Parallel Bimodal Bilingual Acquisition : A Hearing Child Mediated in a Deaf Family

• The aim of this longitudinal case study was to describe bimodal and bilingual acquisition in a hearing child, Hugo, and in what ways these were guided by his Deaf family. Video observations of the family interactions were conducted from Hugo’s age of 10 months until he was 40 months old. The family language was Swedish Sign Language (SSL). With Hugo, however, the parents used one language base in which single gestural signs or vocal words were often simultaneously inserted, the latter when not in visual contact. Hugo showed awareness of visual attention to SSL communication at 22 months and differentiated vocal and gestural modality according to his partner two months later. During the 28-month and 32-month sessions, a grammatical analytic phase might explain why Hugo’s SSL was rare. Findings are possibly vital for a broader international audience than professionals who meet bimodal bilingual children.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap -- Pedagogik (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences -- Pedagogy (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Case-study

parallel bimodal bilingual aquisition

Deaf family

Swedish sign language

spoken Swedish

fallstudie

tillägnande av bimodal bilingualitet

Döv familj

svenskt teckenspråk

talad svenska

specialpedagogik

Special Education

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)