initiative 1 -- Visual Language Acquisition and Socialization
Sign language research has made important achievements in comparing developmental milestones in deaf and hearing children learning signed and spoken languages. But the field has yet to comprehensively describe normative sign language acquisition, the social-cultural practices that promote skilled use of a signed language, and the neural basis for sign language and reading development. Through its analysis of patterns of vocabulary development and emergence of grammatical structures, and a series of brain imaging studies of young signers, the Visual Language Acquisition and Socialization Initiative (VLAS) is developing benchmarks that allow researchers, parents, educators and clinicians to study and evaluate the developmental progress of deaf children learning visual languages. Such benchmarks are enabling them to better assess the role of complex variables such as language skills, communicative systems, and educational practices in signed language acquisition.
The is material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant number SBE-0541953. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
