Interactions between language and cognition in deaf individuals

超过90%的聋儿是听力正常的父母所生。由于早期语言输入减少，这些儿童面临语言和认知发展延迟的风险。贫困的语言获取也影响其他领域，包括认知功能(例如，Figuera等人，2008；Boting等人，2017)。在我的博士论文中，我研究了聋人的语言技能、认知任务中的表现和大脑功能之间的联系。我的研究表明，语言熟练程度与非语言认知过程有关，例如在不同任务和计划之间进行切换。它展示了语言如何塑造语言领域之外的认知方面，因此将语言描述为成功认知发展的关键踏脚石之一。在此期间，我将追求以下目标：我将通过发表以我的博士学位为基础的论文来建立我的研究记录，并与学者分享我的发现，与研究不同人群语言发展的研究人员建立新的联系。这将有利于我的长期目标，即弥合聋人研究和其他有非典型语言发展经验的儿童的语言发展之间的差距。这样的研究和合作对于为旨在促进儿童认知和语言发展的行为干预提供信息至关重要。在我担任研究员期间，我将花费大量时间向公众、聋人个人和实践者传达我的论文的发现。我的论文认识到语言和认知之间相互作用的复杂性，并强调任何形式的语言都支持认知的非语言方面。这对于科学理解语言和认知之间的相互作用，早期干预和教育方案如何促进聋儿的语言和认知发展，以及如何在这一人群中评估这些方面的发展具有重要意义。特别是，如果儿童的环境是多模式的，以单一语言和模式(例如英语口语)进行的评估可能不能代表儿童的实际语言能力。这是改变目前的做法的重要证据，目前的评估仅限于测试者所知道的语言。我还将通过参加认知研究中的计算方法课程来获得新的技能，这将有助于我在耳聋研究和具有非典型语言发展经验的儿童之间建立桥梁。我还将通过创建一个在线任务来评估聋人的单词/手势学习，从而扩大我的研究范围。这将使我能够在我的博士学位的基础上再接再厉，巩固我未来研究计划的计划，为资助申请生成试点数据，并在语言发展和学习方面寻求新的研究途径。我的研究计划将重点放在探索聋人个体的各种认知过程(例如，执行功能和动机的组成部分)与语言技能之间的联系。通过实现这些关键目标，我将能够开发出一个具有竞争力的研究方案，它建立在我以前工作的基础上，并将语言领域以外的其他认知过程纳入图景。我将集中讨论可能有助于聋人语言技能发展的因素。通过选择那些社会经济背景较低的儿童，或者来自那些干预和教育不能保护儿童免受语言输入难以获得的问题的国家(如格鲁吉亚)的儿童，我将能够更好地理解语言剥夺、学习和认知之间的关系。更好地了解有助于口语和手语形式语言学习的因素，对于设计干预措施至关重要。

Over 90% of deaf children are born to hearing parents. These children are at risk of delays in language and cognitive development due to diminished early language input. Impoverished language access also affects other domains, including cognitive function (e.g. Figueras et al., 2008; Botting et al., 2017). In my PhD thesis, I investigated associations between language skills, performance during cognitive tasks, and brain function in deaf individuals. My research shows that language proficiency is associated with nonverbal cognitive processes, such as switching between different tasks and planning. It demonstrates how language may shape aspects of cognition outside of the language domain, therefore characterising language as one of the critical stepping stones for successful cognitive development.During this Fellowship, I will pursue the following objectives:I will build my research track record by publishing papers based on my PhD and share my findings with academics to form new connections with researchers who study language development in different populations. This will benefit my long-term aim of bridging the gap between research on deafness and language development in other children with atypical language development experiences. Such research and collaborations will be critical for informing behavioural interventions that aim to facilitate cognitive and language development in children.I will dedicate substantial time during my Fellowship to communicate findings from my thesis to the general public, deaf individuals, and practitioners. My thesis recognises the complexity of the interactions between language and cognition, and emphasises that access to language of any modality supports even nonverbal aspects of cognition. This has implications for the scientific understanding of interactions between language and cognition, for how early intervention and educational programmes may be promoting language and cognitive development in deaf children, and for how these aspects of development are assessed in this population. In particular, assessments conducted in a single language and modality (e.g. spoken English) may not be representative of the children's actual language ability if their environment is multi-modal. This is important evidence to change current practice, where assessments are limited to the language known by the tester.I will also gain new skills by attending a course on computational methods in research on cognition, which will help me form a bridge between research on deafness and in children with atypical language development experiences. I will also expand my research portfolio by creating an online- based task to assess word/sign-learning in deaf individuals. This will allow me to build on my PhD, consolidate plans for my future research programme, generate pilot data for funding applications, and pursue new avenues in research on language development and learning. I will focus my research programme on exploring associations between various cognitive processes (e.g., components of executive function and motivation) and language skills in deaf individuals.By achieving these key aims, I will be able to develop a competitive research proposal that builds on my previous work and incorporates other cognitive processes outside of the language domain into the picture. I will focus on what may support the development of language skills in deaf individuals. By targeting children that are at risk of developmental language delays, by either selecting those from lower socio-economic backgrounds, or from countries where intervention and education do not shield children from issues resulting from the inaccessibility of language input (e.g. Georgia), I will be able to provide a better understanding of the relationship between language deprivation, learning, and cognition. Better knowledge of the factors that aid language learning in both spoken and signed modalities is critical for designing interventions.