Discourses Of Prejudice In The professions: The Case Of Sign Languages

There is no evidence that learning a natural human language is cognitively harmful to children. To the contrary, multilingualism has been argued to be beneficial to all. Nevertheless, many professionals advise the parents of deaf children that their children should not learn a sign language during their early years, despite strong evidence across many research disciplines that sign languages are natural human languages. Their recommendations are based on a combination of misperceptions about (1) the difficulty of learning a sign language, (2) the effects of bilingualism, and particularly bimodalism, (3) the bona fide status of languages that lack a written form, (4) the effects of a sign language on acquiring literacy, (5) the ability of technologies to address the needs of deaf children and (6) the effects that use of a sign language will have on family cohesion. We expose these misperceptions as based in prejudice and urge institutions involved in educating professionals concerned with the healthcare, raising and educating of deaf children to include appropriate information about first language acquisition and the importance of a sign language for deaf children. We further urge such professionals to advise the parents of deaf children properly, which means to strongly advise the introduction of a sign language as soon as hearing loss is detected

Interpreting silent gesture:Cognitive biases and rational inference in emerging language systems

Natural languages make prolific use of conventional constituent‐ordering patterns to indicate “who did what to whom,” yet the mechanisms through which these regularities arise are not well understood. A series of recent experiments demonstrates that, when prompted to express meanings through silent gesture, people bypass native language conventions, revealing apparent biases underpinning word order usage, based on the semantic properties of the information to be conveyed. We extend the scope of these studies by focusing, experimentally and computationally, on the interpretation of silent gesture. We show cross‐linguistic experimental evidence that people use variability in constituent order as a cue to obtain different interpretations. To illuminate the computational principles that govern interpretation of non‐conventional communication, we derive a Bayesian model of interpretation via biased inductive inference and estimate these biases from the experimental data. Our analyses suggest people's interpretations balance the ambiguity that is characteristic of emerging language systems, with ordering preferences that are skewed and asymmetric, but defeasible

Ensuring Language Acquisition For Deaf Children: What Linguists Can Do

Parents of small deaf children need guidance on constructing home and school environments that affect normal language acquisition. They often turn to physicians and spiritual leaders and, increasingly, the internet. These sources can be underinformed about crucial issues, such as matters of brain plasticity connected to the risk of linguistic deprivation, and delay or disruption in the development of cognitive skills interwoven with linguistic ability. We have formed a team of specialists in education, linguistics, pediatric medicine, and psychology, and at times specialists in theology and in law have joined our group. We argue that deaf children should be taught a sign language in the early years. This does not preclude oral-aural training and assistive technology. With a strong first language (a sign language), the child can become bilingual (with the written form of the ambient spoken language and, perhaps, the spoken form), accruing the benefits of bilingualism. We have published in medical journals, addressing primary care physicians, in a journal with a spiritual-leader readership, and in a health-law journal. Articles in progress address medical educators and practitioners. Team members present findings at conferences, work on lobbying and legislative efforts with the National Association of the Deaf, and spread the word at conferences of target audiences. We share our work in Word format, so that anyone can easily appropriate it for our common interests. One of our articles has been downloaded over 27,000 times (as of April 2014), and we are asked to consult with committees in other countries as they draft national policies

Avoiding Linguistic Neglect Of Deaf Children

Deaf children who are not provided with a sign language early in their development are at risk of linguistic deprivation; they may never be fluent in any language, and they may have deficits in cognitive activities that rely on a firm foundation in a first language. These children are socially and emotionally isolated. Deafness makes a child vulnerable to abuse, and linguistic deprivation compounds the abuse because the child is less able to report it. Parents rely on professionals as guides in making responsible choices in raising and educating their deaf children. But lack of expertise on language acquisition and overreliance on access to speech often result in professionals not recommending that the child be taught a sign language or, worse, that the child be denied sign language. We recommend action that those in the social welfare services can implement immediately to help protect the health of deaf children

What Medical Education Can Do To Ensure Robust Language Development In Deaf Children

