Peter

C. Hauser, Ph.D.
Clinical Neuropsychologist
Is the DEAF MIND dierent Associate Professor
Na#onal Technical Ins#tute for the Deaf
from the HEARING MIND? Rochester Ins#tute of Technology

Science Mentorship Leader
NSF Science of learning Center on
Visual Language and Visual Learning
Gallaudet University
Is the deaf mind dierent
from the hearing mind?
 OVERVIEW

visual processing
cogni#ve development
language development
psychosocial development
recommenda#ons
Visual Processing
Lower level visual processing (sensation)

Deaf and Hearing: Same

Upper level visual processing (perception/attention)

Deaf and Hearing: Some differences

Bavelier, Dye, & Hauser, 2006

Dye, Hauser, & Bavelier, 2009
Dye, Hauser, & Bavelier, 2009
 100
90 Hearing Deaf
Slower
UFOV Threshold (ms)
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
Faster 10
0
Non-Signer Signer

Dye, Hauser, & Bavelier, 2009

Bavelier, Brozinsky, Tomann et al., 2001; Bavelier, Dye, & Hauser, 2006
Story telling acGvity in a deaf classroom

PROMPTS Deaf family Hearing family

Gain Attention 30 60
Direct Attention 2 33

Crume & Singleton, 2008

 Visual learning important for hearing infants too

Meltzo & Brooks (2008). The bold line shows language growth in
infants who scored high in social understanding and the plain line
shows the curve for infants who scored low in social understanding.
 What parents and teachers
need to know
Deaf individuals rely
more on vision

Vision is their strength

Maximize visual
learning opportuni#es
Cognitive Development
 Q

X +

D
Bavelier, 2009
 7

5
mean span

Deaf Hearing

No group difference
Bavelier, 2009
 Q

X +
Q D

D
Bavelier, 2009
 7

5
mean span

4 Only phono
No-Space
Multiple Coding
Space
3

Deaf Hearing

Interaction between condition and hearing status: F(1, 21) = 4.025, p = 0.05
+

Bavelier, 2009
 7

6 *

5
mean span

Deaf Hearing

Deaf outperform hearing

 Encoding Rehearsal Recall

Hearing
English

Deaf
ASL

Bavelier, Newman, Mukherjee, Hauser, Kemeny, Braun, & Boutla, 2008

 Snapshot Silent
Camela Len#ni

LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
SIGN LANGUAGE
 Language and Brain

s
LinguisGc sGmuli at ~1.5 Hz

In sign: Pe#\o, Zatorre, Gauna,
Nikelski, Dos#e, & Evans, 2000

In tacGle sign: Obretenova, Halko,
Plow, Pascual-Leone, & Merabet, 2010

Planum Temporale (STG)

 Sign language developmental milestones
10 Months: Babbling
(Pe`to, 1987; Pe`to & Marente\e, 1991; Pe#\o et al., 2001;
Holowka & Pe`to, 2002)

12 Months: First words
(Pe#\o, 1987, 1988, 2000)

18 Months: First 2 word sentences
(Pe#\o, 1987, 1988, 1992, 2000)

24 Months: Morphological & SyntacGc
(Pe#\o, 1987; Pe#\o & Bellugi, 1988)
SemanGc
(Charron & Pe`to, 1991; Holowka, Brosseau-LaprE, Pe#\o,
2002)
PragmaGcs & Discourse
(Charron & Pe#\o, 1991; Wilbur & Pe`to, 1981, 1983)
Single Word Processing Sentence Processing

Deaf bilingual

Deaf monolingual

Hearing monolingual

Spotswood, Lawyer, Hirshorn,

Pa\erson, Hauser, Eden, Newman, Supalla, Hauser,
Mendoza, & Corina, 2010 Newport, & Bavelier, 2010
 Cognitive benefits of signing
to both deaf and hearing people
Better visual memory
(McKee, 1987; Emmorey, Kosslyn, & Bellugi, 1993; Talbot & Haude, 1993)

Better space memory

(Capirci, Cattani, Rossini, & Volterra, 1998; Parasnis, Samar, Bettger, & Sathe, 1996;
Wilson, Bettger, Niculae, & Klima, 1997)

Better face processing

(Arnold & Murray, 1998, Bellugi, OGrady, Lillo-Martin, OGrady, van Hoek, & Corina,
1990; Parasnis et al., 1996)

Better reading development

(Chamberlain & Mayberry, 2000; Daniels, 1996; Felzer, 1998; Good, Feekes, &
Shawd, 1994; Wilson, Teague, & Teaque, 1995)
SPOKEN LANGUAGE AND READING
 Eect of teaching ASL
on overall language development
7

5
Test score

Utah group
4

3 Tennessee
group (control
2
group)

receptive language expressive language

Watkins, Pitman, & Walden, 1998

British Sign Language and Spoken English

300

250
Vocabulary words

200
UK MacArthur-Bates CDI
English
150 BSL CDI
BSL
100

50

0
Comprehension Production

No significant differences between English and BSL

Woll, 2010
 BSL and English correlations

Comprehension Production

spoken English vocabulary

spoken English vocabulary

BSL Vocabulary
BSL Vocabulary

(r = +.56; p<.05) (r = +.71; p<.01)

Woll, 2010
 Effect of hearing status

400
350
300
Vocabulary words

250 Moderate
200 Severe
150 Profound
100
50
0
UK ECDI
spoken nglish UK CDI
spoken English BSL CDI
BSL BSL CDI
BSL Woll, 2010
Comprehension Production Comprehension Production

No significant differences between hearing statuses

 Deaf skilled signers and readers use same general areas
of brain for reading compared to hearing readers

!
Corina, Lawyer, Hauser, & Hirshorn, submi\ed

Early sign language skills predict be\er reading
and le\er wri#ng ability (Allen et al., 2009)
 1800

1600

1400

1200
RT (msec)

1000

800

600

400

200

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Length

Early sign acquisi#on increases reading speed and
reading comprehension

English phonological skills predicted only 11% of the

variance
(Traxler, in progress)
Phonological Coding not as criGcal as
previously thought

Deaf children may not
rely on spoken
language phonological
processes in learning
to read
(Mayberry et al., 2011)
Print processing ASL

ac#vates some of
those regions

engaged in sign FS

and ngerspelling
(Emmorey, 2012)


Print
 What parents and teachers
need to know
Deaf and hard-of-hearing
children need to learn sign
language early in life

Sign does not interfere

with speech development

Sign improves cogni#on,

reading, and language
skills
PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
 Predictors of healthy self-esteem

Meta-analysis (42 studies)

1. Parents who have a posi#ve a`tude towards

deafness

2. Availability of clear and accessible communica#on

within the home

3. If the deaf child iden#es with others within the

deaf community

Bat-Chava, 1993
 Parent stress

Stress scores Stress scores

30
18

25 Few contacts 16
with deaf 14 Few contacts
20 adults 12
with other
parents
15 10

Many 8
10
contacts with 6 Many
5 deaf adults 4 contacts with
2
other parents
0
0

Hintermair, 2000
 Parent and child stress

Mothers
Fathers

Hintermair, 2006
(Yosso, 2005)
 What parents and teachers
need to know

It is okay to be deaf

Deaf children and parents

need connec#ons with
deaf community

Deaf role models are

important
 Summary

1. focus on visual learning

2. teach sign early

3. connect parents with

other parents

4. Seek deaf mentors

What YOU can do

Destroy myths

Teach new knowledge

Work with academics

peter.hauser@rit.edu