Effects of age on American Sign Language sentence repetition.

The study of deaf users of signed languages, who often experience delays in primary language (L1) acquisition, permits a unique opportunity to examine the effects of aging on the processing of an L1 acquired under delayed or protracted development. A cohort of 107 congenitally deaf adult signers ages 45–85 years who were exposed to American Sign Language (ASL) either in infancy, early childhood, or late childhood were tested using an ASL sentence repetition test. Participants repeated 20 sentences that gradually increased in length and complexity. Logistic mixed-effects regression with the variables of chronological age (CA) and age of acquisition (AoA) was used to assess sentence repetition accuracy. Results showed that CA was a significant predictor, with increased age being associated with decreased likelihood to reproduce a sentence correctly (odds ratio [OR] = 0.56, p = .010). In addition, effects of AoA were observed. Relative to native deaf signers, those who acquired ASL in early childhood were less likely to successfully reproduce a sentence (OR = 0.42, p = .003), as were subjects who learned ASL in late childhood (OR = 0.27, p < .001). These data show that aging affects verbatim recall in deaf users of ASL and that the age of sign language acquisition has a significant and lasting effect on repetition ability, even after decades of sign language use. These data show evidence for life-span continuity of early life effects

Simultaneous language activation: a non-linguistic pictorial experiment with second language learners of American Sign Language

Thesis (M.A., Child Development (Theory and Research))--California State University, Sacramento, 2013.How bilinguals mentally store representations of their two languages in one mind is essential for understanding the mental processes involved during linguistic and nonlinguistic experiences. Research suggests that mental representations for both languages are simultaneously activated when bilinguals read, speak, write or listen to only one language (Kroll, Bogulski, McClain, 2012). However, this research is limited because the experiments have relied upon language-based stimuli and participants have primarily been highly proficient spoken language bilinguals. To address these limitations, the current study explored simultaneous language activation in second language learners of American Sign Language (ASL) using a non-linguistic pictorial task. \ud The purpose of the current study was to explore simultaneous language activation in individuals learning ASL. The research question was whether second language learners of ASL simultaneously activate English and ASL and if so, whether priming would have an impact on the level of activation.\ud \ud A sample of twenty-three hearing female college students was given a non-linguistic pictorial task. Ten of these participants received a priming treatment before taking the task. Response times were recorded for competitive stimuli (semantically unrelated but phonologically related in ASL) and non-competitive stimuli (semantically related and phonologically related in ASL) to measure simultaneous language activation.\ud Findings revealed that second language learners of ASL do not simultaneous activate ASL and English, even when primed. Statistically insignificant findings were found between competitive and non-competitive stimuli. Furthermore, statistically insignificant findings were found between the primed and control group. These results could suggest that simultaneous language activation may spread differently for bilinguals who learn a second language later in life. Additionally, perceiving pictorials may spread activation differently than has been demonstrated for perceiving language-based stimuli.Child Developmen

Electrophysiological Examination of Ambient Speech Processing in Children With Cochlear Implants.

PurposeThis research examined the expression of cortical auditory evoked potentials in a cohort of children who received cochlear implants (CIs) for treatment of congenital deafness (n = 28) and typically hearing controls (n = 28).MethodWe make use of a novel electroencephalography paradigm that permits the assessment of auditory responses to ambiently presented speech and evaluates the contributions of concurrent visual stimulation on this activity.ResultsOur findings show group differences in the expression of auditory sensory and perceptual event-related potential components occurring in 80- to 200-ms and 200- to 300-ms time windows, with reductions in amplitude and a greater latency difference for CI-using children. Relative to typically hearing children, current source density analysis showed muted responses to concurrent visual stimulation in CI-using children, suggesting less cortical specialization and/or reduced responsiveness to auditory information that limits the detection of the interaction between sensory systems.ConclusionThese findings indicate that even in the face of early interventions, CI-using children may exhibit disruptions in the development of auditory and multisensory processing

Electrophysiological Examination of Ambient Speech Processing in Children With Cochlear Implants

Purpose: This research examined the expression of cortical auditory evoked potentials in a cohort of children who received cochlear implants (CIs) for treatment of congenital deafness (n = 28) and typically hearing controls (n = 28). Method: We make use of a novel electroencephalography paradigm that permits the assessment of auditory responses to ambiently presented speech and evaluates the contributions of concurrent visual stimulation on this activity. Results: Our findings show group differences in the expression of auditory sensory and perceptual event-related potential components occurring in 80- to 200-ms and 200- to 300-ms time windows, with reductions in amplitude and a greater latency difference for CI-using children. Relative to typically hearing children, current source density analysis showed muted responses to concurrent visual stimulation in CI-using children, suggesting less cortical specialization and/or reduced responsiveness to auditory information that limits the detection of the interaction between sensory systems. Conclusion: These findings indicate that even in the face of early interventions, CI-using children may exhibit disruptions in the development of auditory and multisensory processing