The Effects of Late Sign Language Acquisition on Emotion Recall and Expression in Deaf Children
Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society 2025, California, Amerika Birleşik Devletleri, 31 Temmuz 2025, ss.2225-2231, (Tam Metin Bildiri)
- Yayın Türü: Bildiri / Tam Metin Bildiri
- Doi Numarası: 10.5281/zenodo.16995266
- Basıldığı Şehir: California
- Basıldığı Ülke: Amerika Birleşik Devletleri
- Sayfa Sayıları: ss.2225-2231
- Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet
Özet
Children’s emotional development is linked to language development for typically developing children and deaf children with native sign language exposure. However, approximately 90% of deaf children are born to hearing parents who are not familiar with sign language. These deaf children begin learning a sign language when they attend a school for the deaf. Late sign language exposure has negative consequences on several aspects of language development. We investigate whether acquiring sign language late affects children's emotion recall and channel of emotion expression. After watching a silent video depicting emotions, late- and native-signing deaf children retold the story in Turkish Sign Language. Results showed that late signers recalled fewer emotions and used fewer signs and facial expressions compared to native signers. Manual gestures (non-sign hand movements), head and body movements did not differ across groups. The findings suggest that late sign language acquisition negatively impacts deaf children’s ability to recall and express emotions, highlighting the importance of early language exposure for the development of emotion recall.