Making sense of sensory language: Acquisition of sensory knowledge by individuals with congenital sensory impairments.
The present article provides a narrative review on how language communicates sensory information and how knowledge of sight and sound develops in individuals born deaf or blind. Studying knowledge of the perceptually inaccessible sensory domain for these populations offers a lens into how humans learn about that which they cannot perceive. We first review the linguistic strategies within language that communicate sensory information. Highlighting the power of language to shape knowledge, we next review the detailed knowledge of sensory information by individuals with congenital sensory impairments, limitations therein, and neural representations of imperceptible phenomena. We suggest that the acquisition of sensory knowledge is supported by language, experience with multiple perceptual domains, and cognitive and social abilities which mature over the first years of life, both in individuals with and without sensory impairment. We conclude by proposing a developmental trajectory for acquiring sensory knowledge in the absence of sensory perception.
Duke Scholars
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Related Subject Headings
- Linguistics
- Learning
- Language
- Humans
- Experimental Psychology
- Deafness
- 5204 Cognitive and computational psychology
- 5202 Biological psychology
- 3209 Neurosciences
- 1702 Cognitive Sciences
Citation
Published In
DOI
EISSN
ISSN
Publication Date
Volume
Start / End Page
Related Subject Headings
- Linguistics
- Learning
- Language
- Humans
- Experimental Psychology
- Deafness
- 5204 Cognitive and computational psychology
- 5202 Biological psychology
- 3209 Neurosciences
- 1702 Cognitive Sciences