Petitto (1987) studied language development in deaf individuals and found that:
A) language is a property of the human brain and is separate from functions of hearing and speech.
B) children exposed to sign language from birth learn language in a similar pattern to hearing children.
C) deaf children's use of gesture at the prelinguistic stage does not relate to use of gesture in sign language.
D) All of these statements are true.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Petitto's study found that all three statements are true. She concluded that language development is a function of the human brain and is not dependent on hearing or speech. She also found that deaf children exposed to sign language from birth learn language in a similar pattern as hearing children, and prelinguistic gestures used by deaf children are not necessarily related to their use of gesture in sign language.

Petitto (1987) Studied Language Development in Deaf Individuals and Found