Cristina Caselli - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Cristina Caselli

Research paper thumbnail of Lexical and Grammatical Abilities in Deaf Italian Preschoolers: The Role of Duration of Formal Language Experience

Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 2009

Research paper thumbnail of Visual Word Recognition in Deaf Readers: Lexicality Is Modulated by Communication Mode

Research paper thumbnail of Developmental evaluation at age 4: Validity of an Italian parental questionnaire

Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health, 2010

Research paper thumbnail of Sentence repetition as a measure of early grammatical development in Italian

International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 2007

Research paper thumbnail of Specific language impairment in Italian: the first steps in the search for a clinical marker

International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 2002

Recent studies of children with specific language impairment (SLI) have identified language measu... more Recent studies of children with specific language impairment (SLI) have identified language measures that seem quite accurate in distinguishing preschool-age children with SLI from their normally developing peers. However, the studies have focussed exclusively on English, and it is clear from the literature that the SLI profile varies between languages. This paper reports on three studies designed to assess the utility of particular language measures for Italian. In the first two studies, it was found that a composite measure based on the use of definite singular articles and third-person plural inflections showed good sensitivity and specificity in distinguishing Italian-speaking children with SLI from their typically developing peers. The third study showed that the same composite can be applied successfully to individual cases of SLI. Some of the additional steps needed to evaluate this composite measure are discussed.

Research paper thumbnail of Linguistic and pragmatic skills in toddlers with cochlear implant

An increasing number of deaf children received cochlear implants (CI) in the first years of life,... more An increasing number of deaf children received cochlear implants (CI) in the first years of life, but no study has focused on linguistic and pragmatic skills in children with CI younger than 3 years of age. To estimate the percentage of children who had received a CI before 2 years of age whose linguistic skills were within the normal range; to compare linguistic skills of children implanted by 12 months of age with children implanted between 13 and 26 months of age; and to describe the relationship among lexical, grammar and pragmatic skills. The participants consisted of children who were included on the patient lists of the Service of Audio-Vestibology of the Circolo Hospital in Varese, Italy, and met the following criteria: chronological age between 18 and 36 months; CI activated between 8 and 30 months of age; absence of other reported deficits; hearing parents; and not less than 6 months of CI experience. Language development was evaluated through MacArthur-Bates CDI; pragmatic skills (assertiveness and responsiveness) were evaluated through the Social Conversational Skills Rating Scale. The scores obtained were transformed into z-scores and compared with normative data. The relationship among lexical, grammar and pragmatic skills were tested using Spearman Rho correlations. Children with CI were divided into groups based on the age at CI activation and the differences between the two groups were tested using the Student's t-test. Data from 23 deaf children were collected. Fewer than half of the children were within the normal range for lexical production and use of sentences; more than one-third of them fell below the normal range for both lexical and grammar skills. No significant difference was found in vocabulary size or early grammar skills when comparing children who received the CI by 12 months of age with those implanted during the second year of life. Despite the strong relationship among lexical, grammar and pragmatic skills, the delays found for grammar and pragmatic skills were greater than expected based on the vocabulary size. Age at diagnosis of hearing loss was the only predictor of vocabulary size. CI may provide deaf children with a good opportunity to develop language skills, but severe difficulties in early social experiences and interaction mediated by language still remain. Delays in these aspects suggest that interventions improving pragmatic skills are recommended even on very young children with CI.

Research paper thumbnail of Le capacità di linguaggio in bambini con sindrome di Down e con Disturbo Specifico di Linguaggio

Psicologia Clinica Dello Sviluppo, 2006

Research paper thumbnail of Gesturing in mother-child interactions

Cognitive Develop, 1999

Numerous studies have indicated that when adults interact with very young children, they modify t... more Numerous studies have indicated that when adults interact with very young children, they modify their speech in a consistent fashion. Although the characteristics of these modifications have been well documented, relatively little is known about the frequency and types of gestures that accompany adults' speech to young children. The present study was designed to provide data on maternal use of gesture during mother-toddler interactions and to assess whether maternal use of gestures changes as children's speech becomes progressively more complex. Twelve upper-middle-class Italian mother-child dyads were videotaped in their homes for 45 min when children were 16 and 20 months of age. Results indicated that mothers made use of a “gestural motherese” characterized by the relatively infrequent use of concrete gestures redundant with and reinforcing the message conveyed in speech. In addition, individual differences in maternal gesture and speech production were highly stable over time despite substantial changes in children's use of gesture and speech, and there was some evidence for positive relations between maternal gesture production and children's verbal and gestural production and vocabulary size within and across observations. Findings are discussed in terms of the functions that maternal gesture may serve for young language learners.

