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

这个美国-瑞典研讨会的目标是促进新的研究合作，重点是早期的视觉和听觉体验如何塑造婴幼儿的语言和认知发展，特别是那些天生耳聋或听力障碍的儿童。研讨会的研究框架将把这些儿童概念化为多语言学习者，他们通过听觉和视觉体验世界，而不是只检查聋哑人和重听者的听觉和口语能力。研讨会参与者将讨论四个关键的方法问题：(1)什么是聋哑儿童最好的神经成像方法；(2)我们如何最好地评估多语言儿童的沟通能力；(3)评估家庭语言环境的挑战是什么；以及(4)如何制定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一努力的理想合作伙伴，因为在瑞典的教育系统中，针对聋哑儿童的双语双文化教育具有丰富的经验，人工耳蜗植入率相对较高。研讨会的初步成功将为下一步探索人工耳蜗植入与视觉手语和听觉口语的使用之间的复杂相互作用指明方向。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与瑞典专家和其他欧洲学者建立网络的论坛，让他们接触到关于聋哑儿童发展的新视角。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规划的框架从赤字框架转变为多样性框架，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聋哑人和重听儿童这一社会问题。

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.