Word Learning in Deaf Children Using Eye-tracking and Behavioral Measures

NCT05993832 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: 4067E
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 48
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Mutual exclusivity is a word learning constraint in which the learner assumes that a given word refers to only one category of objects. In spoken languages, mutual exclusivity has been demonstrated in monolingual children as young as 17 months and cross-linguistically, while multilingual learners show an attenuated mutual exclusivity bias. Mutual exclusivity has not been robustly demonstrated in deaf children acquiring American Sign Language (ASL). Further, it is unclear if mutual exclusivity applies to those learning both a signed and a spoken language. Like unimodal bilinguals, bimodal bilingual (BiBi) children learn two words for an object, but these words are separated by modality. A BiBi child could therefore assume that all objects have two words (like unimodal bilinguals) or that all objects have one spoken word and one sign (within-modality mutual exclusivity). The goals of the current study are to demonstrate mutual exclusivity in monolingual deaf children acquiring ASL, and to determine if BiBi deaf children utilize mutual exclusivity within each modality.

Conditions

Deafness

Keywords

deafness; American Sign Language

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Selected object

  Children will select one of the two objects on the table in front of them. Their selection will be scored as correct or incorrect based on the target object.

  10 seconds following experimenter prompt

Study Arms (1)

Referential cues to object

EXPERIMENTAL

Each object pair that is presented to the child is accompanied by 1) gaze only (3 trials); 2) novel label only (3 trials); or 3) conflicting gaze and novel label (3 trials)

Other: input cue

Interventions

input cue OTHER

The object is labelled with 1) gaze only; 2) novel label only; or 3) conflicting gaze and novel label

Referential cues to object

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Months - 60 Months
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Child (0-17)

You may qualify if:

• Deaf children ages 18-60 months
• born severely to profoundly deaf
• have either deaf or hearing parents
• communicate using American Sign Language
• have normal to corrected normal vision

You may not qualify if:

• Deaf children who have not been exposed to American Sign Language

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Boston University Charles River Campus: lead

Study Sites (1)

Boston University

Boston, Massachusetts, 02215, United States

Location

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Deafness

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Hearing Loss; Hearing Disorders; Ear Diseases; Otorhinolaryngologic Diseases; Sensation Disorders; Neurologic Manifestations; Nervous System Diseases; Signs and Symptoms; Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms

Study Officials

• Amy Lieberman, PhD

  Boston University

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: NA
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: BASIC SCIENCE
• Intervention Model: SINGLE GROUP
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: August 7, 2023
• First Posted: August 15, 2023
• Study Start: August 7, 2023
• Primary Completion: June 20, 2025
• Study Completion: June 20, 2025
• Last Updated: April 27, 2026

Record last verified: 2026-04

Locations

US (1)