Naomi Caselli
@naomicaselli.bsky.social
#signlanguage #asl #deafed #AI #education language acquisition, #cogsci
🧠🤟 How is meaning organized in ASL? "It's a small world of signs: Semantic network structure in American Sign Language based on free associations" We asked deaf ASL signers to give three meaning-related signs for each sign in ASL-LEX that immediately came to mind.
OSF
osf.io
Pulled down my last thread so I can repost it when it will be most impactful. Stay tuned!
We @wheelockpolicybu.bsky.social are hiring a director for our Policy-Aligned Research Agenda Buildling Lab (PARABL), to help education system leaders build research roadmaps to effect change in a particular area. More info here: wheelockpolicycenter.org/wp-content/u...
I am looking for a psychometrician to consult on a short term project. Any recommendations for someone who has done a lot with IRT and test development?
Much of the way we articulate words isn’t random. It reflects how the brain balances effort & clarity. Common words are shorter & more “shrunk”, confusable words are pronounced more clearly. We asked if ASL signs show similar patterns of reduction using pose-tracking on thousands of ASL signs.
It's RRRREEAAADDDYYYY! The Deaf Baby Instruction Manual is now available for pre-order. It's a modern parenting guide for hearing families with deaf or hard of hearing children. Makes a great gift for parents, family members and educators, and a useful weapon for throwing at an LEA or admin,
The Deaf Baby Instruction Manual
A direct and approachable guide for parents of deaf or hard of hearing children.About 90% of all deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) children are born to parents with…
bloomsbury.com
Another new paper by Aaron Shield! He found that no bimodal bilingual autistic child demonstrated a consistent sign-language advantage, challenging the assumption that sign is inherently more accessible to autistic children. www.frontiersin.org/journals/lan...
Frontiers | Language development in bimodal bilingual autistic children: a case series of hearing children with deaf signing parents
IntroductionIt is often assumed that sign language may be a more accessible alternative to speech for autistic children who have minimally expressive spoken ...
frontiersin.org
Just here to remind everyone that while the federal government is shutdown, all study sections at the NIH are currently on hold. Another blow to science and to early career scientists like myself with young labs and research groups. Very hard to remain positive about this career path.
Some are embracing the fantasy that the cuts to #NIH funding will only have an impact here in the USA. As Nature reports, the NIH is the largest global funder by far and dwarfs the rest of the world’s funders of biomedical research. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
How the NIH dominates the world’s health research — in charts
Abrupt cuts by the Trump administration to the US National Institutes of Health threaten progress in medical research globally.
nature.com
Well, that was short lived.
Supreme Court allows NIH to stop making nearly $800M in research grants for now
But the court, in its emergency docket order, also left in place by a 5-4 order a lower court ruling that threw out NIH memos that enforced the administration's policies.
npr.org
Naomi Caselli@naomicaselli.bsky.social · last yr.I was heading to Capitol Hill to a science fair on cancelled grants when we learned our grant was reinstated. Yay! But that’s not the end of the story. (9/16)
In this “Conversations with the Dean”, Dean Penny Bishop speaks with Leslie Dietiker, Naomi Caselli, and Elizabeth Bettini about how federal research funding drives equity, innovation, and long-term impact. Read More: http://spr.ly/633254shWZ #BUWheelock #BostonUniversity #EducationResearch
Okay y’all, gather round for a chat. It’s been a roller coaster, and I thought I’d share what we’ve learned. 🧵 (1/16) bsky.app/profile/luck...
Dr. Lucky Tran@luckytran.com · last yr.BREAKING: Scientists are staging a “science fair” in the lobby of a Congressional building to tell elected officials about the critical knowledge the US will lose because their research grants have been canceled.
At the Science Fair for canceled grants, I had the privilege of speaking with @naomicaselli.bsky.social. Her team (which includes deaf researchers) were making breakthroughs to better identify & address language deprivation — when the Trump administration terminated their grant.
Very grateful to have had the chance to attend the Science Fair of Cancelled Grants today. As a program officer overseeing health equity research, I’ve heard far too many stories of lost science, lost careers, and lost jobs.
