Kommunikoinnin häiriöiden kuntoutus - vaativa laji

Assessing Vocabulary in Deaf and Hearing Children using Finnish Sign Language.

Abstract This study investigates children’s vocabulary knowledge in Finnish Sign Language (FinSL), specifically their understanding of different form-meaning mappings by using a multilayered assessment format originally developed for British Sign Language (BSL). The web-based BSL vocabulary test by Mann (2009) was adapted for FinSL following the steps outlined by Mann, Roy and Morgan (2016) and piloted with a small group of deaf and hearing native signers (N = 24). Findings showed a hierarchy of difficulty between the tasks, which is concordant with results reported previously for BSL and American Sign Language (ASL). Additionally, the reported psychometric properties of the FinSL vocabular…

Lasten suomalaisen viittomakielen kehityksen arviointi kielen asemaa tukemassa

Lasten kielitaidon ja kielen kehityksen arviointi ja seuranta on tärkeää monesta eri syystä niin yksittäisen lapsen ja perheen kuin laajemmin kieliyhteisön ja kielen tutkimuksen kannalta. Tässä artikkelissa tarkastellaan lasten suomalaisen viittomakielen kehityksen arviointia. Artikkelissa tuomme esiin lasten viittomakielen taidon arviointiin vaikuttavia tekijöitä sekä asioita, joita arvioinnin toteutuksessa on otettava huomioon. Esittelemme lyhyesti myös suomalaisen viittomakielen arviointiin kehitettyjä arviointimateriaaleja. Lisäksi pohdimme lasten viittomakielen taidon arvioinnin mahdollisia vaikutuksia viittomakielten asemaan Suomessa. nonPeerReviewed

Use of code-mixing by young hearing children of Deaf parents

In this study we followed the characteristics and use of code-mixing by eight KODAs – hearing children of Deaf parents – from the age of 12 to 36 months. The children's interaction was video-recorded twice a year during three different play sessions: with their Deaf parent, with the Deaf parent and a hearing adult, and with the hearing adult alone. Additionally, data were collected on the children's overall language development in both sign language and spoken language. Our results showed that the children preferred to produce code-blends – simultaneous production of semantically congruent signs and words – in a way that was in accordance with the morphosyntactic structure of both languages…

Utterance fluency in Finnish Sign Language L1 and L2 signing

This paper explores the fluency of first language (L1) and second language (L2) signers of Finnish Sign Language. The phenomenon was approached by measuring utterance fluency using speed and breakdown parameters. The findings revealed clear differences between L1 and L2 signers regarding the measured fluency parameters. On average, L1 signers produced more signs and had fewer breakdowns per minute than L2 signers. However, the slowest L1 signer and the fastest L2 signer were more similar to each other than the averages of the L1 group’s (129.3) and the L2 group’s (71.4) signs per minute might suggest. The number of breakdowns per minute differed between the groups, with L2 signers breaking …

Avoimen tieteen eri puolet

Relationship Between the Linguistic Environments and Early Bilingual Language Development of Hearing Children in Deaf-parented Families

We explored variation in the linguistic environments of hearing children of Deaf parents and how it was associated with their early bilingual language development. For that purpose we followed up the children's productive vocabulary (measured with the MCDI; MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory) and syntactic complexity (measured with the MLU10; mean length of the 10 longest utterances the child produced during videorecorded play sessions) in both Finnish Sign Language and spoken Finnish between the ages of 12 and 30 months. Additionally, we developed new methodology for describing the linguistic environments of the children (N = 10). Large variation was uncovered in both the amount…

Pitkittyneen etäajan vaikutuksista kielentutkimukseen ja alan opetukseen

Kaksimodaalinen kaksikielisyys ja sen varhainen kehitys

Kaksikielisten lasten osuus yksikielisiin lapsiin verrattuna on viimeisten vuosikymmenten aikana kasvanut selvästi (Paradis, Genesee & Crago, 2011 s. 27). Muutos näkyy lasten parissa työskentelevien eri ammattiryhmien arjessa, mutta myös kaksikielistä kielen kehitystä tarkastelevien tutkimusten selkeänä lisääntymisenä 2000-luvun aikana. Kaksikieliset lapset muodostavat kieli- ja kulttuuritaustaltaan hyvin heterogeenisen ryhmän, mikä asettaa erilaisia haasteita sekä lasten parissa työskenteleville ammattiryhmille että aihetta käsittelevälle tutkimukselle. peerReviewed

Pääkirjoitus: Tutkimustiedon julkaiseminen suomen kielellä on tärkeää

Suomen kielen käyttö tieteellisessä julkaisemisessa on ajankohtainen aihe. Julkaisukulttuurissa on kuluneen kymmenen vuoden aikana tapahtunut selvä muutos. Julkaisutahti on nopeutunut ja julkaiseminen pirstaloitunut. Tutkijoille julkaisukanavaan ja raportointikieleen liittyvien vaihtoehtojen pohtimisesta on tullut tärkeä osa arkea, ja samalla julkaiseminen on voimakkaasti, melko nopeasti ja vähin äänin englanninkielistynyt. Muutosten taustalla eivät kuitenkaan ole yksittäisten tutkijoiden itsenäiset valinnat vaan laajempi tiede- ja korkeakoulupolitiikkaan sekä kansainvälisiin virtauksiin kytkeytyvä ilmiö, jonka kaikkia vaikuttimia ja varsinkaan kaikkia seurauksia ei vielä tunneta. nonPeerRe…

Differentiation in language and gesture use during early bilingual development of hearing children of Deaf parents

Hearing children of Deaf parents simultaneously acquire sign language and spoken language, which have many structural differences and represent two different modalities. We video-recorded eight children every six months between the ages of 12 and 24 months during three different play sessions: with their Deaf parent, with the Deaf parent and a hearing adult, and with a hearing adult alone. Additionally, we collected data on their vocabulary development in both sign language and spoken language. Children as young as 12 months old accommodated their language use according to the language(s) of their interlocutor(s). Additionally, the children used a manual modality that included gestures more…

Kieli, leikki ja pelillisyys kehittymisen välineinä

Variation in the use of constructed action according to discourse type and age in Finnish Sign Language

This paper presents a study of the use of constructed action (CA) in the stories and conversations of adult Finnish Sign Language (FinSL) signers of different ages. CA is defined here as a type of depiction in which a signer enacts the actions, feelings, thoughts and utterances of discourse referents with different parts of their body. Most studies on CA in sign languages have been done on the basis of signed storytelling, and little is known about how the use of CA varies in different discourse types. The use of CA has also been noted to vary between individual signers, but we do not yet know much about the socio-individual phenomena that may be linked to this variation. In the present stu…