Motivational Interviewing in Vocational Rehabilitation: Why it Matters for People with Disabilities

Motivational Interviewing (MI) is increasingly being trained within and integrated into public vocational rehabilitation (VR) programs based on its efficacy in related fields and yet research specific to the efficacy of MI in public VR programs is almost nonexistent. This study used a quantitative sequential design to explore relationships between MI training, MI proficiency, and VR customer outcomes within the State of Vermont’s Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (VT DVR) program. The study occurred in two phases. In the first phase, 30 VR counselors were recruited, and their level of MI proficiency was established using the Motivational Interviewing Treatment Integrity Measure 4.2.1. In the second phase, MI proficiency data and MI training data from the 30 VR counselors and VR customer data from 1750 cases were analyzed using hierarchical multiple linear regression and logistical regression models. Statistically significant positive correlations were found between MI training and VR counselors’ MI proficiency with a moderate predictive effect. Statistically significant positive correlations were also found between MI proficiency and overall activity and quicker engagement in Work Based Learning (WBL) activities on the part of VR customers. The findings of the study contribute to the literature of vocational rehabilitation by offering preliminary evidence of a meaningful relationship between MI proficient VR counselors and VR customer outcomes. The findings also highlight the effectiveness of the MI training design implemented by VT DVR and offers justification for continued investment of resources in supporting VR counselors in becoming proficient in MI

Children creating core properties of language : evidence from an emerging sign language in Nicaragua

A new sign language has been created by deaf Nicaraguans over the past 35 years, providing an opportunity to observe the inception of universal hallmarks of language. The present study shows that children initially creating the language began analyzing complex events into basic elements, and sequencing these elements into hierarchically structured expressions, following principles not observed in gestures accompanying speech in the surrounding language. Successive cohorts of learners extended this procedure, transforming Nicaraguan signing from its early gestural form into a linguistic system. We propose that this early segmentation and recombination reflect mechanisms with which children learn, and thereby perpetuate, language. Thus, children naturally possess learning abilities capable of giving language its fundamental structure

WHO chased the bird? Narrative cohesion in Nicaraguan signing

WHO chased the bird? Narrative cohesion in Nicaraguan signin

Digital Language Death

Of the approximately 7,000 languages spoken today, some 2,500 are generally considered endangered. Here we argue that this consensus figure vastly underestimates the danger of digital language death, in that less than 5% of all languages can still ascend to the digital realm. We present evidence of a massive die-off caused by the digital divide

The Influence of the Visual Modality on Language Structure and Conventionalization: Insights From Sign Language and Gesture

For humans, the ability to communicate and use language is instantiated not only in the vocal modality but also in the visual modality. The main examples of this are sign languages and (co-speech) gestures. Sign languages, the natural languages of Deaf communities, use systematic and conventionalized movements of the hands, face, and body for linguistic expression. Co-speech gestures, though non-linguistic, are produced in tight semantic and temporal integration with speech and constitute an integral part of language together with speech. The articles in this issue explore and document how gestures and sign languages are similar or different and how communicative expression in the visual modality can change from being gestural to grammatical in nature through processes of conventionalization. As such, this issue contributes to our understanding of how the visual modality shapes language and the emergence of linguistic structure in newly developing systems. Studying the relationship between signs and gestures provides a new window onto the human ability to recruit multiple levels of representation (e.g., categorical, gradient, iconic, abstract) in the service of using or creating conventionalized communicative systems

A new perspective on word order preferences: the availability of a lexicon triggers the use of SVO word order

Word orders are not distributed equally: SOV and SVO are the most prevalent among the world's languages. While there is a consensus that SOV might be the "default" order in human languages, the factors that trigger the preference for SVO are still a matter of debate. Here we provide a new perspective on word order preferences that emphasizes the role of a lexicon. We propose that while there is a tendency to favor SOV in the case of improvised communication, the exposure to a shared lexicon makes it possible to liberate sufficient cognitive resources to use syntax. Consequently SVO, the more efficient word order to express syntactic relations, emerges. To test this hypothesis, we taught Italian (SVO) and Persian (SOV) speakers a set of gestures and later asked them to describe simple events. Confirming our prediction, results showed that in both groups a consistent use of SVO emerged after acquiring a stable gesture repertoire

Ants, Tetramorium species E, learn to avoid predatory antlions' pit traps

Establishing and maintaining reference is a crucial part of discourse. In spoken languages, differential linguistic devices mark referents occurring in different referential contexts, that is, introduction, maintenance, and re-introduction contexts. Speakers using gestures as well as users of sign languages have also been shown to mark referents differentially depending on the referential context. This article investigates the modality-specific contribution of the visual modality in marking referential context by providing a direct comparison between sign language (German Sign Language; DGS) and co-speech gesture with speech (German) in elicited narratives. Across all forms of expression, we find that referents in subject position are referred to with more marking material in re-introduction contexts compared to maintenance contexts. Furthermore, we find that spatial modification is used as a modality-specific strategy in both DGS and German co-speech gesture, and that the configuration of referent locations in sign space and gesture space corresponds in an iconic and consistent way to the locations of referents in the narrated event. However, we find that spatial modification is used in different ways for marking re-introduction and maintenance contexts in DGS and German co-speech gesture. The findings are discussed in relation to the unique contribution of the visual modality to reference tracking in discourse when it is used in a unimodal system with full linguistic structure (i.e., as in sign) versus in a bimodal system that is a composite of speech and gestur

The cognitive roots of regularization in language

Regularization occurs when the output a learner produces is less variable than the linguistic data they observed. In an artificial language learning experiment, we show that there exist at least two independent sources of regularization bias in cognition: a domain-general source based on cognitive load and a domain-specific source triggered by linguistic stimuli. Both of these factors modulate how frequency information is encoded and produced, but only the production-side modulations result in regularization (i.e. cause learners to eliminate variation from the observed input). We formalize the definition of regularization as the reduction of entropy and find that entropy measures are better at identifying regularization behavior than frequency-based analyses. Using our experimental data and a model of cultural transmission, we generate predictions for the amount of regularity that would develop in each experimental condition if the artificial language were transmitted over several generations of learners. Here we find that the effect of cognitive constraints can become more complex when put into the context of cultural evolution: although learning biases certainly carry information about the course of language evolution, we should not expect a one-to-one correspondence between the micro-level processes that regularize linguistic datasets and the macro-level evolution of linguistic regularity.Comment: 21 page