Research paper thumbnail of Do healthy preterm children need neuropsychological follow-up? Preschool outcomes compared with term peers: Neuropsychological Follow-up of Healthy Preterm Children

Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, Oct 1, 2010

Research paper thumbnail of Input bimodale: gesti e parole nell'interazione madre-bambino con sindrome di Down e con sviluppo tipico

Psicologia Clinica Dello Sviluppo, 2007

Research paper thumbnail of Language Acquisition by Bilingual Deaf Preschoolers: Theoretical, Methodological Issues and Empirical Data

ABSTRACT This chapter presents theoretical issues relevant to the study of early unimodal and bim... more ABSTRACT This chapter presents theoretical issues relevant to the study of early unimodal and bimodal bilingualism, based on our experience in Italy. The discussion will look at similarities and differences between unimodal and bimodal bilingualism and examine methodological issues to be considered in assessing the development of deaf bimodal bilingual children in both languages (i.e., sign and speech), including procedures and cautions to be considered in data collection and analysis. Finally, we will offer a brief description of relevant empirical data collected with Italian deaf children exposed to both Lingua dei Segni Italiana (LIS) and spoken Italian.

Research paper thumbnail of The use of articles by Italian-speaking children with specific language impairment

ABSTRACT Although children with specific language impairment often show significant limitations i... more ABSTRACT Although children with specific language impairment often show significant limitations in their use of grammatical morphemes, little is known about their use of morphemes that belong to a single set or paradigm. This question was pursued in the present study by examining specifically language-impaired (SLI) children's use of the Italian definite article system. Fifteen Italian-speaking SLI children were found to produce all articles with lower percentages than a group of 15 control children matched for mean utterance length. However, both groups had greater difficulty with plural articles than singular articles, and more difficulty using articles with restricted phonetic contexts than articles with a freer range of permissible contexts. In addition, the SLI children's difficulty with one of the articles seemed attributable to phonotactic constraints. The findings are interpreted within a framework that assumes that SLI children split and fill out morphological paradigms in the same manner as younger normally developing children, but operate with a more limited capacity that is burdened when grammatical morphemes have difficult surface characteristics.

Research paper thumbnail of Analyse de l'interaction communicative entre parents et enfants sourds dans un contexte de jeu non structuré : une comparaison entre parents sourds et entendants

Le Langage Et L Homme, 2006

RefDoc Bienvenue - Welcome. Refdoc est un service / is powered by. ...

Research paper thumbnail of A comparison of the transition from first words to grammar in English and Italian

Journal of Child Language, Feb 1, 1999

Research paper thumbnail of Indicazioni per la diagnosi, la valutazione e l'intervento riabilitativo dei bambini con Disturbo Specifico di Linguaggio

Psicologia Clinica Dello Sviluppo, 1998

Research paper thumbnail of Early communicative behaviors and their relationship to motor skills in extremely preterm infants

Research in Developmental Disabilities, 2016

Despite the predictive value of early spontaneous communication for identifying risk for later la... more Despite the predictive value of early spontaneous communication for identifying risk for later language concerns, very little research has focused on these behaviors in extremely low-gestational-age infants (ELGA<28 weeks) or on their relationship with motor development. In this study, communicative behaviors (gestures, vocal utterances and their coordination) were evaluated during mother-infant play interactions in 20 ELGA infants and 20 full-term infants (FT) at 12 months (corrected age for ELGA infants). Relationships between gestures and motor skills, evaluated using the Bayley-III Scales were also examined. ELGA infants, compared with FT infants, showed less advanced communicative, motor, and cognitive skills. Giving and representational gestures were produced at a lower rate by ELGA infants. In addition, pointing gestures and words were produced by a lower percentage of ELGA infants. Significant positive correlations between gestures (pointing and representational gestures) and fine motor skills were found in the ELGA group. We discuss the relevance of examining spontaneous communicative behaviors and motor skills as potential indices of early development that may be useful for clinical assessment and intervention with ELGA infants.

Research paper thumbnail of Noun and predicate comprehension and production and gestures in extremely preterm children at two years of age: Are they delayed?

