
cerebral dominance and speech acquistion in deaf children.
in examining the prediction that left cerebral
dominance, as indexed by hand and
sighting preference, should be a positive accompaniment
of speech learning in individuals
whose cerebral speech areas are likely
to be in the left hemisphere, it was
found that over a 10-12 year period of formal
education right-handed-right-sighting
deaf students consistently earned higher speech
grades than their right-handed-left-sighting
and right-handed-mixed-sighting counterparts
matched on the basis of
hearing loss.  this finding supports the hypothesis
that the cerebral mechanisms
relevant to speech acquisition are simplified,
facilitated, and/or less prone to
interference when control of speech, hand, and
eye is localized primarily in 1
hemisphere of the brain.
