1-137 - Linguistic Regulation of Executive Function: Evidence from Deaf Children

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Success in school and social relationships requires that children be able to regulate, guide, and control their own behavior, attention, and impulses, in a goal-directed manner. Collectively, these abilities are known as Executive Functions (EF). The development of EF is often reported to be delayed in deaf children and adults, relative to age-matched hearing peers. This symposium addresses recent controversy about the underlying cause of EF delays, which is centered around two main hypotheses. The “Auditory Scaffolding” Hypothesis states that a period of early auditory deprivation impairs cognitive and neural development of EF abilities, especially those related to the processing of temporal and sequential information. An alternative “Linguistic Deprivation” Hypothesis argues that it is the delayed or incomplete exposure to language early in life that can explain the observed difficulties in EF abilities. Because these accounts have contrasting theoretical and clinical implications, it is important to distinguish between them. In this symposium, behavioral results from deaf children, some of whom are exposed to speech or sign, and some of whom have cochlear implants, will be presented, with a careful eye at dissociating these hypotheses. Results will also elucidate the neural systems mediating aspects of EF that seem to be differentially affected by auditory deprivation and/or language deprivation. The goal of this symposium is to develop a common framework to better understand cognitive development in Deaf and Hard of Hearing children and for designing interventions that focus on providing enriched experiences that can ameliorate the detrimental effects of early language deprivation.

Sub Unit

• Perceptual, Sensory, Motor

Chair

• Rain G Bosworth, Psychology Department, University of California, San Diego

Individual Presentations

• Does Auditory Deprivation Impair Executive Function? - Presenting Author: Matthew L Hall, University of Connecticut

• Does Language Deprivation Impair Executive Function? - Presenting Author: Peter C Hauser, National Technical Institute for the Deaf

• Does Audition Drive the Development of Domain-General Sequencing Abilities? - Presenting Author: Matthew Dye, RIT/NTID

• Do Children who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing Struggle with Sequence Processing? An Update of the Auditory Scaffolding Hypothesis - Presenting Author: Christopher M Conway, Department of Psychology, Georgia State University; Joanne Deocampo, Georgia State University; Michelle Gremp, Eastern Kentucky University