Journal of Communication Disorders, 2015

Extremely low gestational age (ELGA, GA&a... more Extremely low gestational age (ELGA, GA<28 weeks) preterm children are at high risk for linguistic impairments; however, their lexical comprehension and production as well as lexical categories in their early language acquisition have not been specifically examined via direct tools. Our study examines lexical comprehension and production as well as gestural production in ELGA children by focusing on noun and predicate acquisition. Forty monolingual ELGA children (mean GA of 26.7 weeks) and 40 full-term (FT) children were assessed at two years of corrected chronological age (CCA) using a test of noun and predicate comprehension and production (PiNG) and the Italian MB-CDI. Noun comprehension and production were delayed in ELGA compared with FT children, as documented by the low number of correct responses and the large number of errors, i.e., incorrect responses and no-response items, and by the types of incorrect responses, i.e., fewer semantically related responses, in noun production. Regarding predicate comprehension and production, a higher frequency of no responses was reported by ELGA children and these children also presented a lower frequency of bimodal spoken-gestural responses in predicate production than FT children. A delayed vocabulary size as demonstrated by the MB-CDI, was exhibited by one-fourth of the ELGA children, who were also unable to complete the predicate subtest. These findings highlight that noun comprehension and production are delayed in ELGA children at two years of CCA and are the most important indexes for the direct evaluation of their lexical abilities and delay. The types of incorrect responses and bimodal spoken-gestural responses were proven to be useful indexes for evaluating the noun and predicate level of acquisition and to plan early focused interventions. After reading this manuscript, the reader will understand (a) the differences in noun and predicate comprehension and production between ELGA and FT children and the indexes of lexical delays exhibited by ELGA children at 2;0 (CCA); (b) the relevance of evaluating errors (incorrect response and no response), the types of incorrect responses (semantically related and unrelated) and the modality of the responses (unimodal spoken and bimodal spoken-gestural) in noun and predicate production to understand the difficulties experienced by ELGA children in representing and expressing meanings; and (c) the need to plan specific interventions to support spoken and gestural modalities in lexical comprehension and production in ELGA children by focusing on noun and predicate acquisition.

Research paper thumbnail of Finding the balance between capture and control: Oculomotor selection in early deaf adults

Brain and cognition, Jan 28, 2015

Previous work investigating the consequence of bilateral deafness on attentional selection sugges... more Previous work investigating the consequence of bilateral deafness on attentional selection suggests that experience-dependent changes in this population may result in increased automatic processing of stimulus-driven visual information (e.g., saliency). However, adaptive behavior also requires observers to prioritize goal-driven information relevant to the task at hand. In order to investigate whether auditory deprivation alters the balance between these two components of attentional selection, we assessed the time-course of overt visual selection in deaf adults. Twenty early-deaf adults and twenty hearing controls performed an oculomotor additional singleton paradigm. Participants made a speeded eye-movement to a unique orientation target, embedded among homogenous non-targets and one additional unique orientation distractor that was more, equally or less salient than the target. Saliency was manipulated through color. For deaf participants proficiency in sign language was assessed...

Research paper thumbnail of Deaf Children Learning in a Multimedial Environment

Interactive Learning Technology for the Deaf, 1993

... Informatica, Didattica e Disabilitd. IROE - eNR, Firenze, 42-50. Taeschner, T., Devescovi, A.... more ... Informatica, Didattica e Disabilitd. IROE - eNR, Firenze, 42-50. Taeschner, T., Devescovi, A. & Volterra, V. (1988). Affixes and function words in the written language of deaf children. Applied Psycho linguistics, 9,385-401. Volterra, V. (Ed.) (1987). La lingua italiana dei segni. ...

Research paper thumbnail of Language Acquisition by Bilingual Deaf Preschoolers

Bilingualism and Bilingual Deaf Education, 2014

ABSTRACT This chapter presents theoretical issues relevant to the study of early unimodal and bim... more ABSTRACT This chapter presents theoretical issues relevant to the study of early unimodal and bimodal bilingualism, based on our experience in Italy. The discussion will look at similarities and differences between unimodal and bimodal bilingualism and examine methodological issues to be considered in assessing the development of deaf bimodal bilingual children in both languages (i.e., sign and speech), including procedures and cautions to be considered in data collection and analysis. Finally, we will offer a brief description of relevant empirical data collected with Italian deaf children exposed to both Lingua dei Segni Italiana (LIS) and spoken Italian.

