American Sign Language Syntax and Analogical Reasoning Skills Are Influenced by Early Acquisition and Age of Entry to Signing Schools for the Deaf.

Jon Henner,Catherine L Caldwell-Harris,Rama Novogrodsky,Robert Hoffmeister

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01982

Jon Henner, Catherine L Caldwell-Harris + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01982

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Abstract

Failing to acquire language in early childhood because of language deprivation is a rare and exceptional event, except in one population. Deaf children who grow up without access to indirect language through listening, speech-reading, or sign language experience language deprivation. Studies of Deaf adults have revealed that late acquisition of sign language is associated with lasting deficits. However, much remains unknown about language deprivation in Deaf children, allowing myths and misunderstandings regarding sign language to flourish. To fill this gap, we examined signing ability in a large naturalistic sample of Deaf children attending schools for the Deaf where American Sign Language (ASL) is used by peers and teachers. Ability in ASL was measured using a syntactic judgment test and language-based analogical reasoning test, which are two sub-tests of the ASL Assessment Inventory. The influence of two age-related variables were examined: whether or not ASL was acquired from birth in the home from one or more Deaf parents, and the age of entry to the school for the Deaf. Note that for non-native signers, this latter variable is often the age of first systematic exposure to ASL. Both of these types of age-dependent language experiences influenced subsequent signing ability. Scores on the two tasks declined with increasing age of school entry. The influence of age of starting school was not linear. Test scores were generally lower for Deaf children who entered the school of assessment after the age of 12. The positive influence of signing from birth was found for students at all ages tested (7;6–18;5 years old) and for children of all age-of-entry groupings. Our results reflect a continuum of outcomes which show that experience with language is a continuous variable that is sensitive to maturational age.

Highlights

Studying language deprivation in Deaf children has led to important findings on brain plasticity and sensitive periods in human development (Corina and Singleton, 2009)
As further background for our study, we review below what is known about language development in Deaf children
It is noteworthy that previous research (Sharpe, 1985) argued that auditory stimulation is necessary to develop language-based analogical reasoning skills. We examine these issues via a large sample of Deaf children growing up as visual learners, with American Sign Language (ASL) as the primary language

Summary

Introduction

Studying language deprivation in Deaf children has led to important findings on brain plasticity and sensitive periods in human development (Corina and Singleton, 2009). In the realm of language acquisition, the topic of this paper, studying Deaf individuals with late acquisition of a first language has helped quantify the notion of sensitive periods for language learning (e.g., Mayberry and Eichen, 1991; Mayberry, 1993). Mayberry and colleagues have shown across two decades of research that outcomes for learning a first language, and any subsequent languages, are progressively worse for individuals with later age-of-acquisition (Mayberry and Lock, 2003; Boudreault and Mayberry, 2006; Mayberry, 2010). To set the stage for presenting our data on a large naturalistic sample of over 600 school-aged Deaf children, we discuss two claims about the timing of acquisition of sign language that are based on little or no data but used to buttress advice to parents of Deaf children

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