Facial mimicry, the tendency to imitate facial expressions of other individuals, has been shown to play a critical role in the processing of emotion expressions. At the same time, there is evidence suggesting that its role might change when the cognitive demands of the situation increase. In such situations, understanding another person is dependent on working memory. However, whether facial mimicry influences working memory representations for facial emotion expressions is not fully understood. In the present study, we experimentally interfered with facial mimicry by using established behavioral procedures, and investigated how this interference influenced working memory recall for facial emotion expressions. Healthy, young adults (N = 36) performed an emotion expression n-back paradigm with two levels of working memory load, low (1-back) and high (2-back), and three levels of mimicry interference: high, low, and no interference. Results showed that, after controlling for block order and individual differences in the perceived valence and arousal of the stimuli, the high level of mimicry interference impaired accuracy when working memory load was low (1-back) but, unexpectedly, not when load was high (2-back). Working memory load had a detrimental effect on performance in all three mimicry conditions. We conclude that facial mimicry might support working memory for emotion expressions when task load is low, but that the supporting effect possibly is reduced when the task becomes more cognitively challenging.

Background: Age-related changes in auditory and cognitive functions are well-documented, with increased hearing thresholds (e.g., Wiley et al., 2008) and reduced working memory capacity (WMC; e.g., Wingfield et al., 1988) among older adults. Moreover, aging has been linked to poorer speech recognition in noise (e.g., Marsja et al., 2022), highlighting the multifaceted impact of age on auditory and cognitive domains. Our study examined the dynamic relationship between auditory and cognitive changes over time to shed light on the direction of influence between the two. To this aim, we employed change score modeling.

Methods: We analyzed data from 111 normally hearing individuals from the n200 study (https://2024.speech-in-noise.eu/proxy.php?id=81). At Time 1 (T1), their mean age was 61.2 years (SD = 8.00), and at Time 2 (T2), their mean age was 67.0 years (SD = 8.06). We used Latent Change Score modeling to explore the changes in WMC and speech recognition in noise. To measure speech recognition in noise, we used signal-to-noise ratios from the Hearing in Noise Test during speech-shaped noise. The reading span test was used as a measure for WMC.

Results and Conclusion: Preliminary results showed a decline in WMC, signified by the negative relationship between Reading Span at T1 and changes in Reading Span at T2. This negative relationship indicates that individuals with higher initial WMC experienced subsequent declines in their cognitive abilities. Furthermore, our analysis revealed a negative relationship between changes in speech recognition in noise at T2 and Reading Span at T1. This relationship suggests that individuals with higher initial WMC experienced less decline in their speech recognition in noise over time. Further research with additional time points may be needed to fully elucidate the complex relationship between cognitive and auditory changes over time.

Background It can be challenging for people with intellectual disabilities to convey their thoughts and opinions because of cognitive, speech and language impairments. Consequently, facilitating their ability to communicate using augmentative and alternative communication methods is essential. The picture-based framework Talking Mats has been applied in many studies and has been shown to be successful in facilitating communication and soliciting views from individuals with intellectual disabilities and communication difficulties. The aim of this study was to describe the views of students with intellectual disabilities and communication difficulties on speech and reading activities and to examine whether valence scores (from negative to positive) on these views were associated with performance on tests of their corresponding abilities. Methods This is a cross-sectional quantitative survey study. A group of 111 students with intellectual disabilities and communication difficulties aged 7–21 were interviewed about their speech and reading activities using the visual framework Talking Mats. Their answers were scored on a three-grade like-dislike continuum and were correlated with their results on adapted tests of the corresponding abilities. Findings The students expressed their views on speech and reading activities. The scored views on speech were positively associated with speech production, and the scored views on reading activities were positively related to reading ability. This suggests that their opinions as expressed through Talking Mats were consistent and reliable. Conclusions Most students with intellectual disabilities and communicative difficulties can reliably express their own opinions of their abilities when they are provided with a clear visual structure and pictorial support, such as Talking Mats. In this study, this was seen for students with a mild intellectual disability from age seven and onwards and for students with a more severe intellectual disability from 12 years of age and onwards.

