sandbox

'

Language acquisition by deaf children

Role of the environment[edit]

Deaf Children Born To Deaf Parents[edit]

(I expanded under this heading) Furthermore, language development in Deaf children born to Deaf parents (DoDP) who acquire sign language parallels early spoken language development in typical hearing children. Deaf children produce baby babble and mistakes like a hearing child would. Producing the sign for mother is commonly mistaken for DoDP with the misuse of handshape, similar to how a hearing child might mispronounce a word. DoDP have higher average lexical size than hearing children before the age of 18 months. Although, hearing children catch up at around 24 months. DoDP have a sudden increase in acquiring new vocabulary when lexical size reaches 50 at 16 to 19 months of age, compared to hearing children a larger proportion of action, adverb and personal social words are learnt. Development of pointing, that occurs in all typical developing children, becomes beneficial and advantageous to DoDP because this gesture soon becomes part of the linguistic system in Sign Language. Around 17 to 20 months pointing takes on the role of pronouns for DoDP. Signs in Sign Language appear slightly earlier than vocal words in DoDP, suggesting earlier communication development with acquisition of Sign Language.

Literacy development for DoDP is closely related to loan signs and fingerspelling in American Sign Language (ASL). Fingerspelling is an equalvilant representation to the manual English alphabet. Loan signs are clusters of common affixes or spelt words that are signed fast that they become a sign in itself, such as –tion, - ness or car. Both these attributes of ASL help replace the auditory phonological input that DoDP lack. Strong correlation between fingerspelling skills and English reading vocabulary have been found for DoDP.

Deaf Children Born To Hearing Parents[edit] (I expanded under this heading)

Deaf children born to hearing parents (DoHP) usually have restricted or late onset exposure to Sign Language. Therefore, they are highly likely to miss the critical period for acquisition of a first language. Due to this late exposure results show very severe language-delayed. Although, adults who lost their hearing in late childhood become fluent in sign language as their second language. Suggesting that there is a critical period for first language but not second language fluency.

Simultaneous Communication (I created this heading)

Simultaneous Communication (SimCom) is the method of signing sign language and speaking a spoken language at the same time. Unfortunately, due to the difference in grammar and syntax that sign languages and spoken languages have, when SimCom is produced the grammar, syntax and word order of the spoken language is used in the signing of the sign language. Therefore, eroding the grammar and syntax of the sign language. In the United States, SimCom environments have decreased by 15% since 2008. Deaf children learning through the SimCom Model have severely low vocabulary development compared to DoDP and hearing children. SimCom is commonly used for oral-environments with Deaf children with hearing aids or cochlear implants. The use of speech when signing helps the Deaf child become exposed to the auditory cues in the semantics and syntax of the spoken language, where visual support is also provided. Vocabulary development and cognitive strategies for vocabulary learning is severely delayed from this input. DoHP usually use SimCom at the beginning stages of their Deaf child's life, and as the child gets older and the model then turns into just spoken language. Hearing parents usually do not supply signing input sufficient enough for optimal language development. However, SimCom does provide better vocabulary development then Deaf children only exposed to spoken language.

Attention (I created this heading)

Deaf children are better at attending to and processing information in their peripheral vision than hearing peers due to their visual communication. Although, heightened peripheral vision can hinder attention when placed in a classroom setting, especially if focused attention on a teacher or interpreter is required. Distractions from peripheral vision can be problematic. Deaf children were found to equal hearing individuals in free recall (recalling a list in any other) memory skill. However, in visuospatial recall (items presented in a visual array) Deaf children perform better. When items are shown and then disappeared before the next item appears (are in movement), hearing children perform better. Deaf children seem to perform best when information is presented in static visuospatial format. Results are surprising considering the movement utilized in sign language. This could be an important aspect in how information should be relayed when concerning Deaf education. Deaf children may have trouble developing working memory when informational load is too overwhelming. Suggestion of rehearsing and performing nursery rhymes, can improve Deaf children's sequential working memory skills and language processing skills.

TellaTouch

(I created a new page for defining TellaTouch)

The TellaTouch is a communicational device that aids Deafblind people to be able to communicate with one another. It was developed by the American Foundation for the Blind research laboratory. In the mid 1940s, this was a major aid for the Deafblind community and removed many Deafblind adults and children out of isolation. The device can supply communicational aid between two people at a time. There is a full QWERTY keyboard, a full Braille keyboard with a 6 single dot mechanical cell. The participant receiving the information must know braille. They place their fingers on the single dot mechanical cells, which will raise whilst the participant relaying the information types. The TellaTouch is light weighted nine by two and half by nine inch box that can be placed comfortably on someone's lap whilst in use. It weighs about three and half pounds, and can also be used out in the rain, since there is an outer case that is waterproof and sturdy enough survive a 10 foot drop.

Work cited

Lederberg, Amy R., Schick, Brenda, Spencer, Patricia E. (2013). Language and literacy development of deaf and hard-of-hearing children: Successes and challenges. Journal of Developmental Psychology, 49, 15 -30.

Hamilton, Harley. (2011) Memory Skills of Deaf Learners: Implication and Application. American Annals of the Deaf, 156, 402 – 423.