A Developmental Disorder of Signed Language Production in a Native Deaf Signer of ASL

Evidence for a Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) could surface with language processing/comprehension, language production, or a combination of both. Whereas, various studies have described cases of DLD in signing deaf children, there exist few detailed examples of deaf children who exhibit prod...

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Main Authors: David Quinto-Pozos, Frances Cooley
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2020-10-01
Series:Languages
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/5/4/40
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spelling doaj-9d3bb4187e30422bb70f792b8aa2ffe32020-11-25T03:57:06ZengMDPI AGLanguages2226-471X2020-10-015404010.3390/languages5040040A Developmental Disorder of Signed Language Production in a Native Deaf Signer of ASLDavid Quinto-Pozos0Frances Cooley1Department of Linguistics, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78713, USADepartment of Linguistics, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78713, USAEvidence for a Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) could surface with language processing/comprehension, language production, or a combination of both. Whereas, various studies have described cases of DLD in signing deaf children, there exist few detailed examples of deaf children who exhibit production issues in the absence of processing or comprehension challenges or motor deficits. We describe such a situation by detailing a case study of “Gregory”, a deaf native signer of American Sign Language (ASL). We adopt a detailed case-study methodology for obtaining information from Gregory’s family and school, which we combine with linguistic and non-linguistic data that we collected through one-on-one sessions with Gregory. The results provide evidence of persistent issues with language production (in particular, atypical articulation of some phonological aspects of signs), yet typical comprehension skills and unremarkable fine-motor motor skills. We also provide a snapshot of Gregory’s rich linguistic environment, which we speculate, may serve to attenuate his production deficit. The results of this study have implications for the provision of language services for signing deaf children in schools and also for language therapists. We propose that language therapists who are fluent in signed language be trained to work with signing children.https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/5/4/40expressive language disorderphonologycomprehensionmotor skills
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author David Quinto-Pozos
Frances Cooley
spellingShingle David Quinto-Pozos
Frances Cooley
A Developmental Disorder of Signed Language Production in a Native Deaf Signer of ASL
Languages
expressive language disorder
phonology
comprehension
motor skills
author_facet David Quinto-Pozos
Frances Cooley
author_sort David Quinto-Pozos
title A Developmental Disorder of Signed Language Production in a Native Deaf Signer of ASL
title_short A Developmental Disorder of Signed Language Production in a Native Deaf Signer of ASL
title_full A Developmental Disorder of Signed Language Production in a Native Deaf Signer of ASL
title_fullStr A Developmental Disorder of Signed Language Production in a Native Deaf Signer of ASL
title_full_unstemmed A Developmental Disorder of Signed Language Production in a Native Deaf Signer of ASL
title_sort developmental disorder of signed language production in a native deaf signer of asl
publisher MDPI AG
series Languages
issn 2226-471X
publishDate 2020-10-01
description Evidence for a Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) could surface with language processing/comprehension, language production, or a combination of both. Whereas, various studies have described cases of DLD in signing deaf children, there exist few detailed examples of deaf children who exhibit production issues in the absence of processing or comprehension challenges or motor deficits. We describe such a situation by detailing a case study of “Gregory”, a deaf native signer of American Sign Language (ASL). We adopt a detailed case-study methodology for obtaining information from Gregory’s family and school, which we combine with linguistic and non-linguistic data that we collected through one-on-one sessions with Gregory. The results provide evidence of persistent issues with language production (in particular, atypical articulation of some phonological aspects of signs), yet typical comprehension skills and unremarkable fine-motor motor skills. We also provide a snapshot of Gregory’s rich linguistic environment, which we speculate, may serve to attenuate his production deficit. The results of this study have implications for the provision of language services for signing deaf children in schools and also for language therapists. We propose that language therapists who are fluent in signed language be trained to work with signing children.
topic expressive language disorder
phonology
comprehension
motor skills
url https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/5/4/40
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