In the study of communication, meaning-making may be explained as a process consisting of collaborative and distributed actions between participants in interaction. This view is of special importance in communication with individuals living with deafblindness. Staff working in group housing for people with congenital deafblindness can be considered as communication partners. Using a qualitative and explorative design, 18 communication partners have been individually interviewed concerning their perceptions of strategies to facilitate social interaction with adults with congenital deafblindness. The interviews were transcribed and analysed using content analysis. The analyses generated three categories of perceived strategies 1) having essential competence and qualities, 2) getting to know and understand each other, 3) use of facilitating techniques. The results indicate that staff continuity in homes for people with deafblindness is key for the well-being of the people cared for. Combinations of perceived experiences from interviews, and forthcoming video-ethnographic observations, may form the basis of training programs.

A small body of research and reports from educational and clinicalpractice suggest that teaching literacy skills may facilitate the devel-opment of speech sound production in students with intellectualdisabilities (ID). However, intervention research is needed to test thepotential connection. This study aimed to investigate whether twelveweeks of systematic, digital literacy intervention enhanced speechsound production in students with ID and communication difficulties.A sample of 121 students with ID were assigned to four differentgroups: phonics-based, comprehension-based, a combination withboth phonics- and comprehension-based intervention anda comparison group with teaching-as-usual. Speech sound productionwas assessed before and after the intervention. The results on the datawithout the imputed variable suggested a significant positive effect ofsystematic, digital literacy interventions on speech sound production.However, results from sensitivity analyses with imputed missing datawas more ambiguous, with the effect only approaching significance(ps = .05–.07) for one of the interventions. Nonetheless, we tentativelysuggest that systematic, digital literacy intervention could supportspeech development in students with ID and communication difficul-ties. Future research should be done to confirm and further elucidatethe functional mechanisms of this link, so that we may have a betterunderstanding and can improve instruction and the pivotal abilities ofspeech and reading.

PurposeStudents with intellectual disabilities (ID) typically have difficulties with literacy learning, often not acquiring basic literacy skills. Research and practical experience indicate that when these students are provided with evidence-based instruction, including comprehension as well as phonemic strategies, literacy may develop.MethodsIn this study, four pairs of teachers were interviewed regarding their perceptions of a 12-week digital literacy intervention that focused on both phonics and comprehension strategies. The intervention aimed to enhance literacy and communication development in students aged 7-21, who had mild to severe ID.Results and conclusionFour themes were identified in the analysis. It was seen that the teachers found it valuable to have access to two apps accessing and facilitating the use of different literacy strategies in meeting the needs of individual students. This digital format was also perceived as positive, contributing to creating a supportive and systematic learning environment that enhanced and increased literacy learning. The teachers recurringly also talked about the positive influence of participating in research, lifting the strong focus, and positive attention as very important for both teachers and students.

Introduction

Listening and communication difficulties can limit people’s participation in activity and adversely affect their quality of life. Hearing, as well as listening and communication difficulties, can be measured either by using behavioural tests or self-report measures, and the outcomes are not always closely linked. The association between behaviourally measured and self-reported hearing is strong, whereas the association between behavioural and self-reported measures of listening and communication difficulties is much weaker, suggesting they assess different aspects of listening. While behavioural measures of listening and communication difficulties have been associated with poorer cognitive performance including executive functions, the same association has not always been shown for self-report measures. The objective of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to understand the relationship between executive function and self-reported listening and communication difficulties in adults with hearing loss, and where possible, potential covariates of age and pure-tone audiometric thresholds.

Methods and analysis

Studies will be eligible for inclusion if they report data from both a self-report measure of listening difficulties and a behavioural measure of executive function. Eight databases are to be searched: MEDLINE (via Ovid SP), EMBASE (via Ovid SP), PsycINFO (via Ovid SP), ASSIA (via ProQuest), Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature or CINAHL (via EBSCO Host), Scopus, PubMed and Web of Science (Science and Social Science Citation Index). The JBI critical appraisal tool will be used to assess risk of bias for included studies. Results will be synthesised primarily using a meta-analysis, and where sufficient quantitative data are not available, a narrative synthesis will be carried out to describe key results.

Ethics and dissemination

No ethical issues are foreseen. Data will be disseminated via academic publication and conference presentations. Findings may also be published in scientific newsletters and magazines.