The typical medical education curriculum does not address language development for deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children. However, this issue is medical because of the frequency with which DHH children as a population face health complications due to linguistic deprivation. The critical period for language development is early; if a child does not acquire an intact language before age five, the child is unlikely to ever have native-like use of any language. Such linguistic deprivation carries risks of cognitive delay and psycho-social health difficulties. Spoken language is inaccessible for many DHH children despite assistive-technology developments. But sign languages, because they are visual, are accessible to most DHH children. To ensure language development, DHH children should have exposure to a sign language in their early years, starting at birth. If they also receive successful training in processing and producing a spoken language, they will have the many benefits of bimodal bilingualism. Undergraduate medical education curricula should include information about early language acquisition so that physicians can advise families of deaf newborns and newly deafened young children how to protect their cognitive health. Graduate medical education in primary care, pediatrics, and otolaryngology should include extensive information about amplification/cochlear implants, language modality, and the latest research/practices to promote the development and education of DHH children. Training in how to establish connections with local authorities and services that can support parents and child should be included as well. Further, students need to learn how to work with sign language interpreters in caring for DHH patients. We offer suggestions as to how medical curricula can be appropriately enriched and point to existing programs and initiatives that can serve as resources

Preventing the Selection of "Deaf Embryos" Under the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008:Problematizing Disability?

Section 14(4) of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 imposes – within the general licensing conditions listed in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 – a prohibition to prevent the selection and implantation of embryos for the purpose of creating a child who will be born with a “serious disability.” This article offers a perspective that demonstrates the problematic nature of the consultation, review, and legislative reform process surrounding s 14(4). The term “serious disability” is not defined within the legislation, but we highlight the fact that s 14(4) was passed with the case of selecting deaf children in mind. We consider some of the literature on the topic of disability and deafness, which, we think, casts some doubt on the view that deafness is a “serious disability.” The main position we advance is that the lack of serious engagement with alternative viewpoints during the legislative process was unsatisfactory. We argue that the contested nature of deafness necessitates a more robust consultation process and a clearer explanation and defence of the normative position that underpins s 14(4)

Academic attainment in deaf and hard-of-hearing students in distance education

This study compared outcomes in deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) students and nondisabled students taking courses by distance learning with the UK Open University in 2012. DHH students who had no additional disabilities were more likely to complete their courses than nondisabled students, and they were just as likely to pass the courses that they completed and to obtain good grades on the courses that they passed. DHH students who had additional disabilities were less likely to complete their courses, less likely to pass the courses that they completed, and less likely to obtain good grades on the courses that they pass than were nondisabled students. It is concluded that hearing loss per se has no effect on academic attainment, but that additional disabilities may have an impact on DHH students’ academic performance

X chromosome-wide analyses of genomic DNA methylation states and gene expression in male and female neutrophils

The DNA methylation status of human X chromosomes from male and female neutrophils was identified by high-throughput sequencing of HpaII and MspI digested fragments. In the intergenic and intragenic regions on the X chromosome, the sites outside CpG islands were heavily hypermethylated to the same degree in both genders. Nearly half of X chromosome promoters were either hypomethylated or hypermethylated in both females and males. Nearly one third of X chromosome promoters were a mixture of hypomethylated and heterogeneously methylated sites in females and were hypomethylated in males. Thus, a large fraction of genes that are silenced on the inactive X chromosome are hypomethylated in their promoter regions. These genes frequently belong to the evolutionarily younger strata of the X chromosome. The promoters that were hypomethylated at more than two sites contained most of the genes that escaped silencing on the inactive X chromosome. The overall levels of expression of X-linked genes were indistinguishable in females and males, regardless of the methylation state of the inactive X chromosome. Thus, in addition to DNA methylation, other factors are involved in the fine tuning of gene dosage compensation in neutrophils

A look at the other 90 per cent: Investigating British Sign Language vocabulary knowledge in deaf children from different language learning backgrounds

In this study we present new data on deaf children's receptive and expressive vocabulary knowledge in British Sign Language (BSL) from a sample consisting of children with deaf parents, children with hearing parents, and children with additional needs. Their performance on three BSL vocabulary tasks was compared with (previously reported findings from) a sample of deaf fluent signers. We use these data to assess the effects of some key demographic/ child variables on deaf signing children's vocabulary and discuss findings in the relation to the meaning of 'normative' data and samples for this heterogeneous population. Findings show no effect of the presence of additional disabilities on participants' scores for any of the three tasks. As expected, chronological age is the most significant factor in performance on all vocabulary tasks while the number of deaf relatives only becomes statistically significant for the form recall task. This study contributes to the field of sign language assessment by seeking to identify key variables in heterogeneity and how these variables affect signed vocabulary acquisition with the long-term objective of informing intervention