CNIC: U.S.-Swedish Workshop on Assessment of Multimodal-Multilingual Development in Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children

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The goal of this U.S.-Swedish workshop is to catalyze new research collaborations focused on how early visual and auditory experiences shape the linguistic and cognitive development of infants and young children, especially those born deaf or hard-of-hearing. Rather than examining only the auditory and spoken language abilities of deaf and hard-of-hearing children, the workshop's research framework will conceptualize these children as multilingual learners who experience the world both auditorily and visually. The workshop participants will address four key methodological questions: (1) what is the best neuroimaging approach for deaf and hard-of-hearing children, (2) how can we best assess communicative competence in multilingual children, (3) what are the challenges for assessment of the language environment in homes, and (4) how might effective intervention strategies be developed and validated? Swedish partners from the Department of Linguistics at Stockholm University are ideal counterparts in this endeavor because in Sweden's education system, there is extensive experience in bilingual-bicultural education for deaf and hard-of-hearing children and there are relatively high rates of cochlear implantation. Initial success at the workshop should point the way for next steps to explore the complex interplay between cochlear implantation and use of both a visual sign language and an auditory spoken language. For broader impact, another objective of the workshop in Stockholm is to provide a forum for U.S. doctoral students and early stage researchers to network with Swedish experts and other European academics, exposing them to new perspectives on the development of deaf and hard-of-hearing children. Deaf academics and students will be included in the workshop, alongside representatives of schools and parent groups, to maximize the potential for broad scientific impact. By shifting the framework for discussion and future research planning away from one of deficit to one of diversity, the workshop participants aim to develop innovative research proposals to address the societal problem of how to best educate deaf and hard-of-hearing children.