CAREER: Understanding Early Language: Evidence from Blind Infants & Deaf Infants

语言学习是一个强大的过程，它依赖于孩子从环境中的视觉、声音和经验中学习的能力。然而，对于美国大约20万有视觉或听觉障碍的幼儿来说，语言学习的过程是不同的，关于听觉和视觉在语言发展中的作用，有一些基本的问题我们没有答案。找到这些问题的答案对于帮助有听力或视力障碍的人，以及有语言迟缓或缺陷的人，以及改善所有儿童的健康和教育成果至关重要。失聪或重听儿童如果没有接受手语输入或辅助技术（如人工耳蜗植入），在获得语言技能方面会有很大的延迟。然而，当这些孩子通过正常的视觉方式学习手语时，他们似乎发展了正常的语言能力。这表明视觉可以为语言提供一条“路径”。与此同时，其他证据表明，视力对听力正常的学习者来说并不是绝对必要的，因为盲人成年人的语言基本上是正常的。事实上，这些人学习颜色和视觉相关的单词（“see”）与视力正常的同龄人相似。从神经学上讲，他们的“语言”脑区工作方式非常相似，而“视觉”脑区则进行了重组。与接受人工耳蜗植入或手语输入的失聪婴儿不同，盲人通常不接受（也不需要）额外的输入来支持语言。尽管事实是，在典型的发展过程中，视觉体验与语言学习有关（例如，看到父母在看哪里或指着哪里）。该项目旨在提供关键证据，证明婴儿出生时既听不见也看不见大脑是如何重新连接的，以及早期大脑发育是如何促进语言习得的。该项目还有两个教育目标，即增加普通公众和学童的科学知识，同时培养未来科学家的交流、研究和教学技能。通过五项研究，该项目将研究失明、失聪/听力障碍或发育不全婴儿的语言知识和处理。考虑到婴儿在说出单词前几个月就能理解单词，这项工作将重点放在早期的单词理解上，特别是单词的声音和含义，使用行为、神经和观察方法。实时语言处理将通过追踪眼球运动和对语言刺激的脑电波来测量。在另一项研究中，单词学习将通过分析亲子互动的自然记录来跟踪。总之，这些方法的结果将为儿童如何随着他们接受的语言输入类型学习和成长，以及如何提高特殊人群的语言学习提供重要的见解。这个项目的教育部分包括一个多层次的研究交流计划，以及一套针对当地k -2年级学生的课后丰富活动。这些活动将侧重于以引人入胜的体验式形式向学生讲授感觉器官，并通过简单的演示来促进STEM的兴奋和学习。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知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Language learning is a robust process that relies on a child's capacity for learning from the sights, sounds, and experiences in the environment. However, for the roughly 200,000 young children in the US with a visual or hearing disability, language learning proceeds differently, and there are basic questions about the roles of hearing and seeing in language development for which we have no answers. Discovering answers to these questions is critical for supporting individuals with hearing or vision impairments, and those with language delays or deficits, and also for improving the health and educational outcomes of all children. Children who are deaf or hard of hearing and do not receive sign language input or assistive technology (e.g., cochlear implants) show large delays in acquiring language skills. When such children learn sign language through normal visual modality, though, they appear to develop normal language abilities. This suggests that vision can provide a "path" to language. At the same time, other evidence indicates that vision is not strictly necessary for learners with normal hearing, as blind adults have largely normal language. Indeed, these individuals learn color and vision-related words ("see") similarly to sighted peers. Neurologically, their 'language' brain areas work quite similarly, whereas 'vision' areas reorganize. Unlike deaf infants who receive cochlear implants or sign language input, individuals who are blind do not generally receive (nor appear to require) additional input to support language. This is despite the fact that, in typical development, visual experiences have been linked to language learning (e.g. seeing where parents are looking or pointing). This project seeks to provide critical evidence concerning how the brain rewires when infants are born unable to hear or to see, and how early brain development enables language acquisition. This project also has two educational objectives that will increase science knowledge among the lay public and schoolchildren, while building the communication, research, and pedagogical skills of tomorrow's scientists. Across five studies, this project will examine the knowledge and processing of language in infants who are blind, deaf/hard of hearing, or typically-developing. Given that infants understand words months before producing them, this work focuses on early word comprehension, particularly on words' sounds and meanings, using behavioral, neural, and observational approaches. Real-time language processing will be measured by tracking eye movements and brain waves in response to language stimuli. In another studies, word learning will be tracked through the analysis of naturalistic recordings of parent-child interactions. Together, the results of these approaches will provide critical insights into how children learn and grow with the types of language input they receive, as well as how to improve language learning in special populations. The educational component of this project includes a multi-tiered research communication plan, along with a set of after-school enrichment activities for local K-2nd graders. These activities will focus on teaching students about sensory organs in an engaging, experiential format, with simple demonstrations to facilitate STEM excitement and learning.This 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.