Help: let them speak or sign their language

Tue Dec 10 16:09:45 UTC 2013

Figure 3 in Bergelson and Swingley (B&S) shows that the performance of the 6-9-month-olds and even 10-13-month-olds on these concrete words, while statistically significant when summing across children and trials, is markedly different from the definitive looking behavior of children older than 14 months.  B&S note this clearly and refer to it as “a discontinuity in performance”.  In their discussion, B&S present various ways of interpreting this discontinuity, all of which seem like good possibilities for follow-ups.  The main proviso I would have vis a vis this interesting and careful study is that the title overstates the findings.

—Brian MacWhinney

On Dec 9, 2013, at 6:22 PM, Denis Donovan <dmdonovan1937 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Actually, 3 years may be VERY VERY late. Consider:
> 
> Bergelson, Elika & Swingley, Daniel (2013). At 6–9 months, human infants know the meanings of many common nouns. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. PNAS Early Edition, www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1113380109 and  http://www.pnas.org/content/109/9/3253 (120913).
> 
> Our findings indicate that native-language learning in the second half of the first year goes beyond the acquisition of sound structure. The fact that even 6- to 7-mo-olds learn words suggests that conceptual and linguistic categories may influence one an- other in development from the beginning (36) and that aspects of meaning are available to guide other linguistic inferences cur- rently thought to depend only on distributional analysis of pho- nological regularities (37, 38). Understanding word meaning could also support the acquisition of syntax by guiding infants’ inferences about how nouns and words from other word classes are placed in sentences. Precocious word learning also helps explain why hearing-impaired infants identified for fitting with cochlear implants before 6 mo reveal better language skills at 2 y than children identified just a few months later: 6-mo-olds who can hear are already learning words (39). 
> 
> Best,
> 
> Denis Donovan
> 
> Denis M. Donovan, M.D., M.Ed., F.A.P.S.
> Director, EOCT Institute
> 
> Medical Director, 1983 - 2006
> The Children's Center for Developmental Psychiatry
> St. Petersburg, Florida
> 
> P.O Box 47576
> St. Petersburg, FL 33743-7576
> Phone:	727-641-8905
> DenisDonovan at EOCT-Institute.org
> dmdonovan1937 at gmail.com
> 
> 
> On Dec 9, 2013, at 3:32 PM, Aliyah MORGENSTERN wrote:
> 
>> thanks a lot!
>> Le 9 déc. 2013 à 13:45, Isa Barriere a écrit :
>> 
>>> Salut Aliyah,
>>> 
>>> Here you are: 
>>> 
>>> deborah.pichler at gallaudet.edu
>>> 
>>> Isabelle
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On Sun, Dec 8, 2013 at 10:31 PM, Isa Barriere <barriere.isa at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Deb Chen Pichler/Gallaudet presented a co-authored paper at BU this year that speaks to this issue:
>>> 
>>> Spoken language development in native signing children with cochlear implants 
>>> 
>>> K. Davidson, D. Lillo-Martin, D. Chen Pichler
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Their results show that children exposed to ASL from birth do not suffer from lg and cognitive delay observed in children with CI without ASL exposure. 
>>> 
>>> Isabelle Barriere, PhD
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On Sun, Dec 8, 2013 at 7:51 PM, Erika Hoff <erikachoff at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Dear all,
>>> 
>>> I am replying by repeating what deaf acquaintances of mine have said to me. To wit, If you are deaf you should learn sign because 
>>> 
>>> (a) when you take your implant off to swim, shower, etc. you are deaf. 
>>> (b) someday you may have an infection or something may happen so that your cochlear implant will not work or be tolerable, and then you will be deaf.
>>> (c) cochlear implants have variable outcomes. Simultaneous sign may help when the auditory signal doesn't quite do it.
>>> 
>>> Erika Hoff
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On Sun, Dec 8, 2013 at 3:28 PM, Roberta Golinkoff <Roberta at udel.edu> wrote:
>>> Hi Aliyah!
>>> 
>>> Sorry to be late in joining the party!
>>> 
>>> For your first question, here are 3 papers that make the clear case that the earlier the implantation for deaf kids the better. If implantation is done early, the use of sign may become moot -- children are also offered therapy.  However, if implantation is done later, it would seem clear that they should be offered sign ASAP.  I have no trouble with the notion of bilingual-bimodal as long as kids are flooded with oral input and not told to turn off their devices, a practice I have heard of.  
>>> 
>>> For your second questions, there will be an SRCD Social Policy report:
>>> 
>>> McCabe, A., Tamis-LeMonda, C.S., Bornstein, M. H., Cates, D. B., Golinkoff, R. M., Hirsh-Pasek, K., Hoff, E., Kuchirko, Y., Melzi, G., Mendelsohn, A., Paez, M., Song, L, & Guerra, A. W. (In press). Multilingual children: Beyond myths and towards best practices.  Social Policy Report, Society for Research in Child Development.  It will hopefully come out early in 2014.
>>> 
>>> We addressed four questions:
>>> 