Earlier research and reports from educational practice seem to suggest that teaching early literacy skills may facilitate speech-sound production in students with intellectual disabilities, but further research is needed to confirm a potential connection. This study investigated (1) the relationship between speech-sound production, phonological awareness, and letter-sound knowledge in students with intellectual disabilities and communication difficulties, and (2) to what degree phonological awareness and letter-sound knowledge explain the variance in speech-sound production over and above IQ and chronological age. A group of 116 students, aged 7–21, enrolled in Swedish compulsory schools for students with intellectual disabilities participated in this study. All had limited reading skills. The test results for phonological awareness, letter-sound knowledge, and speech-sound production had a wide range. The results showed that early literacy skills were moderately and significantly correlated with speech-sound production. After controlling for IQ and age in a regression model, the addition of phonological awareness and letter-sound knowledge explained 29% of the variance in speech-sound production. The results suggest that phonological awareness and letter-sound knowledge is associated with speech-sound production and that these associations are not explained by age or IQ. Further research on this group of students should aim to determine causal relationships, for instance, by investigating early reading intervention and the potential effect on speech-sound production.

Educational researchers have challenged Bandura’s prediction that self-efficacy beliefs tend to be established early in learning and that once set, self-efficacy beliefs persist unless a critical event causes them to be reevaluated. However, the results have been mixed in previous research, including being positive, negative, and unchanged. In response, we evaluated how 75 teachers (i.e., special educators) rate their teaching self-efficacy beliefs in motivating student reading and adapting reading instruction at two time points. All teachers taught students with an intellectual disability, communication difficulties, and poor reading skills. The teachers participated in a workshop to learn teaching reading strategies with apps under various conditions (comprehension strategies, phonemic strategies, or both comprehension and phonemic strategies). We analyzed teacher self-efficacy beliefs at two time points with a 12-week span (pre-and postintervention). First, we developed measures of teacher self-efficacy through confirmatory factor analyses. Next, we analyzed the data with multiple imputation and mixed linear regression with difference-in-differences (DiD). The results indicated no statistically significant treatment effect on teachers’ rating of their teaching self-efficacy beliefs. We conclude that our results agree with Bandura’s original prediction and thus, his social cognitive theory.

The processing of a language involves a neural language network including temporal, parietal, and frontal cortical regions. This applies to spoken as well as signed languages. Previous research suggests that spoken language proficiency is associated with resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) between language regions and other regions of the brain. Given the similarities in neural activation for spoken and signed languages, rsFC-behavior associations should also exist for sign language tasks. In this study, we explored the associations between rsFC and two types of linguistic skills in sign language: phonological processing skill and accuracy in elicited sentence production. Fifteen adult, deaf early signers were enrolled in a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study. In addition to fMRI data, behavioral tests of sign language phonological processing and sentence reproduction were administered. Using seed-to-voxel connectivity analysis, we investigated associations between behavioral proficiency and rsFC from language-relevant nodes: bilateral inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and posterior superior temporal gyrus (STG). Results showed that worse sentence processing skill was associated with stronger positive rsFC between the left IFG and left sensorimotor regions. Further, sign language phonological processing skill was associated with positive rsFC from right IFG to middle frontal gyrus/frontal pole although this association could possibly be explained by domain-general cognitive functions. Our findings suggest a possible connection between rsFC and developmental language outcomes in deaf individuals.

This is an empirical study, preceded by a corresponding review of the state of the art, to demonstrate that, as suggested by the notion of multimodal language processing in the ELU model, an intervention basedon training the connection between sign language and reading can be a very useful method to improve word reading among children who are def or hard of hearing who know sign language.

If the brain is deprived of input from one or more senses during development, functional and structural reorganization of the deprived regions takes place. However, little is known about how sensory deprivation affects large-scale brain networks. In the present study, we use data-driven independent component analysis (ICA) to characterize large-scale brain networks in 15 deaf early signers and 24 hearing non-signers based on resting-state functional MRI data. We found differences between the groups in independent components representing the left lateralized control network, the default network, the ventral somatomotor network, and the attention network. In addition, we showed stronger functional connectivity for deaf compared to hearing individuals from the middle and superior temporal cortices to the cingulate cortex, insular cortex, cuneus and precuneus, supramarginal gyrus, supplementary motor area, and cerebellum crus 1, and stronger connectivity for hearing non-signers to hippocampus, middle and superior frontal gyri, pre- and postcentral gyri, and cerebellum crus 8. These results show that deafness induces large-scale network reorganization, with the middle/superior temporal cortex as a central node of plasticity. Cross-modal reorganization may be associated with behavioral adaptations to the environment, including superior ability in some visual functions such as visual working memory and visual attention, in deaf signers.

