This dissertation would not have been possible without the support of my adviser Maria Sera. I am... more This dissertation would not have been possible without the support of my adviser Maria Sera. I am grateful for the opportunity to have worked with her over my graduate school years, and for the patience she has doled out even when it was not deserved! She introduced me to the ideas that shaped the way I think about language-thought relations.
Human cognition is the bedrock on which human language is built. However, within the last 10 year... more Human cognition is the bedrock on which human language is built. However, within the last 10 years, interest in the role that the development of language in turn plays on cognitive processes has been revived. This chapter takes stock of recently published evidence on the impact that language plays in cognitive development. It contains (1) a brief review of background underlying current research on language–thought relations; (2) an evaluation of the methods that are used; (3) a survey of the domains in which language effects have been shown; and finally (4) a list of the ways in which language and cognition interact in development.
Spatial relations in American Sign Language (ASL) are often signed from the perspective of the si... more Spatial relations in American Sign Language (ASL) are often signed from the perspective of the signer and so involve a shift in perspective and mental rotation. This study examined developing knowledge of language used to refer to the spatial relations front, behind, left, right, towards, away, above, and below by children learning ASL and English. Because ASL is a classifier language in which noun referents are placed into groups, each spatial relation also appeared with person, animal, and vehicle classifiers. Twenty-three children and adults who learned ASL before the age of 5 years and 23 native English-speaking adults and children participated. Both language groups participated in a comprehension task in which they chose which of 2 pictures depicted a signed or spoken relation. Results showed that children learning ASL acquired the constructions for spatial relations that typically involve perspective shifts and mental rotation later than constructions that do not involve these abilities and later than English-speaking children. Children learning ASL did not differ from English-speaking children in learning constructions that did not involve these abilities. Results also suggest that users of ASL initially comprehend spatial relations more accurately with person and animal classifiers than with the classifier for vehicles. The results are relevant to understanding the acquisition of spatial relations in ASL.
Two populations have been found to exhibit delays in theory of mind (ToM): deaf children of heari... more Two populations have been found to exhibit delays in theory of mind (ToM): deaf children of hearing parents and children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Deaf children exposed to sign from birth by their deaf parents, however , show no such delay, suggesting that early language exposure is key to ToM development. Sign languages also present frequent opportunities with visual perspective-taking (VPT), leading to the question of whether sign exposure could benefit children with ASD. We present the first study of children with ASD exposed to sign from birth by their deaf parents. Seventeen native-signing children with a confirmed ASD diagnosis and a chronological-and mental age-matched control group of 18 typically developing (TD) native-signing deaf children were tested on American Sign Language (ASL) comprehension, two minimally verbal social cognition tasks (ToM and VPT), and one spatial cogni-tion task (mental rotation). The TD children outperformed the children with ASD on ASL comprehension (p < 0.0001), ToM (p 5 0.02), and VPT (p < 0.01), but not mental rotation (p 5 0.12). Language strongly correlated with ToM (p < 0.01) and VPT (p < 0.001), but not mental rotation (p 5 ns). Native exposure to sign is thus insufficient to overcome the language and social impairments implicated in ASD. Contrary to the hypothesis that sign could provide a scaffold for ToM skills, we find that signing children with ASD are unable to access language so as to gain any potential benefit sign might confer. Our results support a strong link between the development of social cognition and language, regardless of modality, for TD and ASD children.
This dissertation would not have been possible without the support of my adviser Maria Sera. I am... more This dissertation would not have been possible without the support of my adviser Maria Sera. I am grateful for the opportunity to have worked with her over my graduate school years, and for the patience she has doled out even when it was not deserved! She introduced me to the ideas that shaped the way I think about language-thought relations.
Human cognition is the bedrock on which human language is built. However, within the last 10 year... more Human cognition is the bedrock on which human language is built. However, within the last 10 years, interest in the role that the development of language in turn plays on cognitive processes has been revived. This chapter takes stock of recently published evidence on the impact that language plays in cognitive development. It contains (1) a brief review of background underlying current research on language–thought relations; (2) an evaluation of the methods that are used; (3) a survey of the domains in which language effects have been shown; and finally (4) a list of the ways in which language and cognition interact in development.
Spatial relations in American Sign Language (ASL) are often signed from the perspective of the si... more Spatial relations in American Sign Language (ASL) are often signed from the perspective of the signer and so involve a shift in perspective and mental rotation. This study examined developing knowledge of language used to refer to the spatial relations front, behind, left, right, towards, away, above, and below by children learning ASL and English. Because ASL is a classifier language in which noun referents are placed into groups, each spatial relation also appeared with person, animal, and vehicle classifiers. Twenty-three children and adults who learned ASL before the age of 5 years and 23 native English-speaking adults and children participated. Both language groups participated in a comprehension task in which they chose which of 2 pictures depicted a signed or spoken relation. Results showed that children learning ASL acquired the constructions for spatial relations that typically involve perspective shifts and mental rotation later than constructions that do not involve these abilities and later than English-speaking children. Children learning ASL did not differ from English-speaking children in learning constructions that did not involve these abilities. Results also suggest that users of ASL initially comprehend spatial relations more accurately with person and animal classifiers than with the classifier for vehicles. The results are relevant to understanding the acquisition of spatial relations in ASL.
Two populations have been found to exhibit delays in theory of mind (ToM): deaf children of heari... more Two populations have been found to exhibit delays in theory of mind (ToM): deaf children of hearing parents and children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Deaf children exposed to sign from birth by their deaf parents, however , show no such delay, suggesting that early language exposure is key to ToM development. Sign languages also present frequent opportunities with visual perspective-taking (VPT), leading to the question of whether sign exposure could benefit children with ASD. We present the first study of children with ASD exposed to sign from birth by their deaf parents. Seventeen native-signing children with a confirmed ASD diagnosis and a chronological-and mental age-matched control group of 18 typically developing (TD) native-signing deaf children were tested on American Sign Language (ASL) comprehension, two minimally verbal social cognition tasks (ToM and VPT), and one spatial cogni-tion task (mental rotation). The TD children outperformed the children with ASD on ASL comprehension (p < 0.0001), ToM (p 5 0.02), and VPT (p < 0.01), but not mental rotation (p 5 0.12). Language strongly correlated with ToM (p < 0.01) and VPT (p < 0.001), but not mental rotation (p 5 ns). Native exposure to sign is thus insufficient to overcome the language and social impairments implicated in ASD. Contrary to the hypothesis that sign could provide a scaffold for ToM skills, we find that signing children with ASD are unable to access language so as to gain any potential benefit sign might confer. Our results support a strong link between the development of social cognition and language, regardless of modality, for TD and ASD children.
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