Language Development in Exceptional Circumstances: Auditory Impairment

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Recommended: Deafness and its impact on children

Language Development in Exceptional Circumstances: Auditory Impairment

The study of child language acquisition became of interest to

psycholinguists in the 1960’s after Chomsky’s suggestion that the

study of the development of language would provide evidence for

theories of language. Ever since these initial studies, theorists have

used the development of child language to study issues such as the

contexts of interaction in which language arises and the importance of

parental input. After the explosion of interest in language

acquisition linguists began to take an interest in the development of

language (more specifically sign language) in deaf children. By

examining a selection of these studies I will attempt to discuss the

implications of the studies in comparison to language acquisition

theories.

Deafness or the extent of deafness is generally not confirmed until

the child reaches age one. Surprisingly, despite their auditory

impairment deaf babies coo and babble in the same way as babies with

normal hearing and follow Stark’s stages of vocal pronunciation until

approximately 9 months. Up until this point the infants cry, coo,

laugh and babble. They also use the same phonetic inventory as hearing

children which consists mainly of nasals and stops. At the age of

approximately 9 months the infants begin to produce more labials, this

is presumably because they can rely upon visual cues, but their speech

soon begins to disappear.

To begin with I will confirm my definition of deaf infants as those

who have congenital hearing impairments with a severity of 90db or

more. As a result of auditory impairment these children, who ...

... middle of paper ...

...and Bacon.

Bellugi, & Klima (1972) The Roots of language in the sign talk of the

deaf. Psychology Today 6.

Bonvillain, Orlansky & Novak (1983) in Kyle and Woll (1983) Language

in sign: an international perspective on sign language. London. Croom

Helm

Goldin-Meadow, S & Mylander, Carolyn, (1982) Gestural Communication in

deaf children: Non-effect of Parental Input on language: Science Vol

221 p372

Kyle and Woll. (1983) Language in sign: an international perspective

on sign language. London. Croom Helm.

Maestes and Moores (1980) in Kyle and Woll (1983) Language in sign: an

international perspective on sign language. London. Croom Helm

Pinker, S (1995) The Language Instinct. London: Allan Lane.

Sutton-Spence, Rachel (1994) The linguistics of British Sign Language:

an introduction. Cambridge. CUP

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