Doctoral Dissertation Research: Sign Language in Deaf and Hearing Autistic Children

本论文旨在探讨自闭症对聋儿手语的影响。全国聋人学校有大量自闭症儿童，但到目前为止，他们的语言发展很少受到研究人员的关注。在马萨诸塞州、俄亥俄州、爱荷华州、得克萨斯州和俄勒冈州的聋人学校就读的大约40名自闭症儿童的签名将被录像和分析。通过观察与老师和同学在学校的互动，以及一个符号诱导测试，这些孩子的签名将被比较，听力自闭症儿童谁是暴露于签署除了讲话，以及签署的典型发展聋人儿童。该项目将测试的假设，即手语的收购可能会对自闭症儿童的具体挑战。特别是，手语要求学习者采取其他人的身体观点，以模仿和成功地复制符号，这是没有必要的儿童获得口语。自闭症患者的这种换位思考能力可能会受损，导致手语问题，这些问题与自闭症言语中发现的问题有所不同。系统分析聋哑自闭症儿童的手语可以揭示特定的困难点，并最终导致改善评估，干预和自闭症儿童的教学策略。

This dissertation research will investigate how autism affects sign language in deaf children on the autism spectrum. There is a significant population of children with autism at schools for the deaf around the country, yet until now their language development has received little attention from researchers. The signing of approximately 40 autistic children enrolled at deaf schools in Massachusetts, Ohio, Iowa, Texas, and Oregon will be videotaped and analyzed. Through observations of interactions with teachers and classmates at school, as well as a sign elicitation test, the signing of these children will be compared with that of hearing autistic children who are being exposed to sign in addition to speech, as well as the signing of typically-developing deaf children. The project will test the hypothesis that the acquisition of sign language may pose specific challenges to children with autism. In particular, sign languages require learners to take the physical perspective of others in order to imitate and successfully reproduce signs, something that is not necessary for children acquiring spoken languages. This perspective-taking may be impaired in autism, leading to problems in sign language that are characteristically different from the problems found in autistic speech. A systematic analysis of deaf autistic children's signing could reveal particular points of difficulty and ultimately lead to improved assessments, interventions, and teaching strategies for autistic children.