effects of late sign language exposure on narrative skills
What is it about?
We investigated the effects of late sign language exposure on narrative development in Turkish Sign Language (TİD) by focusing on the introductions of main characters and the linguistic strategies used in these introductions. The results of our study showed that late sign language exposure does not hinder the acquisition of linguistic devices to introduce main characters in narrations. Thus, their acquisition seems to be resilient to the effects of late language exposure.
Why is it important?
Considering similar developmental trajectories of late and native-signing children, two years of exposure to sign language can be considered sufficient for late-signing children to catch up with their native-signing peers. Also, our findings suggest that constructed action can be taken into account as a referent introduction strategy among signing children.