Acquisition of Language in Deaf Children

描述（由申请人提供）：描述：我们研究项目的目的是通过研究先天和后天对语言习得过程的不同影响，更好地理解语言习得的机制。为此，我们探讨语言习得的具体过程如何受到环境差异的影响。本项目研究延迟输入与原生输入下母语习得的本质。这个项目的动机是寻求理解语言发展的认知机制的本质，以及它们如何随着时间的推移而变化。现有的纵向案例研究数据来自四名聋儿，他们从出生开始输入美国手语（ASL）作为第一语言，另外两名聋儿从6岁开始输入美国手语，研究了关于语言习得敏感期本质的具体研究假设。长期以来，人们一直推测，为了使语言发展在正常范围内进行，必须在某个关键或敏感时期接受语言输入。这是第一个通过对儿童的纵向数据的详细分析来检验这一建议的研究，这些儿童的输入只在学龄时才开始。相关性：本项目通过研究从出生开始接触美国手语的聋儿与6岁之前没有语言输入的聋儿对美国手语的习得情况的比较，调查了语言习得可能的关键时期的本质。了解美国手语的正常发展过程以及当语言输入严重延迟时会发生什么，将有助于我们理解所有儿童的语言是如何发展的。该项目还提供了有关手语发展的宝贵信息，这些信息是了解聋儿正常和受损发展所必需的。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): DESCRIPTION: The aim of our research program is to better understand the mechanisms involved in language acquisition by examining the differing effects of nature and nurture on this process. Toward this aim, we ask how the specific course of language acquisition is affected by differences in environment. This project investigates the nature of first language acquisition under delayed input as compared with native input. The motivation for this project is the search for understanding the nature of the cognitive mechanisms of language development, and how they might change over time. Existing longitudinal case study data from four deaf children acquiring American Sign Language (ASL) as a first language with input from birth, and two with input beginning only at 6 years of age, are examined to address specific research hypotheses about the nature of a sensitive period for language acquisition. There has long been speculation that linguistic input must be received within a certain critical, or sensitive period, in order for language development to occur within normal limits. This is the first study to examine this proposal through detailed analysis of longitudinal data from children whose input begins only well into school age. RELEVANCE: This project investigates the nature of a possible critical period for language acquisition, by studying the acquisition of American Sign Language by deaf children who are exposed to it from birth, as compared with deaf children with no language input until the age of 6 years. Understanding both the normal course of development of ASL and what happens when language input is considerably delayed will help us to understand how language develops in the minds of all children. The project also supplies valuable information on sign language development, needed to understand normal and impaired development by deaf children.