The federal Project Grant award of $1,204,102 from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), under the Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders program (CFDA 93.173), will support research on brain structural and functional abnormalities in the executive function network of children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). The 5-year project, starting on April 10, 2025, aims to use advanced multi-modal MRI methods to comprehensively map...
This federal Project Grant award from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (CFDA 93.173 - Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders) aims to examine the interactions between dual language input, semantic structure, and word learning in bilingual toddlers, both typically developing and late talking. The $193,752 award will fund a 5-year project at Boston University to 1) model children's lexicons and characterize the relationship between dual...
This Project Grant award, in the amount of $145,642, was provided by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) under the Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders program (CFDA 93.173). The award supports a research study at Gallaudet University to examine the relationship between American Sign Language (ASL) proficiency and spatial cognition skills. The key products and services to be delivered under this grant include: Employing...
The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), under the Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders program (CFDA 93.173), awarded a $192,289 project grant to The MGH Institute of Health Professions, Inc. in Boston, MA. The grant, awarded on April 4, 2025, will fund research to determine the impact of modeling verbal mediation on shifting task performance in school-aged children with developmental language disorder (DLD). The goal is to optimize...
The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) awarded a $743,412 Project Grant (CFDA 93.173 - Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders) to the University of Oregon. The goal of this 5-year project is to evaluate the comparative effectiveness and implementation outcomes of different parent-implemented naturalistic communication intervention (PI-NCI) modalities for improving parent responsivity and child communication/language outcomes among...
This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (CFDA 47.075) program provides $170,000 to support an early career postdoctoral scientist investigating the emergence of phonological structure in a family homesign system. The award, with a performance period from September 15, 2024 to August 31, 2026, will fund research comparing the linguistic capabilities and development of a family of deaf individuals who have created their own...
This National Science Foundation (NSF) grant, awarded under the STEM Education (CFDA 47.076) program, will support research investigating the neurocognitive basis of arithmetic processing in deaf ASL signers compared to hearing non-signers. The project, totaling $930,271 over 3 years, will examine the impact of language modality and age of language acquisition on the cognitive and neural foundations of arithmetic reasoning. The research will compare early and late deaf ASL signers to hearing...
This federal Project Grant award of $589,930, provided by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) under the Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders program (CFDA 93.173), aims to investigate sex and gender differences in language impairment, disability, and service receipt. The primary goal is to determine why girls are less likely to receive language services than boys, which aligns with NIH's interest in diversity and the NIDCD's focus on...
The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) awarded a $415,717 Project Grant (CFDA 93.173 - Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders) to the University of Wisconsin - Madison to develop and test eye-gaze paradigms for assessing language comprehension and learning in children with severe cerebral palsy and speech impairments. The goal is to provide more detailed and sensitive information than traditional behavioral tests, which could lead to more...
This Project Grant award of $201,250 from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) under CFDA Program 93.173 "Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders" supports research to examine precursors to language impairment in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The project aims to leverage recent advances in remote assessment of infant cognitive development to test three proposed mechanisms underlying language impairment in ASD: atypical speech...
