From early communication to bimodal vocabulary acquisition: A longitudinal study of hearing children with deaf mothers from infancy to school-age years
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Mercure, Evelyne; St. Clair, Victoria; Goldberg, Laura; Coulson-Thaker, Kimberley and MacSweeney, Mairéad. 2025. From early communication to bimodal vocabulary acquisition: A longitudinal study of hearing children with deaf mothers from infancy to school-age years. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, ISSN 1366-7289 [Article] (In Press)
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Abstract or Description
Early language development has rarely been studied in hearing children with deaf parents who are exposed to both a spoken and a signed language (bimodal bilinguals). This study presents longitudinal data of early communication and vocabulary development in a group of 31 hearing infants exposed to British Sign Language (BSL) and spoken English, at 6 months, 15 months, 24 months and 7 years, in comparison with monolinguals (exposed to English) and unimodal bilinguals (exposed to two spoken languages). No differences were observed in early communication or vocabulary development between bimodal bilinguals and monolinguals, but greater early communicative skills in infancy were found in bimodal bilinguals compared to unimodal bilinguals. Within the bimodal bilingual group, BSL and English vocabulary sizes were positively related. These data provide a healthy picture of early language acquisition in those learning a spoken and signed language simultaneously from birth.
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Article |
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| Additional Information: |
Funding: This project was funded by an Economic and Social Research Council Award (ES/K001329/1) as well as Goldsmiths Early Career Funds to EM. MM was funded by a Wellcome Trust Award (100229/Z/12/Z) andVSbyaLeverhulmeTrustaward(RPG-2021-280). |
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| Data Access Statement: |
Data are available with the permission of research participants by contacting Evelyne Mercure (https://www.gold.ac.uk/ psychology/staff/mercure-evelyne/). |
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| Keywords: |
deafness; sign language; vocabulary; bilingualism; sign language; bimodal bilingualism; deaf parenting; infant communication; babbling; gesture |
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| Item ID: |
39358 |
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| Date Deposited: |
11 Aug 2025 10:47 |
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| Last Modified: |
11 Aug 2025 10:47 |
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Peer Reviewed: |
Yes, this version has been peer-reviewed. |
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