Sign language, visuospatial cognition, and deaf bilingual education: contributions from the extended mind and intermodal neuroplasticity

Abstract

This article examines bilingual deaf education through the articulation of the neurobiology of language, embodied cognition, the extended mind, and deaf studies. Its aim is to discuss how visuospatial experience and early access to sign language support the linguistic, cognitive, and identity development of deaf students, as well as the implications of this articulation for the organization of bilingual schooling. Methodologically, the article takes the form of an interdisciplinary theoretical essay grounded in bibliographic research and guided by a non-exhaustive theoretical-analytical reading of works relevant to the articulation between the neuroscience of language, philosophy of mind, and deaf education. This analysis is mobilized to argue that Libras is not a compensatory resource, but a full-fledged language, a medium of meaning-making, and a matrix of cognitive organization. The literature examined indicates that sign language processing recruits

classical language networks, especially the posterior Superior Temporal Sulcus and the Inferior Frontal Gyrus, while the spatiality of signing externalizes grammatical relations and supports working memory, reference tracking, and reasoning. It is further argued that the main risk to the development of deaf children does not stem from deafness itself, but from linguistic deprivation produced by delayed or restricted access to a natural language. The article concludes that ensuring Libras as a language of instruction and organizing visual didactic ecologies constitute central conditions for confronting linguistic deprivation and for strengthening bilingual education policies committed to learning, subjectivation, and recognition.