Psych 56L/ Ling 51: Acquisition of LanguageAnnouncementsSpecial PopulationsWhy special populations?Deaf ChildrenThe situationAbout Sign LanguagesSlide 8Slide 9Slide 10Progression of Sign Language AcquisitionOral Language Development in Deaf ChildrenSlide 13Deaf Children: RecapSlide 15Blind ChildrenWhy blind children?Linguistic Development of Blind ChildrenInsight into first language acquisitionMentally Retarded ChildrenA Heterogeneous GroupDown SyndromeDown Syndrome ImplicationsWilliams SyndromeWilliams Syndrome: Copying Simple PicturesSlide 26Williams Syndrome: “Draw An Elephant”Williams Syndrome: “Describe An Elephant”Slide 29Describing Complex PicturesWilliams Syndrome: Conclusive?Williams Syndrome: Neurological UnderpinningsWilliams Syndrome: ImplicationsAutistic ChildrenCharacteristics of AutismLanguage in Lower-Functioning AutisticsLanguage in Higher-Functioning AutisticsSlide 38Autism: ImplicationsSpecific Language ImpairmentCharacteristics of Specific Language Impairment (SLI)Slide 42Slide 43Accounting for Specific Language Impairment (SLI)Slide 45Slide 46Genetic Factors in Specific Language Impairment (SLI)SLI: ImplicationsQuestions?Psych 56L/ Ling 51:Acquisition of LanguageLecture 15Language in Special PopulationsAnnouncementsHW3 due today (should be returned 3/9/10)Review questions available for language development in special populationsReview session in class on 3/9/10 for finalFinal: 3/11/10Please fill out course evaluationsSpecial PopulationsQuickTime™ and a decompressorare needed to see this picture.QuickTime™ and a decompressorare needed to see this picture.QuickTime™ and a decompressorare needed to see this picture.QuickTime™ and a decompressorare needed to see this picture.Why special populations?Not everyone is a typically developing child.From a research perspective, this is great - we can explore how different human abilities contribute to the human language acquisition process.Does language develop differently if there’s no auditory input (deaf children)? What about if there’s no visual input (blind children)?What if general intelligence is lower (mentally retarded children)?What if social abilities are lagging (autistic children)?What about if only language abilities are lagging (specific language impairment children)?Deaf ChildrenQuickTime™ and a decompressorare needed to see this picture.The situationFocus on prelingually deaf children, who have not been exposed to spoken language and cannot (even with hearing aids) hear the spoken language around them.Different ways for them to receive language input: (1) Sign language (manual language), ~10% of deaf children, usually those who have a deaf parent (deaf-of-deaf children) Impoverished language input: (2) Oralist tradition: only the visible forms of spoken language (3) Total communication: oral language combined with some kind of gestural systemAbout Sign LanguagesNot just pantomime!Sign languages are real languages - they have lexicons, morphology, and a grammar.Go here for some examples of American Sign Language (ASL):http://aslvlog.net/index.php?c=18About Sign LanguagesSome differences from spoken languages: Some signs are iconic (TREE in American Sign Language (ASL) looks like a tree waving in the wind)QuickTime™ and a decompressorare needed to see this picture.About Sign LanguagesSome differences from spoken languages: ASL uses pointing. QuickTime™ and a decompressorare needed to see this picture.About Sign LanguagesThe point: learning sign language requires the same thing as learning a spoken language - figuring out the arbitrary mapping between form and meaning (word-meaning mapping for lexicon), and how to combine elements together in order to form more complex meanings (words, sentences). QuickTime™ and a decompressorare needed to see this picture.Progression of Sign Language AcquisitionChildren pass through the same stages as in spoken language acquisition, in the same order: manual babbling to single-sign productions, to multisign combinations, followed by morphological development and more complex syntax.Children make the same kind of mistakes as in spoken language acquisition, such as overregularization errors in morphology, ignoring parental corrections of form, pronoun reversal errors (confusing what “I” and “you” mean) - despite these being signified by pointing gestures.Oral Language Development in Deaf ChildrenBefore cochlear implants, the only input a deaf child learning an oral language has is the shape of the lips. This is hard! Several sounds share the same mouth shape.Mouth “Elephant shoes” vs. “I love you.”QuickTime™ and a decompressorare needed to see this picture.QuickTime™ and a decompressorare needed to see this picture.Oral Language Development in Deaf ChildrenPhonological development: Deaf children differ during the babble stage from hearing children in both the quality and quantity of sound production. However, some orally trained children develop enough phonological awareness to identify rhymes from lip-reading.Lexical development: oral vocabulary is delayed and proceeds more slowly.Syntactic development: delayed, and endpoint of development falls far short of normal language competence.John goes to fishing. Him wanted go. Who TV watched?Who a boy gave you a ball? Tom has pushing the wagon.Deaf Children: RecapWhen children receive normal language input (such as sign language from a native sign language speaking parent), their linguistic development is the same as that of children who acquire oral languages. Deaf children are not inherently handicapped with respect to language acquisition.When children receive impoverished language input (such as only being able to lip-read), their development is delayed and, in some cases, they never reach full proficiency. This is what we might expect in any learning environment, not just oral language vs. manual languages.Deaf Children: RecapImplication 1: Language is a property of the human brain, not a property predicated on the mouth and ears.Implication 2: Since deaf children make the same mistakes in learning as hearing children - despite sign languages being more naturally iconic - suggests that acquiring a formal grammatical system is a separate cognitive enterprise from learning how to communicate. If it wasn’t, sign languages should be easier to pick up than spoken languages.Blind ChildrenQuickTime™ and a decompressorare needed to see this picture.Why blind