title: Visual sign phonology: insights into human reading and language from a natural soundless phonology.
abstract: Among the most prevailing assumptions in science and society about the human reading process is that sound and sound-based phonology are critical to young readers. The child's sound-to-letter decoding is viewed as universal and vital to deriving meaning from print. We offer a different view. The crucial link for early reading success is not between segmental sounds and print. Instead the human brain's capacity to segment, categorize, and discern linguistic patterning makes possible the capacity to segment all languages. This biological process includes the segmentation of languages on the hands in signed languages. Exposure to natural sign language in early life equally affords the child's discovery of silent segmental units in visual sign phonology (VSP) that can also facilitate segmental decoding of print. We consider powerful biological evidence about the brain, how it builds sound and sign phonology, and why sound and sign phonology are equally important in language learning and reading. We offer a testable theoretical account, reading model, and predictions about how VSP can facilitate segmentation and mapping between print and meaning. We explain how VSP can be a powerful facilitator of all children's reading success (deaf and hearing)-an account with profound transformative impact on learning to read in deaf children with different language backgrounds. The existence of VSP has important implications for understanding core properties of all human language and reading, challenges assumptions about language and reading as being tied to sound, and provides novel insight into a remarkable biological equivalence in signed and spoken languages. WIREs Cogn Sci 2016, 7:366-381. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1404 For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website.
authors.affiliation: NSF Science of Learning Center, Visual Language and Visual Learning, VL2, Gallaudet University, Washington, DC, USA. laura-ann.petitto@gallaudet.edu.|Brain and Language Laboratory for fNIRS Neuroimaging, BL2, Gallaudet University, Washington, DC, USA. laura-ann.petitto@gallaudet.edu.|Ph.D. in Educational Neuroscience (PEN) Program, Gallaudet University, Washington, DC, USA. laura-ann.petitto@gallaudet.edu.|Department of Psychology, Gallaudet University, Washington, DC, USA. laura-ann.petitto@gallaudet.edu.
authors.forename: L A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Petitto
authors.affiliation: NSF Science of Learning Center, Visual Language and Visual Learning, VL2, Gallaudet University, Washington, DC, USA.|Brain and Language Laboratory for fNIRS Neuroimaging, BL2, Gallaudet University, Washington, DC, USA.|Ph.D. in Educational Neuroscience (PEN) Program, Gallaudet University, Washington, DC, USA.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Langdon
authors.affiliation: NSF Science of Learning Center, Visual Language and Visual Learning, VL2, Gallaudet University, Washington, DC, USA.|Brain and Language Laboratory for fNIRS Neuroimaging, BL2, Gallaudet University, Washington, DC, USA.|Ph.D. in Educational Neuroscience (PEN) Program, Gallaudet University, Washington, DC, USA.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Stone
authors.affiliation: NSF Science of Learning Center, Visual Language and Visual Learning, VL2, Gallaudet University, Washington, DC, USA.|Brain and Language Laboratory for fNIRS Neuroimaging, BL2, Gallaudet University, Washington, DC, USA.|Ph.D. in Educational Neuroscience (PEN) Program, Gallaudet University, Washington, DC, USA.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Andriola
authors.affiliation: NSF Science of Learning Center, Visual Language and Visual Learning, VL2, Gallaudet University, Washington, DC, USA.|Brain and Language Laboratory for fNIRS Neuroimaging, BL2, Gallaudet University, Washington, DC, USA.|Ph.D. in Educational Neuroscience (PEN) Program, Gallaudet University, Washington, DC, USA.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kartheiser
authors.affiliation: NSF Science of Learning Center, Visual Language and Visual Learning, VL2, Gallaudet University, Washington, DC, USA.|Brain and Language Laboratory for fNIRS Neuroimaging, BL2, Gallaudet University, Washington, DC, USA.|Department of Linguistics, Gallaudet University, Washington, DC, USA.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cochran
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D003638:Deafness / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D007804:Language Development; D008960:Models, Psychological; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D010700:Phonetics; D011578:Psycholinguistics; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D011932:Reading; D012660:Semantics; D012813:Sign Language