Learning, Language, Memory, and Reading: The Role of Language Automatization and Its Impact on Complex Cognitive Activities

Abstract

Two related models of the role of developing and automatized language skills in the cognitive processing of deaf and hearing children are presented. One model focuses on explaining apparent delays in the emergence of a memory strategy (cumulative rehearsal) in children who are deaf, linking strategy use with the child's emerging language skills and the automatization of those skills. The second model is larger in scope and integrates this rehearsal model with added components relevant for higher-level cognitive activities such as reading. A program of research is reviewed that provides support for various components of the models with deaf children. Implications of the models for potential concurrent learning disabilities are discussed.