The review gives an introductory description of the successive development of data patterns based on comparisons between hearing-impaired and normal hearing participants speech understanding skills, later prompting the formulation of the Ease of Language Understanding (ELU) model. The model builds on the interaction between an input buffer (RAMBPHO, Rapid Automatic Multimodal Binding of PHOnology) and three memory systems: working memory (WM), semantic long-term memory (SLTM), and episodic long-term memory (ELTM). RAMBPHO input may either match or mismatch multimodal SLTM representations. Given a match, lexical access is accomplished rapidly and implicitly within approximately 100-400 ms. Given a mismatch, the prediction is that WM is engaged explicitly to repair the meaning of the input - in interaction with SLTM and ELTM - taking seconds rather than milliseconds. The multimodal and multilevel nature of representations held in WM and LTM are at the center of the review, being integral parts of the prediction and postdiction components of language understanding. Finally, some hypotheses based on a selective use-disuse of memory systems mechanism are described in relation to mild cognitive impairment and dementia. Alternative speech perception and WM models are evaluated, and recent developments and generalisations, ELU model tests, and boundaries are discussed.

To conceptualize the communicative role of working memory (WM), the Ease-of-Language Understanding (ELU) model was proposed (e.g., Rönnberg, 2003; Rönnberg et al., 2008, 2013, 2019, 2020). The model states that ease of language understanding is determined by the speed and accuracy with which the signal is matched to existing multimodal language representations. When matching is fast and complete, language understanding is effortless; this process may be facilitated by predictions based on the contents of WM. However, when the contents of the language signal mismatches with existing representations, WM is triggered to access knowledge in semantic long-term memory (SLTM) and personal experience from episodic long-term memory (ELTM) – promoting inference-making and postdictions in WM. The interplay between WM and LTM is fundamental to language understanding; its efficiency becomes apparent in adverse conditions and its breakdown may explain cognitive decline and dementia. Empirical support, limitations, and future studies will be discussed.

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to conceptualize the subtle balancing act between language input and prediction (cognitive priming of future input) to achieve understanding of communicated content. When understanding fails, reconstructive postdiction is initiated. Three memory systems play important roles: working memory (WM), episodic long-term memory (ELTM), and semantic long-term memory (SLTM). The axiom of the Ease of Language Understanding (ELU) model is that explicit WM resources are invoked by a mismatch between language input—in the form of rapid automatic multimodal binding of phonology—and multimodal phonological and lexical representations in SLTM. However, if there is a match between rapid automatic multimodal binding of phonology output and SLTM/ELTM representations, language processing continues rapidly and implicitly.

Method and Results

In our first ELU approach, we focused on experimental manipulations of signal processing in hearing aids and background noise to cause a mismatch with LTM representations; both resulted in increased dependence on WM. Our second—and main approach relevant for this review article—focuses on the relative effects of age-related hearing loss on the three memory systems. According to the ELU, WM is predicted to be frequently occupied with reconstruction of what was actually heard, resulting in a relative disuse of phonological/lexical representations in the ELTM and SLTM systems. The prediction and results do not depend on test modality per se but rather on the particular memory system. This will be further discussed.

Conclusions

Related to the literature on ELTM decline as precursors of dementia and the fact that the risk for Alzheimer's disease increases substantially over time due to hearing loss, there is a possibility that lowered ELTM due to hearing loss and disuse may be part of the causal chain linking hearing loss and dementia. Future ELU research will focus on this possibility.

Almost all studies on neonatal imitation to date seem to have focused on typically developing children, and we thus lack information on the early imitative abilities of children who follow atypical developmental trajectories. From both practical and theoretical perspectives, these abilities might be relevant to study in children who develop a neuropsychiatric diagnosis later on or in infants who later show impaired ability to imitate. Theoretical in the sense that it will provide insight into the earliest signs of intersubjectivity—i.e., primary intersubjectivity—and how this knowledge might influence our understanding of children following atypical trajectories of development. Practical in the sense that it might lead to earlier detection of certain disabilities. In the present work, we screen the literature for empirical studies on neonatal imitation in children with an Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or Down syndrome (DS) as well as present an observation of neonatal imitation in an infant that later was diagnosed with autism and a re-interpretation of previously published data on the phenomenon in a small group of infants with DS. Our findings suggest that the empirical observations to date are too few to draw any definite conclusions but that the existing data suggests that neonatal imitation can be observed both in children with ASD and in children with DS. Thus, neonatal imitation might not represent a useful predictor of a developmental deficit. Based on current theoretical perspectives advocating that neonatal imitation is a marker of primary intersubjectivity, we propose tentatively that an ability to engage in purposeful exchanges with another human being exists in these populations from birth.

