MECHANISMS UNDERLYING SIGN LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND USE NIH GUIDE, Volume 23, Number 29, August 5, 1994 PA NUMBER: PA-94-091 P.T. 34 Keywords: Hearing Language Acquisition & Development National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders PURPOSE The understanding of the mechanisms by which deaf and hearing individuals acquire and use a manual communication system is limited. Research is needed to determine optimal conditions for such learning, prerequisite abilities for successful acquisition and use of a manual system, as well as the interindividual variations of acquisition of manual communication. The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) encourages applications for the support of studies of the sensory, perceptual, cognitive, neural, and molecular mechanisms underlying acquisition and use of a signed language. HEALTHY PEOPLE 2000 The Public Health Service (PHS) is committed to achieving the health promotion and disease prevention objectives of "Healthy People 2000," a PHS-led national activity for setting priority areas. This Program Announcement (PA), Mechanisms Underlying Sign Language Acquisition and Use, is related to the priority area of diabetes and chronic disabling conditions and, special population objectives. Potential applicants may obtain a copy of "Healthy People 2000" (Full Report: Stock No. 017-001-11474-0) or "Healthy People 2000" (Summary Report: Stock No. 017-001-11473-1) through the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402-9325 (telephone 202-783-3238). ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS Applications may be submitted by domestic and foreign, for-profit and non-profit organizations, public and private, such as universities, colleges, hospitals, laboratories, units of state and local governments, and eligible agencies of the Federal government. Foreign institutions are not eligible for First Independent Research Support and Transition (FIRST) (R29) awards. Applications from minority individuals, women, and individuals with disabilities are encouraged. MECHANISM OF SUPPORT The support mechanisms for grants in this area will be the individual investigator-initiated research project grant (R01) and the FIRST (R29) award. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES A large proportion of individuals born deaf or who lose their hearing before they acquire spoken language use a form of sign language as their primary mode of communication, either English-language based signing systems or American Sign Language (ASL). Research is needed to increase the understanding of the processes that underlie the acquisition and use of a manual communication system by deaf individuals. Studies concerning the processes and bases of sign language acquisition and use may identify the optimal conditions for learning a manual sign system. This will lead to the development of a model of language that can address the relationship of spoken and signed languages and may also help delineate new methods of successfully introducing and using English with deaf children. Acquisition and processing of signed languages. Language acquisition for deaf children with signing deaf parents typically involves use of American Sign Language (ASL). Previous research, although limited, has indicated that in those individuals exposed to ASL from birth, linguistic competence, on-line sentence processing and underlying neural mechanisms for language may be similar to those found in hearing users of native spoken languages. Additional studies are needed of cognitive, motor, neural, and molecular processes involved in acquisition of ASL among deaf children of deaf parents. A better understanding also is needed of typical patterns of sign language development, and the processes involved in perception and production of sign language in deaf children of hearing parents. Recent evidence suggests that increasing numbers of hearing parents are using sign communication with their deaf children. They commonly use English-based signing, but there is a growing interest in the use of ASL by hearing parents and siblings. There is also a need for additional studies of patterns of acquisition and the cognitive, motor, neural, and molecular processes involved in signing. Recent research findings, concerning the acquisition of ASL by deaf children of hearing parents at various ages beyond infancy, indicate that there is a critical period for the acquisition of ASL, just as there is for the acquisition of spoken languages by hearing individuals. Competency in and efficiency of processing ASL appears to be related to age of exposure to ASL, with a decline in competency and efficiency and possible changes in neural organization for later learners. A full explanation of this phenomenon awaits further investigation. Cognitive, perceptual, and motor processes, and psychosocial issues related to sign language acquisition and use. Acquisition of the ability to employ a signed language depends on the development of a number of interrelated cognitive and linguistic abilities that contribute to the perception and production of sign language. In addition, the nonlinguistic/cognitive outcomes in deaf children exposed to various kinds of sign language are undocumented and warrant investigation. The relation of cognitive and psychosocial development to sign language acquisition and use requires further investigation. Sign language production makes use of space and movement; thus the perception of sign language requires the processing of complex arrays of dynamic motion. Investigations are needed of sign language perception, particularly the processing of motion and form and how such visual-dynamic information is processed linguistically. Comparison of the processes of spoken language perception and signed language perception in hearing and deaf individuals provides a unique means of determining those aspects of language that are independent of the modality (signed or spoken) of communication. Neural underpinnings of sign language acquisition and use. The interface of sign language acquisition to other biological phenomena is important to our understanding of brain-behavior relationships. Electrophysiologic findings indicate that, in spite of the very different input/output systems employed, the same or similar areas in the left hemisphere of the brain are involved in language tasks in native ASL signers as in speakers of English. However, studies of this type, examining the organization of the brain and its relation to sign language acquisition and use, are limited. Studies of brain mapping of sign language function are needed, as are continued investigations of differences