Research paper thumbnail of Lexical and Grammatical Abilities in Deaf Italian Preschoolers: The Role of Duration of Formal Language Experience

Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 2009

Research paper thumbnail of Visual Word Recognition in Deaf Readers: Lexicality Is Modulated by Communication Mode

Research paper thumbnail of Developmental evaluation at age 4: Validity of an Italian parental questionnaire

Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health, 2010

Research paper thumbnail of Sentence repetition as a measure of early grammatical development in Italian

International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 2007

Research paper thumbnail of Specific language impairment in Italian: the first steps in the search for a clinical marker

International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 2002

Recent studies of children with specific language impairment (SLI) have identified language measu... more Recent studies of children with specific language impairment (SLI) have identified language measures that seem quite accurate in distinguishing preschool-age children with SLI from their normally developing peers. However, the studies have focussed exclusively on English, and it is clear from the literature that the SLI profile varies between languages. This paper reports on three studies designed to assess the utility of particular language measures for Italian. In the first two studies, it was found that a composite measure based on the use of definite singular articles and third-person plural inflections showed good sensitivity and specificity in distinguishing Italian-speaking children with SLI from their typically developing peers. The third study showed that the same composite can be applied successfully to individual cases of SLI. Some of the additional steps needed to evaluate this composite measure are discussed.

Research paper thumbnail of Linguistic and pragmatic skills in toddlers with cochlear implant

An increasing number of deaf children received cochlear implants (CI) in the first years of life,... more An increasing number of deaf children received cochlear implants (CI) in the first years of life, but no study has focused on linguistic and pragmatic skills in children with CI younger than 3 years of age. To estimate the percentage of children who had received a CI before 2 years of age whose linguistic skills were within the normal range; to compare linguistic skills of children implanted by 12 months of age with children implanted between 13 and 26 months of age; and to describe the relationship among lexical, grammar and pragmatic skills. The participants consisted of children who were included on the patient lists of the Service of Audio-Vestibology of the Circolo Hospital in Varese, Italy, and met the following criteria: chronological age between 18 and 36 months; CI activated between 8 and 30 months of age; absence of other reported deficits; hearing parents; and not less than 6 months of CI experience. Language development was evaluated through MacArthur-Bates CDI; pragmatic skills (assertiveness and responsiveness) were evaluated through the Social Conversational Skills Rating Scale. The scores obtained were transformed into z-scores and compared with normative data. The relationship among lexical, grammar and pragmatic skills were tested using Spearman Rho correlations. Children with CI were divided into groups based on the age at CI activation and the differences between the two groups were tested using the Student's t-test. Data from 23 deaf children were collected. Fewer than half of the children were within the normal range for lexical production and use of sentences; more than one-third of them fell below the normal range for both lexical and grammar skills. No significant difference was found in vocabulary size or early grammar skills when comparing children who received the CI by 12 months of age with those implanted during the second year of life. Despite the strong relationship among lexical, grammar and pragmatic skills, the delays found for grammar and pragmatic skills were greater than expected based on the vocabulary size. Age at diagnosis of hearing loss was the only predictor of vocabulary size. CI may provide deaf children with a good opportunity to develop language skills, but severe difficulties in early social experiences and interaction mediated by language still remain. Delays in these aspects suggest that interventions improving pragmatic skills are recommended even on very young children with CI.

Research paper thumbnail of Le capacità di linguaggio in bambini con sindrome di Down e con Disturbo Specifico di Linguaggio

Psicologia Clinica Dello Sviluppo, 2006

Research paper thumbnail of Gesturing in mother-child interactions

Cognitive Develop, 1999

Numerous studies have indicated that when adults interact with very young children, they modify t... more Numerous studies have indicated that when adults interact with very young children, they modify their speech in a consistent fashion. Although the characteristics of these modifications have been well documented, relatively little is known about the frequency and types of gestures that accompany adults' speech to young children. The present study was designed to provide data on maternal use of gesture during mother-toddler interactions and to assess whether maternal use of gestures changes as children's speech becomes progressively more complex. Twelve upper-middle-class Italian mother-child dyads were videotaped in their homes for 45 min when children were 16 and 20 months of age. Results indicated that mothers made use of a “gestural motherese” characterized by the relatively infrequent use of concrete gestures redundant with and reinforcing the message conveyed in speech. In addition, individual differences in maternal gesture and speech production were highly stable over time despite substantial changes in children's use of gesture and speech, and there was some evidence for positive relations between maternal gesture production and children's verbal and gestural production and vocabulary size within and across observations. Findings are discussed in terms of the functions that maternal gesture may serve for young language learners.