Stimulus degradation adds to working memory load during speech processing.We investigated whether this applies to signprocessing and, if so, whether the mechanism implicates secondary auditory cortex.We conducted an fMRI experimentwhere 16 deaf early signers (DES) and 22 hearing non-signers performed a sign-based n-back task with three load levels andstimuli presented at high and low resolution.We found decreased behavioral performance with increasing load anddecreasing visual resolution, but the neurobiological mechanisms involved differed between the two manipulations and didso for both groups. Importantly, while the load manipulation was, as predicted, accompanied by activation in thefrontoparietal working memory network, the resolution manipulation resulted in temporal and occipital activation.Furthermore, we found evidence of cross-modal reorganization in the secondary auditory cortex: DES had strongeractivation and stronger connectivity between this and several other regions.We conclude that load and stimulus resolutionhave different neural underpinnings in the visual–verbal domain, which has consequences for current working memorymodels, and that for DES the secondary auditory cortex is involved in the binding of representations when task demandsare low.

In our research on deaf signing children, most of the work is conducted in a swedish context, where we adopt a bio-psychological approach. From a medical point of view, it might be easier to determine the level of hearing loss following an established nomenclature: for example, mild, moderate, moderate severe, severe, and profound. Based on a medical definition of disabling hearing loss, estimated that almost 2% of all the children in the world, corresponding to more than 30 million individuals, are affected.

Auditory cortex in congenitally deaf early sign language users reorganizes to support cognitive processing in the visual domain. However, evidence suggests that the potential benefits of this reorganization are largely unrealized. At the same time, there is growing evidence that experience of playing computer and console games improves visual cognition, in particular visuospatial attentional processes. In the present study, we investigated in a group of deaf early signers whether those who reported recently playing computer or console games (deaf gamers) had better visuospatial attentional control than those who reported not playing such games (deaf non-gamers), and whether any such effect was related to cognitive processing in the visual domain. Using a classic test of attentional control, the Eriksen Flanker task, we found that deaf gamers performed on a par with hearing controls, while the performance of deaf non-gamers was poorer. Among hearing controls there was no effect of gaming. This suggests that deaf gamers may have better visuospatial attentional control than deaf non-gamers, probably because they are less susceptible to parafoveal distractions. Future work should examine the robustness of this potential gaming benefit and whether it is associated with neural plasticity in early deaf signers, as well as whether gaming intervention can improve visuospatial cognition in deaf people.

Objective: The current update of the Ease of Language Understanding (ELU) model evaluates the predictive and postdictive aspects of speech understanding and communication.Design: The aspects scrutinised concern: (1) Signal distortion and working memory capacity (WMC), (2) WMC and early attention mechanisms, (3) WMC and use of phonological and semantic information, (4) hearing loss, WMC and long-term memory (LTM), (5) WMC and effort, and (6) the ELU model and sign language.Study Samples: Relevant literature based on own or others data was used.Results: Expectations 1-4 are supported whereas 5-6 are constrained by conceptual issues and empirical data. Further strands of research were addressed, focussing on WMC and contextual use, and on WMC deployment in relation to hearing status. A wider discussion of task demands, concerning, for example, inference-making and priming, is also introduced and related to the overarching ELU functions of prediction and postdiction. Finally, some new concepts and models that have been inspired by the ELU-framework are presented and discussed.Conclusions: The ELU model has been productive in generating empirical predictions/expectations, the majority of which have been confirmed. Nevertheless, new insights and boundary conditions need to be experimentally tested to further shape the model.

The study of deafness and sign language has provided a means of dissociating modality specificity from higher level abstract processes in the brain. Differentiating these is fundamental for establishing the relationship between sensorimotor representations and functional specialisation in the brain. Early deafness in humans provides a unique insight into this problem, because the reorganisation observed in the adult deaf brain is not only due to neural development in the absence of auditory inputs, but also due to the acquisition of visual communication strategies such as sign language and speechreading. Here we report research by scholars who have collaborated with Bencie Woll in understanding the neural reorganisation that occurs as a consequence of early deafness, and its relation to the use of different visual strategies for language. We concentrate on three main topics: functional specialisation of sensory cortices, language and working memory.