>>> 1. What are the broad social and historical contexts of multilingual learners in the United States?
>>> 
>>> 2. What does a multilingual family look like? 
>>> 
>>> 3. What lessons learned with monolingual children can be applied to multilingual children?
>>> 
>>> 4. What contexts support learning multiple languages?
>>> 
>>> I think this will be very helpful to you Aliyah, when it emerges.
>>> 
>>> All best and happy holidays to you and all my other language friends!
>>> Roberta
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On Tue, Nov 26, 2013 at 9:16 PM, Eileen Graf <eileen.graf at googlemail.com> wrote:
>>> Dear Aliyah,
>>> 
>>> You might find these helpful:
>>> 
>>> [1] Place, Silvia & Hoff, Erika (2011). Properties of Dual Language Exposure That Influence 2-Year-Olds’ Bilingual Proficiency. Child Development:
>>> http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01660.x/abstract
>>> 
>>> [2] Davidson, Kathryn, Lillo-Martin, Diane & Chen Pichler (in press). Spoken English language measures of native signing children with cochlear implants. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education.
>>> Best,
>>> Eileen
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On 26 November 2013 15:01, Marinova-Todd, Stefka <stefka at audiospeech.ubc.ca> wrote:
>>> Dear Aliyah,
>>> 
>>> I am not aware of papers that speak to your first question, i.e., sign language, although there are probably some.
>>> 
>>> Regarding your second question, there are a few, mostly qualitative studies done on the effect (usually negative) of the recommendation by professionals to parents of bilingual children with autism to speak only one language (usually English in the North American context):
>>> 
>>> 1) Jegatheesan, B. (2011). Multilingual development in children with autism: Perspectives of South Asian Muslim immigrant parents on raising a child with a communicative disorder in multilingual contexts. Bilingual Research Journal, 34, 185-200.
>>> 
>>> 2) Kay‐Raining Bird, E., Lamond, E., & Holden, J. (2012).  Survey of bilingualism in autism spectrum disorders.  International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 47, 52-64.
>>> 
>>> 3) Kremer-Sadlik, T. (2005). To be or not to be bilingual: Autistic children from multilingual families. In J. Cohen, K. T. McAlister, K. Rolstad, & J. MacSwan (Eds.), Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Bilingualism (pp. 1225-1234). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.
>>> 
>>> 4) Yu, B. (2013).  Issues in bilingualism and heritage language maintenance: Perspectives of minority-language mothers of children with autism spectrum disorders.  American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 22, 10-24.
>>> 
>>> I hope those are of use to you.
>>> Best,
>>> Stefka
>>> 
>>> 
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: info-childes at googlegroups.com [mailto:info-childes at googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Aliyah MORGENSTERN
>>> Sent: November 26, 2013 1:55 PM
>>> To: info-childes at googlegroups.com
>>> Subject: Help: let them speak or sign their language
>>> 
>>> Dear info-childes,
>>> I need to find good scientific proof it you think it is relevant and exists that
>>> 1) it is better for deaf children  (even if they get cochlear implants quite young) or children who because of some rare patholgoy cannot speak (like Cornelia de Lange Syndrome) to be "given" a sign language a soon a possible and to be raised bilingual (bimodal);
>>> 2) it is better for immigrant parents to speak their native language to their children (unless they are strong psychological or other reasons not to) rather than a language they are not experts in and for primary school teachers not to put pressure on the parents for them to only speak the language of the country they live in;
>>> 
>>> Any good papers (if possible the actual paper) or references welcome especially if they treat both those issues together!
>>> 
>>> Happy Thanksgiving to our American colleagues and Happy Chanukah to our Jewish colleagues (and whoever celebrates those holidays). Sorry if I don't know about other holidays coming up in the next few days!
>>> Best,
>>> Aliyah
>>> 
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>>> 
>>> -- 
>>> Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, Ph. D.
>>> Unidel H. Rodney Sharp Professor
>>> School of Education and Departments of Psychology and Linguistics and Cognitive Science
>>> University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716
>>> Office: 302-831-1634; Fax: 302-831-4110
>>> Web page: http://udel.edu/~roberta/
>>> Author of "A Mandate for Playful Learning in Preschool: Presenting the Evidence" (Oxford)
>>>     http://www.mandateforplayfullearning.com/
>>> Please check out our doctoral program at http://www.udel.edu/education/graduate/index.html
>>> The late Mary Dunn said, "Life is the time we have to learn."
>>> 
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>>> 
>>> 
>>> -- 
>>> Erika Hoff, Professor
>>> Department of Psychology
>>> Florida Atlantic University
>>> 3200 College Ave.
>>> Davie, FL 33314
>>> 
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>> 
>> 
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> 
> 
> 
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