Research paper thumbnail of Do healthy preterm children need neuropsychological follow-up? Preschool outcomes compared with term peers: Neuropsychological Follow-up of Healthy Preterm Children

Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, Oct 1, 2010

Research paper thumbnail of Input bimodale: gesti e parole nell'interazione madre-bambino con sindrome di Down e con sviluppo tipico

Psicologia Clinica Dello Sviluppo, 2007

Research paper thumbnail of Language Acquisition by Bilingual Deaf Preschoolers: Theoretical, Methodological Issues and Empirical Data

ABSTRACT This chapter presents theoretical issues relevant to the study of early unimodal and bim... more ABSTRACT This chapter presents theoretical issues relevant to the study of early unimodal and bimodal bilingualism, based on our experience in Italy. The discussion will look at similarities and differences between unimodal and bimodal bilingualism and examine methodological issues to be considered in assessing the development of deaf bimodal bilingual children in both languages (i.e., sign and speech), including procedures and cautions to be considered in data collection and analysis. Finally, we will offer a brief description of relevant empirical data collected with Italian deaf children exposed to both Lingua dei Segni Italiana (LIS) and spoken Italian.

Research paper thumbnail of The use of articles by Italian-speaking children with specific language impairment

ABSTRACT Although children with specific language impairment often show significant limitations i... more ABSTRACT Although children with specific language impairment often show significant limitations in their use of grammatical morphemes, little is known about their use of morphemes that belong to a single set or paradigm. This question was pursued in the present study by examining specifically language-impaired (SLI) children's use of the Italian definite article system. Fifteen Italian-speaking SLI children were found to produce all articles with lower percentages than a group of 15 control children matched for mean utterance length. However, both groups had greater difficulty with plural articles than singular articles, and more difficulty using articles with restricted phonetic contexts than articles with a freer range of permissible contexts. In addition, the SLI children's difficulty with one of the articles seemed attributable to phonotactic constraints. The findings are interpreted within a framework that assumes that SLI children split and fill out morphological paradigms in the same manner as younger normally developing children, but operate with a more limited capacity that is burdened when grammatical morphemes have difficult surface characteristics.

Research paper thumbnail of Analyse de l'interaction communicative entre parents et enfants sourds dans un contexte de jeu non structuré : une comparaison entre parents sourds et entendants

Le Langage Et L Homme, 2006

RefDoc Bienvenue - Welcome. Refdoc est un service / is powered by. ...

Research paper thumbnail of A comparison of the transition from first words to grammar in English and Italian

Journal of Child Language, Feb 1, 1999

Research paper thumbnail of Indicazioni per la diagnosi, la valutazione e l'intervento riabilitativo dei bambini con Disturbo Specifico di Linguaggio

Psicologia Clinica Dello Sviluppo, 1998

Research paper thumbnail of Early communicative behaviors and their relationship to motor skills in extremely preterm infants

Research in Developmental Disabilities, 2016

Despite the predictive value of early spontaneous communication for identifying risk for later la... more Despite the predictive value of early spontaneous communication for identifying risk for later language concerns, very little research has focused on these behaviors in extremely low-gestational-age infants (ELGA<28 weeks) or on their relationship with motor development. In this study, communicative behaviors (gestures, vocal utterances and their coordination) were evaluated during mother-infant play interactions in 20 ELGA infants and 20 full-term infants (FT) at 12 months (corrected age for ELGA infants). Relationships between gestures and motor skills, evaluated using the Bayley-III Scales were also examined. ELGA infants, compared with FT infants, showed less advanced communicative, motor, and cognitive skills. Giving and representational gestures were produced at a lower rate by ELGA infants. In addition, pointing gestures and words were produced by a lower percentage of ELGA infants. Significant positive correlations between gestures (pointing and representational gestures) and fine motor skills were found in the ELGA group. We discuss the relevance of examining spontaneous communicative behaviors and motor skills as potential indices of early development that may be useful for clinical assessment and intervention with ELGA infants.

Research paper thumbnail of Noun and predicate comprehension and production and gestures in extremely preterm children at two years of age: Are they delayed?