This study explored the development of theory of mind (ToM) in 80 Swedish-speaking 3- to 5-year-olds, a previously unstudied language and culture. The ToM scale was translated and tested in a Swedish context. The results show that the ToM abilities improve significantly with age. In addition, a gender difference was observed for the whole sample, girls outperformed boys, but follow-up analyses revealed that the difference only remained significant for the 4-year-olds. No gender differences were observed at 3 and 5years of age. When conducting a scalability analysis, the overall Wellman and Liu scale showed less than acceptable scalability. However, when removing the last task of the scale (Real-Apparent Emotion), the fit and scalability was good. The reason for this divergent result is discussed in terms of cultural differences, such as parental and pedagogical practices in Sweden, which might especially focus on developing childrens socio-emotional understanding. Highlights Is the theory of mind (ToM) scale a feasible method to assess preschool-aged children in a Swedish context? The scale shows significant development from 3 to 5 years of age. To achieve a good scalability, the final task of the scale was removed. The scale measures ToM abilities developing in preschoolers. Cultural differences, such as parental and pedagogical practices, may alter the developmental trajectory of ToM abilities.

Strengthening the connections between sign language and written language may improve reading skills in deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) signing children. The main aim of the present study was to investigate whether computerized sign language-based literacy training improves reading skills in DHH signing children who are learning to read. Further, longitudinal associations between sign language skills and developing reading skills were investigated. Participants were recruited from Swedish state special schools for DHH children, where pupils are taught in both sign language and spoken language. Reading skills were assessed at five occasions and the intervention was implemented in a cross-over design. Results indicated that reading skills improved over time and that development of word reading was predicted by the ability to imitate unfamiliar lexical signs, but there was only weak evidence that it was supported by the intervention. These results demonstrate for the first time a longitudinal link between sign-based abilities and word reading in DHH signing children who are learning to read. We suggest that the active construction of novel lexical forms may be a supramodal mechanism underlying word reading development.

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BACKGROUND AND AIMS:

Children with good phonological awareness (PA) are often good word readers. Here, we asked whether Swedish deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children who are more aware of the phonology of Swedish Sign Language, a language with no orthography, are better at reading words in Swedish.

METHODS AND PROCEDURES:

We developed the Cross-modal Phonological Awareness Test (C-PhAT) that can be used to assess PA in both Swedish Sign Language (C-PhAT-SSL) and Swedish (C-PhAT-Swed), and investigated how C-PhAT performance was related to word reading as well as linguistic and cognitive skills. We validated C-PhAT-Swed and administered C-PhAT-Swed and C-PhAT-SSL to DHH children who attended Swedish deaf schools with a bilingual curriculum and were at an early stage of reading.

OUTCOMES AND RESULTS:

C-PhAT-SSL correlated significantly with word reading for DHH children. They performed poorly on C-PhAT-Swed and their scores did not correlate significantly either with C-PhAT-SSL or word reading, although they did correlate significantly with cognitive measures.

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS:

These results provide preliminary evidence that DHH children with good sign language PA are better at reading words and show that measures of spoken language PA in DHH children may be confounded by individual differences in cognitive skills.

Imitation and language processing are closely connected. According to the Ease of Language Understanding (ELU) model (Ronnberg et al., 2013) pre-existing mental representation of lexical items facilitates language understanding. Thus, imitation of manual gestures is likely to be enhanced by experience of sign language. We tested this by eliciting imitation of manual gestures from deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) signing and hearing non-signing children at a similar level of language and cognitive development. We predicted that the DHH signing children would be better at imitating gestures lexicalized in their own sign language (Swedish Sign Language, SSL) than unfamiliar British Sign Language (BSL) signs, and that both groups would be better at imitating lexical signs (SSL and BSL) than non-signs. We also predicted that the hearing non-signing children would perform worse than DHH signing children with all types of gestures the first time (T1) we elicited imitation, but that the performance gap between groups would be reduced when imitation was elicited a second time (T2). Finally, we predicted that imitation performance on both occasions would be associated with linguistic skills, especially in the manual modality. A split-plot repeated measures ANOVA demonstrated that DHH signers imitated manual gestures with greater precision than non-signing children when imitation was elicited the second but not the first time. Manual gestures were easier to imitate for both groups when they were lexicalized than when they were not; but there was no difference in performance between familiar and unfamiliar gestures. For both groups, language skills at T1 predicted imitation at T2. Specifically, for DHH children, word reading skills, comprehension and phonological awareness of sign language predicted imitation at T2. For the hearing participants, language comprehension predicted imitation at T2, even after the effects of working memory capacity and motor skills were taken into account. These results demonstrate that experience of sign language enhances the ability to imitate manual gestures once representations have been established, and suggest that the inherent motor patterns of lexical manual gestures are better suited for representation than those of non-signs. This set of findings prompts a developmental version of the ELU model, D-ELU.

