The Fourth International Conference on Sign Language Acquisition

第四届国际手语习得会议（ICSLA）将以虚拟方式召开;这将是该会议首次由美国主办。 这个三年一度的会议聚集了全球手语习得专家。研究手语的习得极大地增强了我们对一般语言发展、输入和熟练程度之间的关系、多语言性以及人类学习语言能力的可能性（和局限性）的理解。 特邀主讲人将从三个核心焦点讨论手语习得的独特见解：（1）可变语言输入，（2）神经可塑性和神经多样性，（3）模态（手语，口语，写作）。 这项研究也有可能对聋人和重听儿童及其家庭的生活产生深远的影响。为此，会议将包括专业发展活动，旨在吸引包括手语教学，聋人教育，早期干预和言语语言病理学在内的对齐领域的从业者。其目标是使手语习得研究对从业人员开放，并使研究人员了解与聋哑儿童工作最密切的人的实际需求。 来自国家科学基金会的资金将支持教育，提高ICSLA的可访问性，多样性和包容性，为来自代表性不足群体的学生和与会者提供补贴，并为所有会议活动提供英语，美国手语和国际手语。这一领域的许多研究人员本身就是聋子或听力障碍者。我们邀请的六位主题演讲者中有四位是聋人，规划和科学委员会中也有聋人成员。聋人学生将通过这些榜样接受指导。我们的目标是树立一个榜样，不仅仅是为聋人与会者提供机会，而是将会议集中在聋人儿童、学生、教育工作者和研究人员的经验和专业知识上。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。

The 4th International Conference on Sign Language Acquisition (ICSLA) will convene virtually; this will be the first time the conference has had a United States host. This triennial conference gathers global experts on sign language acquisition. Studying the acquisition of sign languages greatly enhances our understanding of general language development, relationships between input and proficiency, multilingualism, and the possibilities (and limitations) of the human ability to learn language. The invited keynote presenters will discuss unique insights from sign language acquisition with respect to three central foci: (1) variable language input, (2) neural plasticity and neurodiversity, and (3) modality (signing, speaking, writing). This research also has the potential for profound impacts on the lives of deaf and hard of hearing children and their families. To this end, the conference will include professional development activities designed to draw practitioners in aligned fields including sign language teaching, deaf education, early intervention, and speech-language pathology. The goal is to make sign language acquisition research accessible to practitioners, and to inform researchers of the practical needs of people working most closely with deaf children. Funding from the National Science Foundation will support education and enhance accessibility, diversity, and inclusion at ICSLA by subsidizing costs for students and attendees from underrepresented groups, and by providing for all conference activities to be accessible in English, American Sign Language, and International Sign. Many researchers in this field are themselves deaf or hard-of-hearing. Four of our six invited keynote presenters are deaf, and there are deaf members of the planning and scientific committees. Deaf students will receive mentoring through these role models. We aim to set an example by doing more than simply providing access to deaf participants, but centering the conference on the experiences and expertise of deaf children, students, educators, and researchers.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.