RESEARCH WITH THE DEAF: IMPLICATIONS FOR LANGUAGE AND COGNITION

What can neurodiversity tell us about inner speech, and vice versa? A theoretical perspective

Inner speech refers to the experience of talking to oneself in one's head. While notoriously challenging to investigate, it has also been central to a range of questions concerning mind, brain, and behaviour. Posited as a key component in executive function and self-regulation, inner speech has been claimed to be crucial in higher cognitive operations, self-knowledge and self-awareness. Such arguments have traditionally been supported with examples of atypical development. But variations in inner speech - and in some cases, significant diversity - in fact pose several key challenges to such claims, and raises many more questions for, language, thought and mental health more generally. In this review, we will summarise evidence on the experience and operation of inner speech in child and adult neurotypical populations, autistic people and other neurodivergent groups, and people with diverse experiences of linguistic and sensory development, including deafness. We will demonstrate that the relationship between inner speech and cognitive operations may be more complex than first assumed when explored through the lens of cognitive and neurological diversity, and the implications of that for understanding the developing brain in all populations. We discuss why and how the experience of inner speech in neurodivergent groups has often been assumed rather than investigated, making it an important opportunity for researchers to develop innovative future work that integrates participatory insights with cognitive methodology. Finally, we will outline why variations in inner speech - in neurotypical and neurodivergent populations alike - nevertheless have a range of important implications for mental health vulnerability and unmet need. In this sense, the example of inner speech offers us both a way of looking back at the logic of developmental psychology and neuropsychology, and a clue to its future in a neurodiverse world.

Cognitive Styles in the Deaf

To evaluate sex and developmental differences in the cognitive style functioning of the deaf and test an hypothesis derived from Witkin's differentiation theory (concerning the relationship between cognitive style and communication ability) 90 Ss at three age levels were rested. Each S was given three cognitive style tests, the Rod and Frame Test (RFT), the Children's Embedded Figures Test (CEFT), and the Poppelreuter Test (P-T). The Paragraph Meaning scores of the Stanford Achievement Test were used to assess one aspect of communication ability, reading. Special procedures were utilized in the cognitive testing of Ss and in particular, a method for the administration of the RFT to deaf individuals was developed. The results revealed consistent and clear-cut sex differences in cognitive style, such that boys were significantly more field independent than girls. Expected developmental differences in the direction of increasing field independency with age were evident in the performance of boys but were absent in the scores of girls. The relationships between cognitive style and communication measures indicate a partial confirmation of the differentiation hypothesis tested.

Inner Speech: Development, Cognitive Functions, Phenomenology, and Neurobiology

Inner speech-also known as covert speech or verbal thinking-has been implicated in theories of cognitive development, speech monitoring, executive function, and psychopathology. Despite a growing body of knowledge on its phenomenology, development, and function, approaches to the scientific study of inner speech have remained diffuse and largely unintegrated. This review examines prominent theoretical approaches to inner speech and methodological challenges in its study, before reviewing current evidence on inner speech in children and adults from both typical and atypical populations. We conclude by considering prospects for an integrated cognitive science of inner speech, and present a multicomponent model of the phenomenon informed by developmental, cognitive, and psycholinguistic considerations. Despite its variability among individuals and across the life span, inner speech appears to perform significant functions in human cognition, which in some cases reflect its developmental origins and its sharing of resources with other cognitive processes.

Kognitive Entwicklungsförderung bei hörgeschädigten Kindern

Zusammenfassung. Die Frage, ob sich eine Beeinträchtigung in der Sprachentwicklung bei hörgeschädigten Kindern auch beeinträchtigend auf andere Bereiche ihrer kognitiven Entwicklung auswirkt, ist nach wie vor umstritten. In der ersten Untersuchung zeigten Vorschulkinder mit Hörschädigung im Prätest des Culture Fair Intelligence Test - Scale 1 (CFT1) Werte, die deutlich unter den Werten gleichaltriger hörender Vorschulkinder lagen. In einer zweiten Untersuchung wiesen hörgeschädigte Schulkinder weit niedrigere Ergebnisse im CFT1 auf als gleichaltrige Schulkinder mit einer Sprachbehinderung. Die hörgeschädigten Kinder beider Gruppen erzielten nach einem kognitiven Training Testwerte, die sich von den hörenden Kindern der Vergleichsgruppe nicht mehr unterschieden. Diese Effekte, die im Kontrast zu einem Konzentrationstraining gemessen wurden, blieben über den Untersuchungszeitraum von 3 Monaten stabil. Insbesondere die Vorschulkinder zeigten beachtliche Kompetenzzuwächse. Auf der Basis dieser Ergebnisse wird angeregt, einer frühen kognitiven Förderung hörgeschädigter Kinder einen höheren Stellenwert einzuräumen als es bisher der Fall ist.

Piaget's theory and exceptional children: a bibliography, 1963-1973

This is a bibliography of 121 citations most of which, in lieu of annotations, are keyed to abstracts in Child Development Abstracts and Bibliography, Exceptional Child Education Abstracts, Mental Retardation Abstracts, and Psychological Abstracts.

Deaf and hearing children's performance on a tactual perception battery

A battery of tactual sensitivity tests was administered to 300 deaf and hearing children and adolescents. The tests included vibrotactile and two-point sensitivity on several areas of the hand, gap-detection using two stimulation techniques, roughness discrimination, pattern discrimination, and cross-modal object identification. Measures included sensory thresholds, correct discrimination, errors, and in some cases, response latencies. Deaf youngsters were more sensitive than their hearing counterparts with vibrotactile and two-point measures. On most remaining tasks, deaf and hearing Ss' performance accuracies did not differ, although hearing Ss performed faster on all timed tasks. Improvements with age were evident with both speed and accuracy measures for several tasks. Results were discussed as to deaf/hearing differences, and reading achievement scores, active versus passive touch, developmental changes, and relations among the tactual tasks and measures of the battery. The findings strongly suggested that different measures of tactual sensitivity tap quite different sensory and perceptual abilities.

A FACTOR ANALYTIC STUDY OF COMMUNICATION SKILLS AND NONVERBAL ABILITIES OF DEAF REHABILITATION CLIENTS

As part of the routine service procedures, 159 profoundly deaf rehabilitation candidates wre extensively tested on a variety of nonverbal intelligence and ability measures and rated on 10 communication variables. Two principal components factor analyses followed by Varimax rotations were performed, one on the total sample which spanned the age range from 16 to 67 years, and the second on a subsample of 87 clients between the ages of 16 and 25 years.

Hearing-loss effects on a procedural task sequence

40 deaf and 40 hearing children representing 2 age groups were blindfolded and presented with 3 high-relief finger mazes of increasing complexity. It was found that young deaf children performed the most difficult task more efficiently than comparable hearing children. Contrary to previous findings, hearing children showed no advantage over deaf children on any of the three tasks as a result of their supposed greater facility with verbal conceptual mediators. The results were interpreted as supporting the idea that deaf children compensate for their auditory lack and verbal deficiency by developing problem solving skills that maximize sensitivity to other sensory modalities.

Visual analogies of verbal operations

Language was analysed into four arbitrarily selected linguistic operations. These operations, seriation, cross-modal coding, immediate memory and cue matching, were translated into visual forms and presented as four tasks. If these tasks were solved by a subject it could be assumed that he understood the basis of linguistic operations whether he could speak or not. Aphasics and the deaf learned the tasks, thus establishing their competence with linguistic operations. Speaking psychotic children failed some of the tasks and speechless psychotic children failed all tasks. Immediate memory discriminated speaking and speechless groups, failure in seriation characterised psychotics but not imbeciles.