Reading development is supported by strong language skills, not least in deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children. The work in the present thesis investigates reading development in DHH children who use sign language, attend Regional Special Needs Schools (RSNS) in Sweden and are learning to read. The primary aim of the present work was to investigate whether the reading skills of these children can be improved via computerized sign language based literacy training. Another aim was to investigate concurrent and longitudinal associations between skills in reading, sign language, and cognition in this population. The results suggest that sign language based literacy training may support development of word reading. In addition, awareness and manipulation of the sub-lexical structure of sign language seem to assist word reading, and imitation of familiar signs (i.e., vocabulary) may be associated with developing reading comprehension. The associations revealed between sign language skills and reading development support the notion that sign language skills provide a foundation for emerging reading skills in DHH signing children. In addition, the results also suggest that working memory and Theory of Mind (ToM) are related to reading comprehension in this population. Furthermore, the results indicate that sign language experience enhances the establishment of representations of manual gestures, and that progression in ToM seems to be typical, although delayed, in RSNS pupils. Working memory has a central role in integrating environmental stimuli and language-mediated representations, and thereby provides a platform for cross-modal language processing and multimodal language development.

Theory of Mind (ToM) is related to reading comprehension in hearing children. In the present study, we investigated progression in ToM in Swedish deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) signing children who were learning to read, as well as its assocation with reading comprehension. Thirteen children at Swedish state primary schools for DHH children performed a Swedish Sign Language (SSL) version of the Wellman and Liu (2004) ToM scale, along with tests of reading comprehension, SSL comprehension, and working memory. Results indicated that ToM progression did not differ from that reported in previous studies, although ToM development was delayed despite age-appropriate sign language skills. Correlation analysis revealed that ToM was associated with reading comprehension and working memory, but not sign language comprehension. We propose that some factor not investigated in the present study, possibly represented by inference making constrained by working memory capacity, supports both ToM and reading comprehension and may thus explain the results observed in the present study.

Introduction: Deaf signing children and hearing children reveal different developmental trajectories in several aspects of neurocognitive functioning; however, comparative studies of imitation across these groups are lacking. Imitation has been suggested to play a part in language and cognitive development, and the ability to imitate indicates multi-modal integration and analysis (e.g., Meltzoff & Williamson, 2013). Thus, understanding the function of imitation in typical and atypical groups is of theoretical interest, but may also have practical implications. Because sign language is gesture based, it is likely that deaf signing children can tap into existing linguistic representations during gesture imitation whereas only motor representations are available for nonsigning individuals. Thus, gesture imitation is likely to be supported by different cognitive skills in the signing and non-signing individuals. Importantly, imitation may expose qualities of generic mechanisms in the representational system. Method: Thirteen school-aged deaf users of Swedish Sign Language and 36 hearing nonsigning children, at similar levels of non-verbal cognitive ability and word reading skills, performed an experimental imitation task. The task involved spontaneous imitation of a set of manual gestures. Participants performed the task at two occasions, separated by 35 weeks. Tests of nonverbal intelligence, visual working memory, phonological awareness, word reading and reading comprehension were also administered. We investigated the precision of the imitative acts across groups and time, as well as relationships between imitative precision and cognitive and language skills in both groups. Results: A split-plot repeated measures ANOVA demonstrated that deaf signers imitate manual gestures with greater precision than hearing non-signing children. Further, improvement in imitative precision over time was greater for deaf than for hearing participants. Correlational patterns indicated that imitative precision was positively associated with language skills in both groups. Specifically, for deaf children, word reading skills at both assessment points and performance on a sign similarity judgment task at the second assessment were correlated positively with imitative precision. For the hearing participants, positive connections to word reading skills and performance on a rhyme task were observed at the second assessment point. In both groups, a significant connection between imitative precision and reading comprehension was observed at the second assessment point. Conclusion: Our results demonstrate that sign language experience enhances the ability to imitate manual gestures longitudinally. They also show that imitation ability is linked to language skills in the non-manual, speech-related domain. We propose that the precision of imitative acts reflects the quality of linguistic and motor representations and the ability to employ them in language processing.

