Prof. Greg Francis 7/16/081Special types of languageIIE 366: DevelopmentalPsychologyGreg FrancisLecture 22Focus Lecture: LanguageI. Language Development in DeafChildrenII. Children with Specific LanguageImpairment (SLI)III. Bilingual DevelopmentIV. Very special caseI. Language Development in DeafChildrenA. Who are they and how do theylearn language?B. Learning sign languageC. Oral language developmentA. Who are they and how dothey learn language? .1% of children are born deaf or lose hearingbefore learning language deaf children of deaf parents learn signlanguage from the start deaf children of hearing parents learninglanguage through lip reading and gesturesB. Learning Sign Language different sign languages; ASL used in USand English-speaking Canada ASL is a real language, not pantomime mastery of ASL involves same stages andsimilar processes and similar timing“more” in ASL:hands in "loose O"toward each other, 2XProf. Greg Francis 7/16/082“sad” in ASL: loose "5" downward infront of faceC. Oral language development Not successful--less than 50% of deaf childrenachieve intelligible speech. Average deaf high school graduates read at the3rd or 4th grade level. Deaf 18-year-olds have grammar of hearing 10-year-olds. Often learn ASL, but master it only if exposedbefore 12.Newport’s (1990) data: Understandingmotion verbs-1-0.8-0.6-0.4-0.200.20.40.60.8Birth age 4-6 age 12+All may change with cochlear implanttechnologyProf. Greg Francis 7/16/083Cochlear implant Being performed at younger ages – 2 years. Earlier the better for language. Wide range of individual differences: Somechildren with cochlear implants have remarkablelanguage skill; others are better than they wouldhave been but delayed in language.II. Children with Specific LanguageImpairment (SLI)A. Characteristics of language inchildren with SLIB. Nature and nurture in SLIC. Linguistic and cognitive factors inSLIA. Characteristics of childrenwith SLI normal hearing, normal intelligence,but delayed language sometimes called “developmentallanguage disorder” or“developmental dysphasia” 3 to 5% of all children affected delay in all aspects of languageB. Nature and nurture in SLI conversations between parentsand children with SLI are more“lopsided” but is this cause oreffect? has some genetic basis,because SLI definitely runs infamiliesC. Linguistic and cognitivefactors in SLI linguistic accounts suggest that children with SLIlack some part of the basic mechanism thatallows people to master language possible cognitive (nonlanguage) factors:¸phonological memory¸temporal processingIII. Bilingual DevelopmentProf. Greg Francis 7/16/084III. Bilingual DevelopmentA. The circumstances of bilingual developmentB. Language differentiation in bilingualdevelopmentC. Effect of bilingualism on language acquisitionD. Bilingualism and cognitive developmentA. The circumstances of bilingualdevelopment Roughly half the world’s children are exposedto more than one language. How¸community itself is bilingual¸monolingual except for bilingual parent(s)¸one language at home, another in schoolB. Language differentiation in bilingualdevelopment Do young children get confused when theyhear two languages around them? No. Very rare to exchange language sounds orsyntax. Sometimes children will substitute words butthis seems to be a strategy for dealing withunknown words in one language.C. Effect of bilingualism on languageacquisition Does learning two language at once slow achild’s progress in each language individually,compared to monolinguals? Slightly. Vocabulary size in each languagetends to be smaller (particularly for productivevocabulary) but total vocabulary is about thesame.D. Bilingualism and cognitivedevelopment No harm but one apparent benefit:greater awareness of language Example: “a turtle is an airplane”¸“Can the turtle fly?¸“How does the turtle fly?”IV. Very special case Nicaraguan schools for the deaf (1979) tried to teach children to lip-read (poorresults) but children started making a pidgin (proto-language) on the playground» Lenguaje de Signos Nicaraguense(LSN) New students took the pidgin andcreated a new language (creole) Idioma de Signos Nicarguense (ISN)Prof. Greg Francis 7/16/085Next time Emotional