From early communication to bimodal vocabulary acquisition: A longitudinal study of hearing children with deaf mothers from infancy to school-age years.

Evelyne Mercure, Victoria St Clair, Laura Goldberg, Kimberley Coulson-Thaker, Mairéad MacSweeney

Abstract read

In one paragraph

Article in Bilingualism (Cambridge, England), 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it

0cells of the map it votes in

1citing papers in PubMed

–field-weighted citation impact

1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

Dyadic synchrony in deaf mothers and hearing infants.Journal of deaf studies and deaf education · 2026
Article

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Evelyne MercureDepartment of Psychology, Goldsmiths, University of London, London, UK.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1645-902X

Victoria St ClairCentre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London, London, UK.

Laura GoldbergUCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, UK.

Kimberley Coulson-ThakerHertfordshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Hertfordshire, UK.

Mairéad MacSweeneyUCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, UK.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Early language development has rarely been studied in hearing children with deaf parents who are exposed to both a spoken and a signed language (bimodal bilinguals). This study presents longitudinal data of early communication and vocabulary development in a group of 31 hearing infants exposed to British Sign Language (BSL) and spoken English, at 6 months, 15 months, 24 months and 7 years, in comparison with monolinguals (exposed to English) and unimodal bilinguals (exposed to two spoken languages). No differences were observed in early communication or vocabulary development between bimodal bilinguals and monolinguals, but greater early communicative skills in infancy were found in bimodal bilinguals compared to unimodal bilinguals. Within the bimodal bilingual group, BSL and English vocabulary sizes were positively related. These data provide a healthy picture of early language acquisition in those learning a spoken and signed language simultaneously from birth.

Indexed as

babblingbilingualismbimodal bilingualismdeafnessdeaf parentinggestureinfant communicationsign languagevocabulary

Identifiers

PMID41835090

DOI10.1017/S1366728925100308

PMCPMC7618877

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.