The Ease of Language Understanding model (Ronnberg et al., 2013) predicts that decreasing the distinctness of language stimuli increases working memory load; in the speech domain this notion is supported by empirical evidence. Our aim was to determine whether such an over-additive interaction can be generalized to sign processing in sign-naive individuals and whether it is modulated by experience of computer gaming. Twenty young adults with no knowledge of sign language performed an n-back working memory task based on manual gestures lexicalized in sign language; the visual resolution of the signs and working memory load were manipulated. Performance was poorer when load was high and resolution was low. These two effects interacted over-additively, demonstrating that reducing the resolution of signed stimuli increases working memory load when there is no pre-existing semantic representation. This suggests that load and distinctness are handled by a shared amodal mechanism which can be revealed empirically when stimuli are degraded and load is high, even without pre-existing semantic representation. There was some evidence that the mechanism is influenced by computer gaming experience. Future work should explore how the shared mechanism is influenced by pre-existing semantic representation and sensory factors together with computer gaming experience.

Spoken language phonological awareness (PA) supports word reading development in hearing children; however, deaf children, who have non-functional levels of hearing and a signed language as their first language, seem to utilize their first language skills to learn to read. We developed a new phonological decision task that can be used to assess PA in both spoken and signed languages, and investigated how these skills were related to word reading in deaf beginning readers (Study 1). We also investigated the validity of our new task in hearing beginning readers (Study 2). Thirteen deaf beginning readers with a mean age of 10 years (SD=2.3) participated in Study 1; in Study 2, 36 normal hearing children with a mean age of 7.5 years (SD=0.3) took part. Groups were well matched on word reading, non-verbal intelligence, and gender distribution. The deaf children performed the new phonological decision task both as a sign similarity task and as a rhyme task; hearing children only performed a rhyme task. Participants also performed motor speed, cognitive speed, working memory, word decoding and lexical decision tasks; in addition, hearing children completed an established test of PA. Correlational analyses across studies indicated that the new task is a valid measure of PA, and that first language PA supports word reading, even when surface forms of first and reading language are completely different. Sign language PA may support word-to-sign mapping or some aspect of orthographic analysis; however, future studies should investigate what the exact function of this skill is.

Similar working memory (WM) for lexical items has been demonstrated for signers and non-signers while short-term memory (STM) is regularly poorer in deaf than hearing individuals. In the present study, we investigated digit-based WM and STM in Swedish and British deaf signers and hearing non-signers. To maintain good experimental control we used printed stimuli throughout and held response mode constant across groups. We showed that deaf signers have similar digit-based WM performance, despite shorter digit spans, compared to well-matched hearing non-signers. We found no difference between signers and non-signers on STM span for letters chosen to minimize phonological similarity or in the effects of recall direction. This set of findings indicates that similar WM for signers and non-signers can be generalized from lexical items to digits and suggests that poorer STM in deaf signers compared to hearing non-signers may be due to differences in phonological similarity across the language modalities of sign and speech.

Signed languages do not have a written form. Thus, deaf children, for whom sign language is the primary mode of communication, learn to read in a second language. Not surprisingly, the reading skills of deaf children generally lag behind those of their hearing peers. The mechanisms underlying reading in deaf individuals are only just beginning to be unraveled but it seems that language skills play an important role. The assumption underlying the present study is that encouraging deaf children to explore the relationship between signed language and written speech-based language can promote reading skill. We are developing and evaluating a sign language version of Omega-is, a computerized literacy training program that trains language abilities. Interventions with Omega-is and its forerunners have shown positive effects on reading abilities in children with sensory and cognitive impairments. In the sign language version, known as Omega-is-d, written sentences created by the user are presented in Swedish Sign Language. In a preliminary study, 12 deaf pupils (six in grade 1-2 and six in grade 4-6) at a Swedish state primary school for deaf and hard of hearing children trained language skills using a pilot version of Omega-is-d in a crossover design. Participants in grade 1-2 improved their word-decoding ability as a result of training. Although reading comprehension was below normal, cognitive skills were age appropriate. Better reading comprehension was associated with better word decoding skills, better syntax skills in written Swedish and Swedish Sign Language and better working memory capacity. These preliminary findings suggest that young deaf children with age appropriate cognitive skills can achieve better reading skills with sign based literacy training.