DOCSLIB.ORG

Perception of the School Experiences of Five Generations of Deaf Students

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

Georgia Southern University Digital Commons@Georgia Southern Electronic Theses and Dissertations Graduate Studies, Jack N. Averitt College of Spring 2015 Perception of the School Experiences of Five Generations of Deaf Students Charles DePew Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd Part of the Educational Methods Commons Recommended Citation DePew, Charles, "Perception of the School Experiences of Five Generations of Deaf Students" (2015). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1292. https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd/1292 This dissertation (open access) is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Studies, Jack N. Averitt College of at Digital Commons@Georgia Southern. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons@Georgia Southern. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Running head: PERCEPTION OF THE SCHOOL EXPERIENCES PERCEPTION OF THE SCHOOL EXPERIENCES OF FIVE GENERATIONS OF DEAF STUDENTS by CHARLES DEPEW (Under the Direction of Delores Liston) ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to investigate deaf participants’ perspectives of their educational experiences within the last 50 years. The study was comprised of five deaf participants educated in the public school setting, and four deaf participants educated in the residential setting. The qualitative study utilized three in-depth interviews, a survey, and the researcher’s reflections/notes. The findings suggest deaf students’ educational experiences are impacted by low academic expectations. Sign language can be a powerful learning tool or a barrier for deaf students as deaf students depend on sign language and visuals to support their learning. Both spoken and written English are likely to be a struggle for deaf students. Emotional difficulties were associated with public and residential settings for the participants. Personal motivations, family members, and the type of setting had powerful influences on the participants. Freire’s (1993) theoretical framework of liberation was utilized in this study to engage participants in dialogue about the perceptions of their educational experiences. INDEX WORDS: Audism, Certified Interpreter, Professional Interpreter, Coda, Deaf, Little “d” and Big “D”, Inclusion, Mainstream, Phonocentrism, Public, Residential PERCEPTION OF THE SCHOOL EXPERIENCES ii PERCEPTION OF THE SCHOOL EXPERIENCES OF FIVE GENERATIONS OF DEAF STUDENTS by CHARLES DEPEW B.S., Physical Education, State University of New York at Brockport, 1993 M.S., Health Education, State University of New York at Cortland, 1999 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Georgia Southern University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF CURRICULUM STUDIES STATESBORO, GEORGIA 2015 PERCEPTION OF THE SCHOOL EXPERIENCES iii © 2015 CHARLES DEPEW All Rights Reserved PERCEPTION OF THE SCHOOL EXPERIENCES iv PERCEPTION OF THE SCHOOL EXPERIENCES OF FIVE GENERATIONS OF DEAF STUDENTS by CHARLES DEPEW Major Professor: Delores Liston Committee: Kymberly Drawdy Grigory Dmitriyev Dana Sparkman Electronic Version Approved: Spring 2015, May 2015 PERCEPTION OF THE SCHOOL EXPERIENCES v DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to my deaf grandmother and deaf relatives who were the inspiration for this study. It is also dedicated to my family and friends who have had to hear about my struggle with my study almost every day for the last seven years of my doctoral program. Also, to my dog, Betty, who has pushed her ball in my face many times wanting me to play with her while I was working on my dissertation. PERCEPTION OF THE SCHOOL EXPERIENCES vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to acknowledge my prior chairperson, Dr. Lorraine Gilpin, for not giving up on me and nudging me to keep on trying to finish this dissertation. Her patience and always staying positive when I got down on myself about this dissertation, and always providing constructive feedback in a caring way, meant the world to me. I will miss the person who has been my “rock” during this long process. I would also like to thank my chairperson, Dr. Delores Liston, for stepping in and taking over as my chair under such tough circumstances without even being asked to take on such a tough job. I really appreciated her help and guidance as a student in several of her courses prior to this study, as well as her patience and constructive feedback as my chairperson. I would also like to thank Dr. Kymberly Drawdy, Dr. Dana Sparkman, and Dr. Grigory Dmitriyev for their time, interest, assistance, and guidance in this dissertation. I have been blessed to work with such an intelligent and caring committee. I could not have done it without them. I also want to thank my deaf relatives for volunteering to be involved in this study and for their great assistance in helping me recruit participants. I also want to thank those other participants in the study for giving their time and sharing their stories. In addition, I want to thank the interpreters that were flexible with times for interviews and their commitment to help me finish all the interviews for my research in a small time frame. Last of all, I want to thank God for carrying me through this process. PERCEPTION OF THE SCHOOL EXPERIENCES vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ........................................................................................................................... vi CHAPTER 1: THE ABSENCE OF DIALOUGE WITH DEAF STUDENTS ................................................................ 1 Background of an Ongoing Problem ......................................................................................................... 1 Statement of the Problem ........................................................................................................................ 3 Purpose of the Study ................................................................................................................................. 4 Theoretical Framework of Liberation ....................................................................................................... 6 Liberating Settings .................................................................................................................................. 11 Research Questions ................................................................................................................................ 13 Significance of the Study ......................................................................................................................... 14 CHAPTER II: THE DEAF EXPERIENCE RETOLD ............................................................................................ 18 Literature’s Relevance to the Deaf Study ............................................................................................... 18 Historical Preface .................................................................................................................................... 18 Deaf Culture ............................................................................................................................................ 30 The Continued Debate of Academic Setting ........................................................................................... 32 The Launch of a Least Restrictive Environment ...................................................................................... 35 Present-Day Mainstreamed Education/Least Restrictive Environment ................................................. 39 Deaf Students’ Views of Mainstream Classrooms .................................................................................. 42 Inclusion .................................................................................................................................................. 46 Residential Option .................................................................................................................................. 51 Deaf Students’ Views of Residential Setting ........................................................................................... 53 Federal Legislation and Deaf Education .................................................................................................. 57 Language Barrier ..................................................................................................................................... 68 PERCEPTION OF THE SCHOOL EXPERIENCES viii Ableism ................................................................................................................................................... 71 Audism and Phonocentrism .................................................................................................................... 73 Making Sense of the Literature ............................................................................................................... 75 CHAPTER III: PERSONAL DISCUSSIONS ABOUT EDUCATION ...................................................................... 78 The Power of Conversation ..................................................................................................................... 78 Methodological Overview ....................................................................................................................... 78 In-Depth Interviews ...............................................................................................................................
Recommended publications
  • Read-My-Lips: a Multimedia Project for the Hearing

