Studying the communication systems that arise in spontaneously occurring cases of degraded linguistic input can help clarify human predispositions for language. Some deaf individuals born into hearing families, who do not receive conventional linguistic input, develop gestures, called “homesign,” to communicate. We examined homesign systems used by four deaf Nicaraguan adults (ages 15-27), and evaluated whether homesigners’ hearing mothers are potential sources for these systems. Study One measured mothers’ comprehension of descriptions of events (e.g., “A man taps a woman”) produced in homesign and spoken Spanish. Mothers comprehended spoken Spanish descriptions (produced by one of their hearing children) better than they comprehended homesign descriptions, suggesting that each mother shares spoken Spanish with her hearing child to a greater degree than she shares homesign with her deaf child. Study Two randomly matched each mother with a Deaf native user of American Sign Language (ASL) and compared their comprehension of the same homesign descriptions. ASL Signers performed better than mothers, confirming that homesign productions contain comprehensible information, to which mothers are not fully sensitive. Taken together, these results suggest that mothers are not the source of their deaf child’s homesign system.
","abstract_html":"<p>Studying the communication systems that arise in spontaneously occurring cases of degraded linguistic input can help clarify human predispositions for language. Some deaf individuals born into hearing families, who do not receive conventional linguistic input, develop gestures, called “homesign,” to communicate. We examined homesign systems used by four deaf Nicaraguan adults (ages 15-27), and evaluated whether homesigners’ hearing mothers are potential sources for these systems. Study One measured mothers’ comprehension of descriptions of events (e.g., “A man taps a woman”) produced in homesign and spoken Spanish. Mothers comprehended spoken Spanish descriptions (produced by one of their hearing children) better than they comprehended homesign descriptions, suggesting that each mother shares spoken Spanish with her hearing child to a greater degree than she shares homesign with her deaf child. Study Two randomly matched each mother with a Deaf native user of American Sign Language (ASL) and compared their comprehension of the same homesign descriptions. ASL Signers performed better than mothers, confirming that homesign productions contain comprehensible information, to which mothers are not fully sensitive. Taken together, these results suggest that mothers are not the source of their deaf child’s homesign system.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Carrigan, Emily"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Arts","degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":"Psychology","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Letitia Naigles; Diane Lillo-Martin","Marie Coppola"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2012,"date_issued":"2012-05-05T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2012-05-05T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T06:31:50Z","subjects":["Keywords: Language acquisition; homesign; deafness; language creation; gesture; sign language; Nicaragua"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://digitalcommons.lib.uconn.edu/gs_theses/265","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Letitia Naigles; Diane Lillo-Martin","Marie Coppola"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Carrigan, Emily"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2012-05-14T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Psychology"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Arts"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Keywords: Language acquisition; homesign; deafness; language creation; gesture; sign language; Nicaragua"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://digitalcommons.lib.uconn.edu/gs_theses/265"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Studying the communication systems that arise in spontaneously occurring cases of degraded linguistic input can help clarify human predispositions for language. Some deaf individuals born into hearing families, who do not receive conventional linguistic input, develop gestures, called “homesign,” to communicate. We examined homesign systems used by four deaf Nicaraguan adults (ages 15-27), and evaluated whether homesigners’ hearing mothers are potential sources for these systems. Study One measured mothers’ comprehension of descriptions of events (e.g., “A man taps a woman”) produced in homesign and spoken Spanish. Mothers comprehended spoken Spanish descriptions (produced by one of their hearing children) better than they comprehended homesign descriptions, suggesting that each mother shares spoken Spanish with her hearing child to a greater degree than she shares homesign with her deaf child. Study Two randomly matched each mother with a Deaf native user of American Sign Language (ASL) and compared their comprehension of the same homesign descriptions. ASL Signers performed better than mothers, confirming that homesign productions contain comprehensible information, to which mothers are not fully sensitive. Taken together, these results suggest that mothers are not the source of their deaf child’s homesign system.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Mothers Do Not Drive the Development of Adult Homesign Systems: Evidence from Comprehension"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Letitia Naigles; Diane Lillo-Martin","Marie Coppola"],"dc:creator":["Carrigan, Emily"],"dc:date.available":["2012-05-14T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["Studying the communication systems that arise in spontaneously occurring cases of degraded linguistic input can help clarify human predispositions for language. Some deaf individuals born into hearing families, who do not receive conventional linguistic input, develop gestures, called “homesign,” to communicate. We examined homesign systems used by four deaf Nicaraguan adults (ages 15-27), and evaluated whether homesigners’ hearing mothers are potential sources for these systems. Study One measured mothers’ comprehension of descriptions of events (e.g., “A man taps a woman”) produced in homesign and spoken Spanish. Mothers comprehended spoken Spanish descriptions (produced by one of their hearing children) better than they comprehended homesign descriptions, suggesting that each mother shares spoken Spanish with her hearing child to a greater degree than she shares homesign with her deaf child. Study Two randomly matched each mother with a Deaf native user of American Sign Language (ASL) and compared their comprehension of the same homesign descriptions. ASL Signers performed better than mothers, confirming that homesign productions contain comprehensible information, to which mothers are not fully sensitive. Taken together, these results suggest that mothers are not the source of their deaf child’s homesign system.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://digitalcommons.lib.uconn.edu/gs_theses/265"],"dc:subject":["Keywords: Language acquisition; homesign; deafness; language creation; gesture; sign language; Nicaragua"],"dc:title":["Mothers Do Not Drive the Development of Adult Homesign Systems: Evidence from Comprehension"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Psychology"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Arts"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T06:31:50Z"}