While still adjusting to work from home life, we are off to work with the project. Instead of running next door to the other office to ask a question to my advisor, we email back and forth now a days. This week I worked on creating a new variable. We created a group that has hearing parents, a basal age delay of at least 24 months, and uses all or most ASL within the household. I am looking forward to analyzing the tables to see if there is any items that the group scored similarly to our other two groups (those who have deaf parents with a delay and those without a delay). In addition, I created some box plots to look at what age the kids mastered different ASL skills from the checklist.
In the following week I hope to identify if there are any patterns in checklist items that are most difficult for all three groups I have been investigating. I am still working through readings of literature I have found on variation in acquiring a sign language. As I read I am making notes and summaries for use as background information in a brief to inform the communities that this affects.
This is so cool, and such unique research! I am really looking forward to the results!
All that research sounds so interesting! I can’t wait to hear more about what you find throughout this summer. I’ve always been fascinated by ASL but never able to find the time to sit down and actually learn much of it. It’s weird that the mug I used growing up had the ASL alphabet but I never learned more letters than “V” and “W”.
The reading and research that you have been working on sounds wonderful. I’m sure gaining background information about the acquisition of sign language will be helpful for your project and helpful for understanding the implications of your research!