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

一刀切地指示实行社交疏远，尽管这对减缓新冠肺炎的传播至关重要，但却没有考虑到聋盲儿童等弱势群体，这些人面临着被社会孤立的风险，缺乏批判性的语言接触。新冠肺炎创造了对创新和有效的包容性远程学习模式的迫切需求。该项目将找到在不增加流行病风险的情况下支持下一学年语言学习和认知发展的方法。现在进行这项研究将拓宽我们对语言的理解，同时也为受社会距离影响不成比例的人群建立教育模型。在过去的十年里，美国的一群聋人成年人开始通过相互的触觉通道相互直接交流--这种做法被称为“触觉”。这些练习正在导致一个新的语法系统，而任何聋盲儿童都还没有掌握过这个系统。该项目通过结合视频技术、为该项目设计的可穿戴触觉设备以及儿童家中的交流促进器，将一群聋盲儿童介绍给熟练的触觉手势者。这种混合方法将被评估为远程学习环境，允许聋盲儿童在与减缓新冠肺炎传播速度一致的距离继续学习。这种方法将有助于分析原触觉语言习得过程的影响，因为原触觉语言是从先于美国手语的聋盲成年手语者传递给正在习得原触觉语言作为第一语言的聋盲儿童的。据预测，聋盲儿童将遵循第一语言习得的一般过程，比具有成分词法的动词更早形成核心词项，从而偏离成人手语者所走的道路，先创建具有成分词法的形式，然后再创建核心词项。也有人预测，儿童创造的词汇形式将比成年人创造的形式更广泛地遵循原触觉音系原则，后者对原触觉音系原则的应用受到更多限制。如果得到证实，调查结果将显示聋盲儿童如何在社会距离的条件下获得和扩大语言，从而成为促进弱势群体教育的一种方式，同时继续减缓COVID-19的传播。该奖项反映了NSF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。

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.