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

这次美国-瑞典研讨会的目标是促进新的研究合作，重点研究早期视觉和听觉经验如何影响婴幼儿，特别是那些天生失聪或听力障碍的婴幼儿的语言和认知发展。讲习班的研究框架将把这些儿童概念化为多语言学习者，他们在听觉和视觉上都能体验世界，而不是只研究聋哑和听力障碍儿童的听觉和口语能力。研讨会参与者将讨论四个关键的方法论问题：(1)对失聪和听障儿童最好的神经成像方法是什么，(2)我们如何最好地评估多语言儿童的交际能力，(3)评估家庭语言环境的挑战是什么，以及(4)如何开发和验证有效的干预策略。斯德哥尔摩大学语言学系的瑞典合作伙伴是这项工作的理想伙伴，因为瑞典的教育系统在聋哑和听力障碍儿童的双语双文化教育方面有丰富的经验，并且人工耳蜗植入率相对较高。研讨会的初步成功应该为下一步探索人工耳蜗植入与视觉手语和听觉口语使用之间复杂的相互作用指明道路。为了产生更广泛的影响，斯德哥尔摩研讨会的另一个目标是为美国博士生和早期研究人员提供一个论坛，使他们能够与瑞典专家和其他欧洲学者建立联系，使他们接触到聋哑和听障儿童发展的新视角。聋人学者和学生将与学校和家长团体的代表一起参加研讨会，以最大限度地发挥广泛科学影响的潜力。通过将讨论和未来研究计划的框架从一个缺陷转变为一个多样性，研讨会参与者旨在制定创新的研究建议，以解决如何最好地教育失聪和听障儿童的社会问题。

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.