19 December 2025, by Yannik Wiedenbeck

We are pleased to present a new study by Daniela Schönberger, published in the *Journal of Experimental Child Psychology*. The study examines how the age at which sign language is acquired influences visual statistical learning and the transfer of learned rules in deaf and hard-of-hearing children. Both early and late signers successfully completed the visual learning task. However, transfer of the sequence rules was observed only in early signers. The findings highlight the crucial role of early language exposure for visual statistical learning in deaf signing children.

Wienholz A.,  Schönberger D., Jonasson N., Püppke R., Bruns P., Buckenmaier I., Röder B., Hänel-Faulhaber B. (2025). Delayed language access hampers but does not hinder visual statistical learning in deaf and hard of hearing children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, Volume 264.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106435