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Part of
Understanding Deafness, Language and Cognitive Development: Essays in honour of Bencie Woll
Edited by Gary Morgan
[Trends in Language Acquisition Research 25] 2020
► pp. 73–92

Chapter 5
Atypical sign language development

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A major theme in Bencie Woll’s research has been what the study of sign language and atypical signers who have neurological differences can teach us about language and cognition more generally. In this chapter, we focus on the growing literature relating to atypical sign language development, with an emphasis on Bencie’s pioneering work in this field. We show that by studying atypical users of language we gain insights into language and cognitive processes that would not be obtained by studying typical users, or by limiting research to spoken languages. We review developmental research of individuals and groups with Landau-Kleffner Syndrome, Williams Syndrome, Autism Spectrum Disorder and Specific Language Impairment. Finally, we consider issues relating to intervention.

Article outline
  • 0.Setting the scene
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Sign Language acquisition in Landau-Kleffner Syndrome (LKS)
  • 3.Sign language acquisition in Williams syndrome
  • 4.Sign language acquisition in Autism
  • 5.Sign language acquisition in Specific Language Impairment (SLI)
  • 6.Intervention studies with deaf children who have impairments in their acquisition of sign language
  • 7.Conclusions
  • References
Published online: 26 February 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/tilar.25.05mar
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