Language Comprehension in Deaf Children

聋人不像正常人那样自然地、毫不费力地习得口语，他们不能完全接触口语。由于缺乏口语，英国的大多数聋哑儿童。识字能力差，未能达到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情况使人们越来越关注为什么聋人儿童的表现不能与听力正常的同龄人相提并论。很明显，良好的语言技能是良好读写技能的根本基础。这对大多数聋哑儿童来说是一个问题，他们没有充分的机会使用口语，也不能用口语来发展识字技能。然而，研究表明，抢先体验手语-所有失聪儿童都能使用手语-也有助于阅读和书写口语。事实上，有一小部分聋儿的研究表明，抢先体验手语和口语与识字能力的发展以及认知和社会效益之间存在着显著的正相关关系。在目前的项目中，我们调查的作用，英国手语（BSL）发挥在发展语言技能不可或缺的识字聋哑儿童。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读写能力的发展。在这样做的过程中，我们的目标是制定新的语言措施，密切监测和跟踪聋哑儿童的语言技能。在制定这些措施时，我们将更多地了解4至20岁的聋哑儿童和年轻人的BSL技能是如何发展的，这在英国是一个基本上未被研究的群体，和世界各地。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掌握足够的识字技能。此外，一个新的标准化评估工具，以评估BSL的理解能力将提供给研究人员和从业人员。这是一个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人员能够监测这一人群的手语发展。跟踪手语发展的能力将使从业者能够尽早发现语言困难，这意味着他们将能够在必要时制定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.