Journal of Communication Disorders, 2015

Extremely low gestational age (ELGA, GA&a... more Extremely low gestational age (ELGA, GA<28 weeks) preterm children are at high risk for linguistic impairments; however, their lexical comprehension and production as well as lexical categories in their early language acquisition have not been specifically examined via direct tools. Our study examines lexical comprehension and production as well as gestural production in ELGA children by focusing on noun and predicate acquisition. Forty monolingual ELGA children (mean GA of 26.7 weeks) and 40 full-term (FT) children were assessed at two years of corrected chronological age (CCA) using a test of noun and predicate comprehension and production (PiNG) and the Italian MB-CDI. Noun comprehension and production were delayed in ELGA compared with FT children, as documented by the low number of correct responses and the large number of errors, i.e., incorrect responses and no-response items, and by the types of incorrect responses, i.e., fewer semantically related responses, in noun production. Regarding predicate comprehension and production, a higher frequency of no responses was reported by ELGA children and these children also presented a lower frequency of bimodal spoken-gestural responses in predicate production than FT children. A delayed vocabulary size as demonstrated by the MB-CDI, was exhibited by one-fourth of the ELGA children, who were also unable to complete the predicate subtest. These findings highlight that noun comprehension and production are delayed in ELGA children at two years of CCA and are the most important indexes for the direct evaluation of their lexical abilities and delay. The types of incorrect responses and bimodal spoken-gestural responses were proven to be useful indexes for evaluating the noun and predicate level of acquisition and to plan early focused interventions. After reading this manuscript, the reader will understand (a) the differences in noun and predicate comprehension and production between ELGA and FT children and the indexes of lexical delays exhibited by ELGA children at 2;0 (CCA); (b) the relevance of evaluating errors (incorrect response and no response), the types of incorrect responses (semantically related and unrelated) and the modality of the responses (unimodal spoken and bimodal spoken-gestural) in noun and predicate production to understand the difficulties experienced by ELGA children in representing and expressing meanings; and (c) the need to plan specific interventions to support spoken and gestural modalities in lexical comprehension and production in ELGA children by focusing on noun and predicate acquisition.

Research paper thumbnail of Finding the balance between capture and control: Oculomotor selection in early deaf adults

Brain and cognition, Jan 28, 2015

Previous work investigating the consequence of bilateral deafness on attentional selection sugges... more Previous work investigating the consequence of bilateral deafness on attentional selection suggests that experience-dependent changes in this population may result in increased automatic processing of stimulus-driven visual information (e.g., saliency). However, adaptive behavior also requires observers to prioritize goal-driven information relevant to the task at hand. In order to investigate whether auditory deprivation alters the balance between these two components of attentional selection, we assessed the time-course of overt visual selection in deaf adults. Twenty early-deaf adults and twenty hearing controls performed an oculomotor additional singleton paradigm. Participants made a speeded eye-movement to a unique orientation target, embedded among homogenous non-targets and one additional unique orientation distractor that was more, equally or less salient than the target. Saliency was manipulated through color. For deaf participants proficiency in sign language was assessed...

Research paper thumbnail of Deaf Children Learning in a Multimedial Environment

Interactive Learning Technology for the Deaf, 1993

... Informatica, Didattica e Disabilitd. IROE - eNR, Firenze, 42-50. Taeschner, T., Devescovi, A.... more ... Informatica, Didattica e Disabilitd. IROE - eNR, Firenze, 42-50. Taeschner, T., Devescovi, A. & Volterra, V. (1988). Affixes and function words in the written language of deaf children. Applied Psycho linguistics, 9,385-401. Volterra, V. (Ed.) (1987). La lingua italiana dei segni. ...

Research paper thumbnail of Language Acquisition by Bilingual Deaf Preschoolers

Bilingualism and Bilingual Deaf Education, 2014

ABSTRACT This chapter presents theoretical issues relevant to the study of early unimodal and bim... more ABSTRACT This chapter presents theoretical issues relevant to the study of early unimodal and bimodal bilingualism, based on our experience in Italy. The discussion will look at similarities and differences between unimodal and bimodal bilingualism and examine methodological issues to be considered in assessing the development of deaf bimodal bilingual children in both languages (i.e., sign and speech), including procedures and cautions to be considered in data collection and analysis. Finally, we will offer a brief description of relevant empirical data collected with Italian deaf children exposed to both Lingua dei Segni Italiana (LIS) and spoken Italian.