About Me
Dr. Naomi Caselli studies how early language experience affects vocabulary acquisition and processing in American Sign Language. She leads an NSF funded project developing ASL-LEX, a database documenting the structure of the American Sign Language lexicon. She has also developed the ASL-CDI, an ASL adaptation of the MacArthur Bates Communicative Development Inventory, that assesses ASL vocabulary in children younger than five. She leads an NIH funded project that uses ASL-LEX and the ASL-CDI to examine how deaf children learn ASL vocabulary, and how delayed exposure to ASL affects vocabulary acquisition. She asks questions like:
What are the signs of ASL and their properties?
How do people perceive, produce, and acquire signs?
How do early language experiences affect language acquisition?