and similarities in the way the brain processes spoken and signed languages. Questions remain concerning the ways in which cortical organization may be influenced by age of acquisition and by early perceptual and linguistic experience. Examples of issues to be addressed in applications submitted in response to this Program Announcement include, but are not limited to, the following: o The acquisition of ASL or other signing systems in children exposed to these languages from birth as well as in children whose access to a first natural language is delayed or incomplete; o The relation between cognitive and psychosocial development and the acquisition of ASL in deaf children of deaf parents and in deaf children of hearing parents; o The relation of infants' early acquisition of sign language phonology, assessed through tests of sign perception, to the acquisition of other levels of a signed language, such as the acquisition of signs (lexicon), sign meanings (semantics) and grammatical constructions (syntax); o The underlying perceptual and motor processes in sign language, for example, basic and higher level processes underlying the perception and use of space, form and movement in sign language; o The nature of parallel processing of simultaneous visual and auditory information in deaf children and adults; o Identification and characterization of the neural systems that underlie the representation, perception and production of signed languages in both adults and children using, when appropriate, techniques such as measuring event-related potentials and imaging technology; o The specialization of the cerebral hemispheres for language and other types of cognitive processing in deaf individuals, including the ways in which the neural organization and function of the basic sensory systems may be changed by deafness and/or by acquisition of sign language; o Critical periods for the natural acquisition of signed languages, and the effects of delayed exposure to spoken or signed language on the development of linguistic competence and cognitive and academic abilities. STUDY POPULATIONS INCLUSION OF WOMEN AND MINORITIES IN RESEARCH INVOLVING HUMAN SUBJECTS It is the policy of the NIH that women and members of minority groups and their subpopulations must be included in all NIH supported biomedical and behavioral research projects involving human subjects, unless a clear and compelling rationale and justification is provided that inclusion is inappropriate with respect to the health of the subjects or the purpose of the research. This new policy results from the NIH Revitalization Act of 1993 (Section 492B of Public Law 103-43) and supersedes and strengthens the previous policies (Concerning the Inclusion of Women in Study Populations, and Concerning the Inclusion of Minorities in Study Populations), which have been in effect since 1990. The new policy contains some provisions that are substantially different from the 1990 policies. All investigators proposing research involving human subjects should read the "NIH Guidelines For Inclusion of Women and Minorities as Subjects in Clinical Research," which have been published in the Federal Register of March 18, 1994 (FR 59 14508-14513) and reprinted in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts, Volume 23, Number 11, March 18, 1994. Investigators also may obtain copies of the policy from the program staff listed under INQUIRIES. Program staff may also provide additional relevant information concerning the policy. APPLICATION PROCEDURES Applications are to be submitted on the grant application form PHS 398 (rev. 9/91) and will be accepted at the standard application deadlines as indicated in the application kit. These kits are available from most institutional offices of sponsored research; the Office of Grants Information, Division of Research Grants, National Institutes of Health, Westwood Building, Room 449, Bethesda, MD 20892, telephone (301) 710-0267; and the NIDCD Program Administrator listed under INQUIRIES. The title and number of the program announcement must be typed in Section 2a on the face page of the application. Applications for the FIRST Award (R29) must include at least three sealed letters of reference attached to the face page of the original application. FIRST Award (R29) applications submitted without the required number of reference letters will be considered incomplete and will be returned without review. The completed original application and five legible copies must be sent or delivered to: Division of Research Grants National Institutes of Health Westwood Building, Room 240 Bethesda, MD 20892** REVIEW CONSIDERATIONS Applications will be assigned on the basis of established PHS referral guidelines. Applications will be reviewed for scientific and technical merit by an appropriate Initial Review Group within the Division of Research Grants, NIH, in accordance with the standard NIH peer review procedures. Following scientific/technical review, the applications will receive a second-level review by the appropriate national advisory council. AWARD CRITERIA Applications will compete for available funds with all other approved applications assigned to that ICD. The following will be considered in making funding decisions: o Quality of the proposed project as determined by peer review. o Availability of funds. o Program priorities among research areas of the announcement. INQUIRIES Written and telephone inquiries concerning this PA are encouraged. The opportunity to clarify any issues or questions from potential applicants is welcome. Direct inquiries regarding programmatic issues to: Judith A. Cooper, Ph.D. Division of Communication Sciences and Disorders National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders Executive Plaza South, Room 400-C 6120 Executive Boulevard Rockville, MD 20892 Telephone: (301) 496-5061 FAX: (301) 402-6251 Direct inquiries regarding fiscal matters to: Sharon Hunt Grants Management Office National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders Executive Plaza South, Room 400-B 6120 Executive Boulevard Rockville, MD 20892 Telephone: (301) 402-0909 AUTHORITY AND REGULATIONS This program is described in the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance No. 93.173. Awards are made under authorization of the Public Health Service Act, Title IV, Part A (Public Law 78-410, as amended by Public Law 99-158, 42 USC 241 and 285) and administered under PHS grants policies and Federal Regulations 42 CFR 52 and 45 CFR Part 74. This program is not subject to the intergovernmental review requirements of Executive Order 12372 or Health Systems Agency review. .
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