Advances in the Sign Language Development of Deaf Children

Advances in the Sign Language Development of Deaf Children
Author: Brenda Schick
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 412
Release: 2005-09-02
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0198039964

The use of sign language has a long history. Indeed, humans' first languages may have been expressed through sign. Sign languages have been found around the world, even in communities without access to formal education. In addition to serving as a primary means of communication for Deaf communities, sign languages have become one of hearing students' most popular choices for second-language study. Sign languages are now accepted as complex and complete languages that are the linguistic equals of spoken languages. Sign-language research is a relatively young field, having begun fewer than 50 years ago. Since then, interest in the field has blossomed and research has become much more rigorous as demand for empirically verifiable results have increased. In the same way that cross-linguistic research has led to a better understanding of how language affects development, cross-modal research has led to a better understanding of how language is acquired. It has also provided valuable evidence on the cognitive and social development of both deaf and hearing children, excellent theoretical insights into how the human brain acquires and structures sign and spoken languages, and important information on how to promote the development of deaf children. This volume brings together the leading scholars on the acquisition and development of sign languages to present the latest theory and research on these topics. They address theoretical as well as applied questions and provide cogent summaries of what is known about early gestural development, interactive processes adapted to visual communication, linguisic structures, modality effects, and semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic development in sign. Along with its companion volume, Advances in the Spoken Language Development of Deaf and Hard-of Hearing Children, this book will provide a deep and broad picture about what is known about deaf children's language development in a variety of situations and contexts. From this base of information, progress in research and its application will accelerate, and barriers to deaf children's full participation in the world around them will continue to be overcome.

Advances in the Sign Language Development of Deaf Children

Advances in the Sign Language Development of Deaf Children
Author: Brenda Schick
Publisher:
Total Pages: 412
Release: 2005-09-02
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0195180941

The authors provide cogent summaries of what is known about early gestural development, interactive processes adapted to visual communication, & the processes of semantic, syntactic, & pragmatic development in sign.

Sign Language Acquisition

Sign Language Acquisition
Author: Anne Baker
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 182
Release: 2009-01-14
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 902728959X

How children acquire a sign language and the stages of sign language development are extremely important topics in sign linguistics and deaf education, with studies in this field enabling assessment of an individual child’s communicative skills in comparison to others. In order to do research in this area it is important to use the right methodological tools. The contributions to this volume address issues covering the basics of doing sign acquisition research, the use of assessment tools, problems of transcription, analyzing narratives and carrying out interaction studies. It serves as an ideal reference source for any researcher or student of sign languages who is planning to do such work. This volume was originally published as a Special Issue of Sign Language & Linguistics 8:1/2 (2005)

Deaf Children in Public Schools

Deaf Children in Public Schools
Author: Claire L. Ramsey
Publisher: Gallaudet University Press
Total Pages: 146
Release: 1997
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9781563680625

As the practice of mainstreaming deaf and hard of hearing children into general classrooms continues to proliferate, the performances of these students becomes critical. Deaf Children in Public Schools assesses the progress of three second-grade deaf students to demonstrate the importance of placement, context, and language in their development. Ramsey points out that these deaf children were placed in two different environments, with the general population of hearing students, and separately with other deaf and hard of hearing children. Her incisive study reveals that although both settings were ostensibly educational, inclusion in the general population was done to comply with the law, not to establish specific goals for the deaf children. In contrast, self-contained classes for deaf and hard of hearing children were designed especially to concentrate upon their particular learning needs. Deaf Children in Public Schools also demonstrates that the key educational element of language development cannot be achieved in a social vacuum, which deaf children face in the real isolation of the mainstream classroom. Based upon these insights, Deaf Children in Public Schools follows the deaf students in school to consider three questions regarding the merit of language study without social interaction or cultural access, the meaning of context in relation to their educational success, and the benefits of the perception of the setting as the context rather than as a place. The intricate answers found in this cohesive book offer educators, scholars, and parents a remarkable stage for assessing and enhancing the educational context for the deaf children within their purview.

