Multilingual Aspects of Signed Language Communication and Disorder

Enquiry into signed languages has added to what is known about structural variation and language, language learning, and cognitive processing of language. However surprisingly little research has focused on communication disorders in signed language users. For many deaf children, atypicality has been viewed as a phase that they will grow out of, but this may have resulted in the late identification of linguistic or cognitive deficits that could have been addressed earlier. This volume takes a significant step towards filling this gap, and investigates linguistic impairment caused by deficits in visual processing, difficulties with motor movements, and neurological decline. Chapters within the book also consider communication differences in hearing children acquiring signed and spoken languages, and reflect on how signed languages might guard against communication disorder.