EFFECTS OF LATE FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION ON PHONOLOGICAL PROCESSING IN AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE - PROJECT SUMMARY ONLY AROUND 5% OF DEAF CHILDREN ARE BORN TO DEAF PARENTS AND SUBSEQUENTLY GET EXPOSURE TO AN ACCESSIBLE SIGN LANGUAGE AS THEIR FIRST LANGUAGE FROM BIRTH (MITCHELL & KARCHMER, 2004). THE OTHER 95% OF DEAF CHILDREN ARE BORN INTO HEARING FAMILIES AND ARE AT HIGH RISK OF LATE FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION THAT OCCURS AFTER THE CRITICAL PERIOD FOR LANGUAGE (LENNEBERG, 1967). AS ADULTS, THIS LATE FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION RESULTS IN DRAMATIC AND LIFELONG EFFECTS ON EVERYTHING FROM EDUCATION TO JOB OPPORTUNITIES TO MENTAL HEALTH (HALL, 2017). RESEARCH LOOKING AT THE EFFECTS OF LATE FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION ON LANGUAGE IN PARTICULAR SHOWS EFFECTS ON LANGUAGE OUTCOMES AND NEUROLINGUISTIC PROCESSING AT THE WORD AND SENTENCE LEVELS (E.G., MAYBERRY & KLUENDER, 2018). THE PRELIMINARY DATA OF THIS PROJECT SHOW THAT LATE FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION ALSO AFFECTS THE SUB-WORD LEVEL, KNOWN AS THE PHONOLOGICAL LEVEL (NIELSON & MAYBERRY, IN REVIEW). WHEN PROCESSING THE PHONOLOGY OF A SIGN LANGUAGE, ONE MUST VISUALLY PERCEIVE AND MANUALLY ARTICULATE FORMS CATEGORIZED INTO HANDSHAPES, MOVEMENTS, LOCATIONS, AND PALM ORIENTATIONS. THESE CATEGORIES ARE REFERRED TO AS PARAMETERS AND NATIVE SIGNERS WHO ACQUIRE ASL FROM BIRTH EXHIBIT SPECIFIC PATTERNS OF THE PARAMETERS IN THEIR PRODUCTIONS AND PERCEPTUAL JUDGMENTS (E.G., CONLIN ET AL., 2000; HILDEBRANDT & CORINA, 2002). UNDERSTANDING THESE PARAMETER PATTERNS PROVIDES INSIGHT INTO HOW NATIVE SIGNERS PROCESS PHONOLOGY, WHICH IS IMPORTANT FOR FULLY UNDERSTANDING LANGUAGE PROCESSING. THUS, INVESTIGATING HOW LATE L1 SIGNERS PROCESS PHONOLOGY IS CRUCIAL FOR FULLY UNDERSTANDING THE EFFECTS OF LATE FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION ON LANGUAGE. THE COMPLETED FIRST STUDY OF THIS PROJECT LOOKED AT PHONOLOGICAL PRODUCTION AND FOUND THAT LATE FIRST LANGUAGE SIGNERS EXHIBIT A DIFFERENT PATTERN OF PARAMETER ERRORS WHEN COMPARED TO NATIVE SIGNERS. THE PROPOSED STUDIES LOOK AT PHONOLOGICAL PERCEPTION BEHAVIORALLY TO BETTER UNDERSTAND THE SYSTEMATIC EFFECTS OF LATE FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION ON PHONOLOGICAL PROCESSING ACROSS PRODUCTION AND PERCEPTION (AIM 1), AS WELL AS NEUROLINGUISTICALLY TO IDENTIFY THE IMPACT OF LATE FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION ON THE LOCI AND TIME COURSE OF PHONOLOGICAL PROCESSING IN THE BRAIN (AIM 2). THE ULTIMATE GOAL OF THIS PROJECT IS TO DETERMINE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE BEHAVIORAL OUTCOMES AND THE NEUROLINGUISTIC PROCESSING IN THE BRAIN (AIM 3) TO BETTER UNDERSTAND THE CAUSES OF DISORDERED COMMUNICATION FOR DEAF LATE L1 SIGNERS AND PREVENT THEM. IDENTIFYING THE IMPACT OF LATE FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION ON PHONOLOGICAL PROCESSING BEHAVIORALLY AND NEUROLINGUISTICALLY IS CRUCIAL FOR A GREATER CHARACTERIZATION OF THE COMMUNICATION OF DEAF INDIVIDUALS AND A DEEPER UNDERSTANDING OF THE BRAIN CAUSES ASSOCIATED WITH NORMAL FUNCTION AND DISORDERED PROCESSES OF COMMUNICATION. THIS PROJECT WILL ALSO ENHANCE THE APPLICANT'S RESEARCH TRAINING AND GREATLY IMPROVE HER ABILITY TO TRANSITION FROM A GRADUATE STUDENT TO A PRODUCTIVE AND INDEPENDENT RESEARCHER WHO IS AN EXPERT IN DEAF COMMUNICATION AND SIGN LANGUAGE PROCESSING.