Bilingualism and Bilingual Deaf Education

Bilingualism and Bilingual Deaf Education
Author: Marc Marschark
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 513
Release: 2014-06-02
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0199371822

In Bilingualism and Bilingual Deaf Education, volume editors Marc Marschark, Gladys Tang, and Harry Knoors bring together diverse issues and evidence in two related domains: bilingualism among deaf learners - in sign language and the written/spoken vernacular - and bilingual deaf education. The volume examines each issue with regard to language acquisition, language functioning, social-emotional functioning, and academic outcomes. It considers bilingualism and bilingual deaf education within the contexts of mainstream education of deaf and hard-of-hearing students in regular schools, placement in special schools and programs for the deaf, and co-enrollment programs, which are designed to give deaf students the best of both educational worlds. The volume offers both literature reviews and new findings across disciplines from neuropsychology to child development and from linguistics to cognitive psychology. With a focus on evidence-based practice, contributors consider recent investigations into bilingualism and bilingual programming in different educational contexts and in different countries that may have different models of using spoken and signed languages as well as different cultural expectations. The 18 chapters establish shared understandings of what are meant by "bilingualism," "bilingual education," and "co-enrollment programming," examine their foundations and outcomes, and chart directions for future research in this multidisciplinary area. Chapters are divided into three sections: Linguistic, Cognitive, and Social Foundations; Education and Bilingual Education; and Co-Enrollment Settings. Chapters in each section pay particular attention to causal and outcome factors related to the acquisition and use of these two languages by deaf learners of different ages. The impact of bilingualism and bilingual deaf education in these domains is considered through quantitative and qualitative investigations, bringing into focus not only common educational, psychological, and linguistic variables, but also expectations and reactions of the stakeholders in bilingual programming: parents, teachers, schools, and the deaf and hearing students themselves.

Language Learning in Children Who Are Deaf and Hard of Hearing

Language Learning in Children Who Are Deaf and Hard of Hearing
Author: Susan R. Easterbrooks
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2020-11-17
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0197524885

"Language Learning in Children who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing, 2nd Edition: Theory to Classroom Practice is the long-awaited revision of the only textbook on primary language instruction written with classroom teachers of deaf and hard-of-hearing children (TODs) in mind. It builds on the work of the previous version while providing the reader with access to the entire first version on a supplemental website. An important feature of this book is that it describes four real TODs and demonstrates application of concepts discussed to the DHH children on their caseloads. Up-to-date chapters on theory of language learning, assessment, and evidence-based practice replace removed chapters. Chapters on English and American Sign Language (ASL) structure and on the three major approaches (listening and spoken language, bilingual-bimodal instruction, and ASL instruction) are updated. The chapters on teaching vocabulary and morphosyntax, how to ask and answer questions, and writing language objectives for Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) are expanded DHH. Specific examples of real cases are incorporated throughout the book. Finally, after a theoretical base of information on language instruction, many of the chapter provide language teachers with specific examples of how to answer the question: "What should I do on Monday." It avoids promotion of one or another philosophy, presenting all and demonstrating the commonalities across classroom language instruction approaches for DHH children"--

The Resilience of Language

The Resilience of Language
Author: Susan Goldin-Meadow
Publisher: Psychology Press
Total Pages: 285
Release: 2005-04-05
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1135433399

Imagine a child who has never seen or heard any language at all. Would such a child be able to invent a language on her own? Despite what one might guess, the children described in this book make it clear that the answer to this question is 'yes'. The children are congenitally deaf and cannot learn the spoken language that surrounds them. In addition, they have not yet been exposed to sign language, either by their hearing parents or their oral schools. Nevertheless, the children use their hands to communicate - they gesture - and those gestures take on many of the forms and functions of language. The properties of language that we find in the deaf children's gestures are just those properties that do not need to be handed down from generation to generation, but can be reinvented by a child de novo - the resilient properties of language. This book suggests that all children, deaf or hearing, come to language-learning ready to develop precisely these language properties. In this way, studies of gesture creation in deaf children can show us the way that children themselves have a large hand in shaping how language is learned.