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

语言学习是一个强大的过程，依赖于儿童从环境中的视觉，声音和经验中学习的能力。 然而，对于美国大约20万名视力或听力残疾的儿童来说，语言学习的方式不同，关于听力和视力在语言发展中的作用，我们没有答案。发现这些问题的答案对于支持听力或视力障碍者、语言迟缓或缺陷者以及改善所有儿童的健康和教育成果至关重要。 失聪或听力有困难的儿童，没有得到手语输入或辅助技术（例如，耳蜗植入物）在获得语言技能方面表现出很大的延迟。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。 这表明视觉可以提供一条通往语言的“道路”。 与此同时，其他证据表明，视觉对于听力正常的学习者来说并不是严格必要的，因为盲人成年人基本上有正常的语言。事实上，这些人学习颜色和视觉相关的单词（“看”）类似于视力正常的同龄人。 从神经学上讲，他们的“语言”大脑区域的工作方式非常相似，而“视觉”区域则会重组。与接受人工耳蜗或手语输入的失聪婴儿不同，盲人通常不会接受（也不需要）额外的输入来支持语言。尽管在典型的发展中，视觉体验与语言学习有关（例如看到父母在看或指向哪里）。 该项目旨在提供关键证据，说明当婴儿出生时无法听到或看到时，大脑如何重新布线，以及早期大脑发育如何使语言习得成为可能。该项目还有两个教育目标，即增加公众和学童的科学知识，同时培养未来科学家的沟通、研究和教学技能。在五项研究中，该项目将检查失明，失聪/听力困难或典型发育的婴儿的语言知识和处理。考虑到婴儿在产生单词前几个月就能理解单词，这项工作主要集中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跟踪眼动和脑电波对语言刺激的反应来测量。在另一项研究中，将通过分析亲子互动的自然记录来跟踪单词学习。总之，这些方法的结果将提供关键的见解，了解儿童如何学习和成长与他们收到的语言输入类型，以及如何提高特殊人群的语言学习。该项目的教育部分包括一个多层次的研究交流计划，沿着一套课后丰富活动，为当地K-2年级学生。 这些活动将侧重于以引人入胜的体验式形式向学生教授感觉器官，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。

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.