RAPID: Navigating Social Distancing with DeafBlind Children: Protactile Language Acquisition in an Online Learning Environment

RAPID：与聋哑儿童保持社交距离：在线学习环境中的触觉语言习得

• 批准号: 2038042
• 负责人: Terra Edwards
• 金额: $ 19.66万
• 依托单位: Saint Louis University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-08-01 至 2022-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2038042&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RAPID; Navigating; Social; Distancing; DeafBlind

Blanket directives to practice social distancing, while crucial to slowing the spread of COVID-19, do not take into account vulnerable populations such as DeafBlind children, who are at risk for social isolation and lack of critical language exposure. COVID-19 creates an immediate need for innovative and effective models of inclusive distance learning. This project will find ways to support language acquisition and cognitive development for the coming school year without increasing epidemiological risk. Conducting this research now stands to broaden our understanding of language, while also establishing models for education in populations that are disproportionately impacted by social distancing. Over the past decade, groups of DeafBlind adults in the United States began communicating directly with one another via reciprocal, tactile channels—a practice known as "protactile". These practices are leading to an emergent grammatical system that has yet to be acquired by any DeafBlind children. This project introduces a cohort of DeafBlind children to skilled protactile signers by combining video technology, a wearable haptic device designed for this project, and communication facilitators in the childrens’ homes. This hybrid approach will be evaluated as a remote learning environment to allow DeafBlind children to continue their learning at a distance consistent with slowing the spread of COVID-19. This approach will enable an analysis of the effects of the acquisition process as protactile language is transmitted from DeafBlind adult signers, who knew American Sign Language before protactile language, to DeafBlind children, who are acquiring protactile language as a first language. It is predicted that DeafBlind children will follow the general course of first language acquisition and will develop core lexical items earlier than verbs with componential morphology, thereby diverging from the path that adult signers have taken, creating forms with componential morphology before creating core lexical items. It is also predicted that the lexical forms created by children will adhere to protactile phonological principles more broadly than the forms created by adult protactile signers, whose application of protactile phonological principles is more restricted. If confirmed, the findings will show how DeafBlind children can acquire and expand language under conditions of social distancing, thereby modeling one way that education within vulnerable populations can be facilitated, while continuing to slow the spread of COVID-19This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

实行社交距离的全面指令虽然对减缓COVID-19的传播至关重要，但没有考虑到聋哑儿童等弱势群体，他们面临社会孤立的风险，缺乏关键的语言接触。COVID-19迫切需要创新和有效的包容性远程学习模式。该项目将寻找方法，在不增加流行病学风险的情况下，支持下一学年的语言习得和认知发展。开展这项研究现在可以拓宽我们对语言的理解，同时也可以为那些受到社交距离不成比例影响的人群建立教育模式。在过去的十年里，美国的聋盲成年人群体开始通过相互的触觉渠道直接交流，这种做法被称为“proactile”。这些实践导致了一个新兴的语法系统，尚未被任何聋盲儿童获得。该项目结合视频技术、为该项目设计的可穿戴触觉设备和儿童家中的交流设备，向一群聋哑儿童介绍熟练的手语。这种混合方法将作为一种远程学习环境进行评估，以使聋盲儿童能够在与减缓COVID-19传播相一致的距离上继续学习。这种方法将有助于分析手语习得过程的影响，因为手语是由在习得手语之前就知道美国手语的聋盲成人手语者传给以习得手语为第一语言的聋盲儿童的。我们预测，聋盲儿童将遵循第一语言习得的一般过程，核心词汇项目的发展要早于具有成分形态的动词，从而偏离了成人手语者在创造核心词汇项目之前先创造成分形态的路径。儿童创造的词汇形式将比成人创造的词汇形式更广泛地遵守前驱音位原则，成人对前驱音位原则的应用更受限制。如果得到证实，研究结果将显示聋盲儿童如何在社交距离条件下学习和扩展语言，从而为弱势群体中的教育提供一种方式，同时继续减缓covid -19的传播。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。