Real Time Processing of ASL in Deaf and Hearing Native-Signing Infants

通用新生儿听力筛查为识别早期听力损失儿童提供了前所未有的机会，据估计，目前美国每1,000名新生儿中有1至6名患有听力损失。听力损失儿童长期面临语言和识字能力不佳的风险，使他们面临相当大的学业和学习困难的风险。研究表明，从聋哑父母那里出生的聋哑婴儿接触到自然发生的手语，在学业上胜过那些在以后的生活中从非母语听力父母那里学习手语的聋哑人。然而，仍然非常需要关于儿童学习ASL的早期语言发展的科学证据，并且没有研究探索婴儿和幼儿使用在线措施对手语的早期实时处理。该项目通过Fernald等人开发的边看边听（LWL）程序的新适应，开发了第一个对学习ASL的婴幼儿语言解释效率的评估，(1998; 2008）。在过去的十年中，Fernald小组探索了年幼的听力儿童如何在学习倾听口语中的含义时发展关键的处理技能，发现处理效率的显着个体差异强烈预测了后来的语言结果。在将这项研究扩展到学习ASL的儿童时，我们建立在这些广泛的单语和双语儿童学习口语的研究基础上，以及Corina实验室对聋人ASL处理的开创性研究基础上。参与者包括两组18-36月龄的学习ASL的儿童：（a）聋人父母的聋人儿童（“聋人的孩子”- DODs，n=25）和（B）聋人父母的听力儿童（“聋人成人的孩子”- CODAs，n=25）。CODAs也将有不同数量的英语口语接触。我们还包括第三个对照组（c）听力儿童只学习英语（n=25）。为了评估实时语言处理效率，DOD和CODA参与者将在适用于符号刺激的LWL-ASL任务中进行测试; CODA儿童和仅学习英语的听力儿童将使用英语口语刺激进行类似程序的测试。这两项任务都评估了孩子们理解熟悉的符号/单词的速度和准确性，以及他们使用熟悉的符号/单词的知识来学习新符号/单词的技能。符号/单词词汇将通过家长报告和面对面工具进行离线评估。6个月后，将对一部分儿童进行重新测试。拟议的研究将是第一个研究的后果，在早期的实时手语理解的母语学习者的个体差异，提供了一个机会，探讨在聋人和听力标志暴露的婴儿在符号处理效率的语言暴露的变化的作用。这项探索性研究还将导致开发潜在的有价值的新措施，用于未来评估的儿童谁在不同类型的手语接触，提供基准的临床医生和照顾者谁需要图表的语言能力在聋儿接受早期干预。 公共卫生相关性：虽然出生时听力损失的婴儿在语言和识字方面表现不佳的风险很大，但人们对聋哑儿童如何熟练地解释美国手语（ASL）等手语知之甚少。在这个开创性的翻译项目中，我们采用了口语理解研究中使用的创新措施来研究儿童学习ASL的接受流利性的早期发展。通过探索口语和手语语言处理实时效率的个体差异，这项研究将为临床医生评估接受早期干预的聋儿的语言能力提供有价值的新工具。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Universal newborn hearing screening provides unprecedented opportunities to identify children with early hearing loss, estimated to affect 1 to 6 per 1,000 newborns in the U.S. today. Children with hearing loss are at chronic risk of underperforming in language and literacy, placing them at considerable risk for academic and learning difficulties. Research has shown that deaf infants exposed to naturally occurring signed languages from birth from deaf signing parents academically outperform deaf individuals who learn sign later in life from non-native hearing parents. Yet, there remains a great need for scientific evidence on early language development in children learning ASL, and no studies have explored the early real-time processing of signed languages by infants and young children using online measures. This project develops the first assessment of efficiency in language interpretation by infants and toddlers learning ASL, through a novel adaptation of the looking-while-listening (LWL) procedure developed by Fernald et al., (1998; 2008). Over the last decade, the Fernald group has explored how young hearing children develop crucial processing skills as they learn to listen for meaning in spoken language, discovering significant individual differences in processing efficiency that strongly predict later language outcomes. In extending this research to children learning ASL, we build on these extensive previous studies with monolingual and bilingual children learning spoken languages, as well as on pioneering studies from the Corina lab on ASL processing by deaf adults. Participants include two groups of 18-36 mo-old children learning ASL: (a) deaf children of deaf parents ("deaf-of-deaf" - DODs, n=25) and (b) hearing children of deaf parents ("children of deaf adults" - CODAs, n=25). CODAs will also have various amounts of exposure to spoken English. We also include a third comparison group of (c) hearing children learning only English (n=25). To assess real-time language processing efficiency, DOD and CODA participants will be tested in the LWL-ASL task adapted for use with sign stimuli; CODA children and hearing children learning only English will be tested on a comparable procedure using spoken English-language stimuli. Both tasks assess children's speed and accuracy in interpreting familiar signs/words, and also their skill at using knowledge of familiar signs/words to learn novel signs/words. Sign/word vocabulary will be assessed offline with parent report and face-to-face instruments. A sub-set of the children will be re-tested 6 months later. The proposed research will be the first study of the consequences of individual differences in early real-time sign comprehension in native learners of ASL, providing the opportunity to explore the role of variation in language exposure in sign processing efficiency in both deaf and hearing sign-exposed infants. This exploratory study will also lead to the development of potentially valuable new measures for use in future assessments of children who vary in types of sign language exposure, providing benchmarks for clinicians and caregivers who need to chart linguistic competencies in deaf children receiving early interventions. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Although infants born with hearing loss are at chronic risk of underperforming in language and literacy, little is known about how deaf children develop proficiency in interpreting signed languages such as American Sign Language (ASL). In this pioneering, translational project, we adapt innovative measures used in research on spoken-language understanding to study the early development of receptive fluency in children learning ASL. By exploring individual differences in real-time efficiency in language processing in both spoken and signed languages, this research will yield valuable new tools for clinicians assessing linguistic competencies in deaf children receiving early interventions.