Bridging Language Gaps for Deaf Children

"Brain systems are on different maturation timetables, and one of the most unforgiving is the system for language development," says Dr. Laura-Ann Petitto of Galluadet University. "It peaks at age 3.. and if the child doesn't experience exposure to the fundamental patterns of language in early life—6 to 10 months old—you are putting the child at severe risk" of major language, reading, and even math delays later on. "That may explain why deaf children of parents who sign from birth perform significantly better in reading and attention outcomes than deaf children whose parents did not sign," according to Education Week. Read the full story here.

Language is a Fluid thing

UC Berkeley linguistics lecturer Patrick Boudreault, who is deaf, explains that language is something universal that happens in our minds, whether it's communicated with our hands or our voice.

Gally Opens new Research Lab

Gallaudet University has opened a new brain and language laboratory. The facility is designed to study how people learn and share language. Director Laura-Ann Petitto, a cognitive and developmental neuroscientist, says the goal of the lab, dubbed BL2, is "to investigate new scientific questions and to make significant discoveries in the fields of cognitive neuroscience and children's language development." BL2 includes one of the world's most advanced brain imaging systems. The fNIRS can track the movement of blood in the brain of someone as the person reacts to various stimuli.

Infant Screenings

Does it make a difference in language development to ID a baby as deaf? Researchers in the UK are looking into it. They are studying whether deaf teens have better language skills if doctors determine they were deaf as infants. The University of Southampton study is comparing a pilot screening program conducted in Southampton and London in the 1990s to how those kids are doing now as teenagers. They already found that the screening seemed to make a difference when the children were 8 years old, and they want to see if that still holds true now.

Signing, Singing, Speaking

National Public Radio has a story called Signing, Singing, Speaking: How Language Evolved that you can read or listen to here. David Armstrong, who "spent decades studying the origin of language before retiring from Gallaudet University.. says gestures involving the hands may well have been the earliest form of complex human communication."

The Orgins of Language

Sign language is helping researchers better understand the origins of language. University of Rochester scientists checked the brain scans of native signers while watching other native signers communicate 24 sentences twice in ASL. The first run through emphasized word-order arrangement, while the next time would depended on inflection for understanding. It turns out, different parts of the brain are used for each type of communition.

The finding may support the idea that it was trade between different groups of early humans that got the brain working on language. This would also mean that language is a much more recent development than many experts believe.

Chatterboxes

"No mute tribe has ever been discovered, and there is no record that a region has served as a "cradle" of language from which it spread to previously languageless groups." - Steven Pinker in The Language Instinct