Language Deprivation Syndrome
Cheng, Q., Halgren, E., and Mayberry, R. (2018). Proceedings of the 42nd annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, ed. Anne B. Bertolini and Maxwell J. Kaplan, 140-152. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.
The article reports a study aimed at understanding the effects of early language deprivation at the anatomical as well as behavioral level of a deaf child’s development. One core issue regarding language development is the role of early language experience. The literature on child language development has found that the quality and quantity of early language input is associated with children’s language performance, but the exact nature of the relation between early language experience and language development is less clear.
Three deaf individuals participated in the current study. All three individuals were born profoundly deaf, grew up with hearing, non-signing family member(s) during childhood, and were mainly kept at home. As a result, they were all deprived from both spoken and sign language exposure during childhood.
The findings suggest that growth of the brain language pathways is not solely driven by biological maturation but requires language acquisition during childhood. It appears that early language experience is crucial for the brain language system pathways to develop and connect in the expected fashion. As well, a lack of linguistic experience during the critical time window for language acquisition during childhood appears to affect development of the dorsal stream in the left hemisphere, resulting in deficits in language outcomes, especially with morpho-syntactically complex structures.
The findings also suggest that early language experience, regardless of its modality, is crucial for the language system to fully develop in the expected fashion. Further study of late L1 learners are required to confirm these preliminary findings, and more aspects of brain and language outcomes need to be explored to expand the preliminary findings of the researchers of this study.
Gulati, S. (2014). Language deprivation syndrome. ASL Lecture Series.
In this ASL lecture, Dr. Gulati talks about the reality of language deprivation in many deaf persons and the impact of language deprivation on development. He also summarizes research from 98 persons with language deprivation seen in his clinic. Language deprivation, as measured by age of exposure to sign language and current sign language skills, was very highly correlated with dangerousness to others. He then addresses limitations in cochlear implant research, principally that outcome studies measure acquisition of vocabulary but not language. Large numbers of deaf children with cochlear implants are not acquiring anything approaching language fluency. His lecture is followed by interesting dialogue with members of his audience. Dr. Gulati describes the kinds of cognitive and language problems he has seen in persons with severe language deprivation. Examples include difficulties with abstract thinking, inability to arrange narratives in a linear sequence, and difficulties with constructs like cause and effect.
Hall, W. C. (2017, February 9). What you don’t know can hurt you: The risk of language deprivation by impairing sign language development in deaf children. Journal of Maternal Child Health.
This article presents a commentary on the dangers to deaf children that come with denying them access to sign language in their critical language learning years. The commentary synthesizes research outcomes with signing and non-signing children and highlights fully accessible language as a protective factor for healthy development. Brain changes associated with language deprivation may be misrepresented as sign language interfering with spoken language outcomes of cochlear implants. Language deprivation puts deaf children at risk for cognitive delays, mental health difficulties, lower quality of life, a higher level of trauma, and limited health literacy.
Hall, W. C., Leven, L. L., & Anderson, M. L. (2017). Language deprivation syndrome: A possible neurodevelopmental disorder with sociocultural origins. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 1-16.
There is a need to better understand the epidemiological relationship between language development and psychiatric symptomatology. Language development can be particularly impacted by social factors—as seen in the developmental choices made for deaf children, which can create language deprivation. A possible mental health syndrome may be present in deaf patients with severe language deprivation. The researchers conducted an extensive review of existing databases to identify publications focusing on language development and mental health in the deaf population. They review the literature supporting the existence of a condition they propose be called “language deprivation syndrome” and recommend research to formalize the diagnostic criteria.