Language Comprehension in Deaf Children

聋人与听力正常的人不同，他们通常会自然并不费力地获得一种口语，而不是完全接触到口语。由于无法获得口语，英国大多数聋哑儿童的识字能力很差，无法达到GCSE成绩的国家课程基准。自然，这些未能达到预期的识字和学术成就标准的行为引起了人们越来越多的关注，即为什么聋人儿童的表现不如听力正常的同龄人。很明显，良好的语言技能是良好识字能力的基础。对于大多数聋哑儿童来说，这是一个问题，他们不能完全接触口语，也不能利用口语来发展识字技能。然而，研究表明，及早接触手语--所有聋哑儿童都能接触到手语--也有助于阅读和写作口语。事实上，有一小部分聋哑儿童的研究表明，及早获得手语和口语与识字发展以及认知和社会效益之间存在着显著的积极关系。在目前的项目中，我们调查了英国手语(BSL)在发展聋儿识字不可或缺的语言技能方面所起的作用。我们的主要目标是更好地了解英国聋人的手语和口语以及识字发展。在这样做的过程中，我们的目标是开发新的语言措施，以密切监测和跟踪聋儿的语言技能。在制定这些措施时，我们将更多地了解4至20岁的聋人儿童和年轻人的BSL技能是如何发展的，这在英国和世界范围内基本上是一个研究不足的群体。然后，我们可以更好地了解BSL及其在聋人识字技能发展中的作用。这一点很重要，因为许多聋哑儿童在中学毕业时没有足够的识字技能。此外，一种新的标准化评估工具将用于评估BSL理解技能，供研究人员和实践者使用。这是一种非常需要的评估工具，将被教育工作者、言语和语言治疗师、心理学家和研究人员使用。这将使研究人员和从业者都能够监测这一人群中手语的发展。跟踪手语发展的能力将使从业者能够尽早识别语言困难，这意味着他们将能够在必要时创建有针对性的干预措施。

Deaf people, unlike hearing people who typically acquire a spoken language naturally and without effort, do not have full access to spoken language. As a result of impoverished access to spoken language, the majority of deaf children in the U.K. have poor literacy skills and fail to achieve national curriculum benchmarks for GCSE results. Naturally, these failures to achieve expected standards for literacy and academic attainment have led to increased attention as to why deaf children are not performing on par to their hearing peers. It is clear that good language skills are a fundamental foundation for good literacy skills. This is a problem for most deaf children who do not have full access to spoken language and cannot use this to develop literacy skills. However, studies have shown that early access to a sign language - which is accessible for all deaf children - can also aid in reading and writing a spoken language. Indeed there is a small sample of deaf children where studies have shown a significant positive relationship between early access to signed and spoken language and literacy development, as well as cognitive and social benefits. In the current project, we investigate the role that British Sign Language (BSL) plays in developing the language skills integral for literacy in deaf children. Our primary aim is to develop a better understanding of signed and spoken language and literacy development in the deaf population in the UK. In doing so, we aim to develop new language measures to closely monitor and track language skills in deaf children. In developing those measures, we will learn more about how BSL skills develop in deaf children and young people between the ages of 4 and 20, which is a largely understudied group in the U.K., and worldwide. We can then gain a better understanding of BSL and its role in the development of literacy skills in the deaf population. This is important because many deaf children do not leave secondary school with adequate literacy skills. Furthermore, a new standardised assessment tool to assess BSL comprehension skills will be made available for both researchers and practitioners. This is a much needed assessment tool that will be used by educators, speech and language therapists, psychologists and researchers. This will enable both researchers and practitioners to monitor sign language development in this population. The ability to track sign language development will enable practitioners to identify language difficulties as early as possible, which means they will then be able to create targeted interventions when necessary.