Research

Children learn new words when they can connect the language they hear to the objects and events they see and touch in the surrounding world. For deaf children learning sign language, both language input and information about the world are perceived through the visual modality. This means that deaf children must learn to skillfully alternate their gaze between people and things. My research aims to understand how deaf children acquire the ability to alternate visual attention in a way that maximizes language learning. I also investigate how the amount and quality of parents’ language input impacts children’s sign language acquisition.

It is well established that deaf children without access to language from an early age are at-risk for delays in language, literacy, and other academic outcomes throughout their school years and beyond. Despite the recognized importance of early language acquisition as a foundation for later learning, little is known about how sign language is processed by deaf children, and how processing efficiency may affect the development of vocabulary and other linguistic skills. These issues are particularly important in light of the fact that the vast majority of deaf children are born to hearing parents and thus are not exposed to sign language from birth. My research aims to understand how sign language is acquired and processed both by typical learners and by those who acquire language under atypical circumstances. My work is funded by the National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Deafness and Communication Disorders (R01DC015272).

Read more about my research and the Language Acquisition and Visual Attention lab.

Current projects:

What does joint attention look like in interactions between deaf children and their parents?

Joint attention refers to moments within an interaction when children and their parent or caregiver are both attending to the same thing at the same time. In spoken language, joint attention occurs when parents and children are looking at an object, and parents label or talk about it. How does this multi-modal process adapt when all input (language and information about the world) is perceived visually? We examine interactions between deaf children and their deaf and hearing caregivers to see how joint visual attention is achieved. We do this by recording parents and children during naturalistic play, and then coding these interactions to understand how eye gaze, handling objects, and language input are coordinated.

How do deaf children learn new ASL signs?

Early childhood is a time of rapid word learning. How do children map new labels to new objects? We study the process of word learning in ASL. In particular, we investigate how deaf children learn to manage their eye gaze and visual attention so that they can connect language and objects. Our studies use eye-tracking technology, which allows us to monitor children’s gaze as they perceive signs, pictures, and videos on a computer. We also record parents and children interacting with novel objects to determine how new labels are introduced during naturalistic play.

How do we know if deaf children are reaching their language milestones?

Vocabulary development in young childhood is an important predictor of later language outcomes. Yet, few measures exist to track the development of ASL in very young children. With our collaborators Dr. Naomi Caselli and Dr. Jennie Pyers, we are developing measures of productive and receptive language for use with infants, toddlers, and children learning ASL.

How do adult ASL-signers process language?

We study ASL production, comprehension, and processing in deaf adults from a range of backgrounds. We are interested in how adults process ASL as they are perceiving signs; how ASL phonology and semantics influence comprehension; and how signers choose to express various concepts in ASL. We use a range of approaches, primarily eye-tracking, to understand adult ASL perception and processing.

Professional Development for Teachers of D/HH students

The education of multilingual students has become increasingly important and relevant given the changing demographics of American schools. For Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing students, schools are increasingly recognizing the benefits of a bilingual or dual-language approach, in which students are instructed with the goal of achieving proficiency in both ASL and English. In collaboration with a large-scale project led by Dr. Kara Viesca at the University of Nebraska Lincoln, we are developing new workshops that will be designed specifically for teachers and other professionals working with deaf and hard of hearing students from a bilingual or dual language perspective. More information about this project is available at http://cehs.unl.edu/icmee/.