Black American Sign Language is distinct from American Sign Language—and it developed because Black Deaf students were segregated in their own Black schools for the Deaf.
"Sinners" is bringing Black American sign language to the mainstream
The film will be available on HBO Max later this month.
motherjones.com
APHA is gathering grants by TOMORROW NOON for Phase 2 of their lawsuit vs. NIH which regards NIH **applications** that were unfairly pulled from review, mishandled, or delayed from being awarded due to DEI issues. To add your grant to this lawsuit, become an APHA member & submit this survey:
Microsoft Forms
forms.office.com
New cool paper with cool people! Overall, we found that sign languages with more users avoid signs that are particularly low in iconicity (a result parallel with spoken languages) onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
The Relationship Between Community Size and Iconicity in Sign Languages
Communication is harder in larger communities. Past research shows that this leads larger communities to create languages that are easier to learn and use. In particular, previous research suggests t....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Blind toddlers often experience language delays. Blind adults do not. In our new paper at @langdevres.bsky.social, we ask whether differences in language input could help them catch up: Do parents speak differently to blind children than sighted children? (Barely... read on for details) 🧪1/N
This could be used as an introduction to statistical analysis. It’s so hard to introduce entire fields like this while trying to make another point. Extremely well done. pudding.cool/2025/04/birt...
Are you more likely to die on your birthday?
Yes. We’ll run a study to show you how, and why.
pudding.cool
🎓 Our AI and Education Initiative had the pleasure of meeting with a delegation from Lebanon, organized by the U.S. Department of State and WorldBoston, to explore how AI is transforming education around the world. @buwheelock.bsky.social @naomicaselli.bsky.social
Listen to @naomicaselli.bsky.social explain the results of this paper! We're so excited to have it out in the world 😊
Erin Campbell@erinecampbell.bsky.social · 2y agoOut now in @pnas.org! 🌹Is a rose by any other name still as roselike?🌹 We study the prevalence of iconicity (does a word look/sound like what it means?) and systematicity (are pronunciation/meaning relationships shared across multiple words?) in large datasets of ASL, English, and Spanish. 🧵1/N
We are exploring this approach to modeling semantic distance in running discourse using a rolling ngram window. Our new R Package SemanticDistance allows you to change the ngram window size. Big semantic distance jumps might mark topic shifts - improving on conventional approaches like LDA
Check out this new paper out of the Deaf Center!
Erin Campbell@erinecampbell.bsky.social · 2y agoOut now in @pnas.org! 🌹Is a rose by any other name still as roselike?🌹 We study the prevalence of iconicity (does a word look/sound like what it means?) and systematicity (are pronunciation/meaning relationships shared across multiple words?) in large datasets of ASL, English, and Spanish. 🧵1/N
Out now in @pnas.org! 🌹Is a rose by any other name still as roselike?🌹 We study the prevalence of iconicity (does a word look/sound like what it means?) and systematicity (are pronunciation/meaning relationships shared across multiple words?) in large datasets of ASL, English, and Spanish. 🧵1/N
New paper out at @openmindjournal.bsky.social!! We studied early vocab in deaf, hearing, blind, and sighted children in order to learn how sensory access (vision 👀, hearing 👂) and linguistic experiences shape how children learn words... Read on for a quick summary! 1/N
Open Mind@openmindjournal.bsky.social · 2y agoThis is such in depth journalism on this topic. I am grateful for the opportunity to weigh in.
Wyatte Hall@wyattehall.bsky.social · 2y agoHonored to be mentioned alongside scholars I admire: @naomicaselli.bsky.social, Padden, Mayberry, Chen Pichler, and more! www.science.org/content/arti... "Imperfect sounds: Cochlear implants give deaf kids unprecedented access to sound. But insisting they avoid using sign language may be risky."
Honored to be mentioned alongside scholars I admire: @naomicaselli.bsky.social, Padden, Mayberry, Chen Pichler, and more! www.science.org/content/arti... "Imperfect sounds: Cochlear implants give deaf kids unprecedented access to sound. But insisting they avoid using sign language may be risky."
Implants can help deaf kids hear—but many still struggle with spoken language
Some researchers worry about risks of devaluing sign language, overreliance on imperfect devices
science.org