The myth of simplicity: sign language acquisition by Dutch deaf toddlers

Dit document is (ook) beschikbaar voor ruilverkeer - alleen door bibliotheken -. [Bestelformulier]

This is a study of deaf children's acquistion of Sign Language of the Netherlands (SLN) as a first language and their hearing parents' use of SLN as a second language. It is an impressive fact that deaf children succeed in finding linguistic patterns when exposed from early on to a sign language. However, if they do not have early experience with sign language - either because their hearing parents cannot sign, of because pedagogical practice is based on an oral language - deaf children create a rudimentary gesture system known as 'homesign' (Goldin-Meadow, 2003). Homesign systems provide for only limited communication with the hearing world, and these children do not have direct access to the surrounding spoken language of the home and community. Such children face serious communicative and linguistic difficulties if they receive no signed input and are forced to try to create meaning from a spoken language. Because the vast majority of deaf children (90% or more: Quigley & Paul, 1984) are born to hearing parents, research on the language-learning capacities of deaf children is urgent. If a deaf child born to hearing parents is to acquire first-language competence in a sign language, the parents must quickly learn that language as well. The current investigation began with a pressing question: "Can a deaf child learn to sign from hearing parents?". The findings presented here give a positive answer - provided that parents and child are taught a natural sign language, such as SLN. The study thus deals both with children's first-language acquisition and their parents' second language acquisition of signing. In addition, a comparison is made of a natural sign language, SLN, and a hybrid system of speech and signs, Sign-Supported Dutch (SSD).

Meer informatie in de catalogus
Meer informatie in Picarta