    Read-My-Lips: a Multimedia Project for the Hearing

    JOAQUIN VILA and KATHLEEN M. AHLERS READ-MY -LIPS: A MULTIMEDIA PROJECT FOR THE HEARING IMPAIRED Read-My-Lips is an interactive multimedia system designed to help instructors teach language and communication skills to the hearing-impaired. The system comprises three multimedia instructional modules. (1) Babel is an expert system that translates text to speech in any language that uses the Roman alphabet. This module depicts the process of speech by displaying a front view and a profIle cross view of a human face in synchronization with the output sounds of a speech synthesizer. (2) Read & See consists of a series of stories and games that are displayed with text and full video motion. Selected vocabulary within the story is signed and spoken using digitized video sequences. (3) Fingerspelling allows the student to request any word or number to be "fingerspelled." INTRODUCTION The computer has become a popular instructional tool available from the Alexander Graham Bell Association used in school programs for the hearing-impaired. l Many for the Deaf, use drill and practice methods for the computer programs are geared exclusively to the presen­ speech-reading of everyday utterances. tation and practice of academic content.2 Yet several As technology has improved, interactive video has software packages for the hearing-impaired focus on been used in designing speech-reading programs. A sys­ specific speech, speech-reading, and/or auditory skills. tem titled DAVID6 (dynamic audio video interactive de­ Hearing-impaired students have great difficulty master­ vice) was created in 1978. It requires students to view ing these skills because of their degree of hearing loss.
  • Poor Print Quality

    Poor Print Quality

    DOCUMENT RESUME ED 476 841 FL 027 697 AUTHOR Kontra, Miklos TITLE British Aid for Hungarian Deaf Education from a Linguistic Human Rights Point of View. PUB DATE 2001-00-00 NOTE 9p.; An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Biennial Conference of the Hungarian Society for the Study of English (4th, Budapest, Hungary, January 28-30, 1999). Some parts contain light or broken text. PUB TYPE Journal Articles (080) Reports Descriptive (141) JOURNAL CIT Hungarian Journal of Applied Linguistics; vl n2 p63-68 2001 EDRS PRICE EDRS Price MF01/PC01 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Deafness; Educational Discrimination; Elementary Secondary Education; Foreign Countries; Higher Education; *Oral Communication Method; *Sign Language; Speech Communication; Teaching Methods IDENTIFIERS *Hungary; United Kingdom ABSTRACT This paper discusses the issue of oral versus sign language in educating people who are deaf, focusing on Hungary, which currently emphasizes oralism and discourages the use of Hungarian Sign Language. Teachers of people who are hearing impaired are trained to use the acoustic channel and view signing as an obstacle to the integration of deaf people into mainstream Hungarian society. A recent news report describes how the British. Council is giving children's books to a Hungarian college for teachers of handicapped students, because the college believes in encouraging hearing impaired students' speaking skills through picture books rather than allowing then to use sign language. One Hungarian researcher writes that the use of Hungarian Sign Language hinders the efficiency of teaching students who are hard of hearing, because they often prefer it to spoken Hungarian. This paper suggests that the research obscures the difference between medically deaf children, who will never learn to hear, and hearing impaired children, who may learn to hear and speak to some extent.
  • The Transition from Fingerspelling to English Print: Facilitating English Decoding

    The Transition from Fingerspelling to English Print: Facilitating English Decoding

    The Transition From Fingerspelling to English Print: Facilitating English Decoding Tamara S. Haptonstall-Nykaza Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind Brenda Schick University of Colorado, Boulder Fingerspelling is an integral part of American Sign Lan- orthography available in most written systems. Re- guage (ASL) and it is also an important aspect of becoming search on hearing children’s development of reading bilingual in English and ASL. Even though fingerspelling is has found strong connections between children’s pho- based on English orthography, the development of finger- spelling does not parallel the development of reading in nological systems and awareness of phonological reg- hearing children. Research reveals that deaf children may ularities and their ability to read (see Snow, Burns, & initially treat fingerspelled words as lexical items rather than Griffin, 1998). Typically, reading is viewed, in large a series of letters that represent English orthography and part, as reflecting English skills, and deaf children’s only later begin to learn to link handshapes to English gra- longstanding difficulties with learning to read are con- phemes. The purpose of this study is to determine whether a training method that uses fingerspelling and phonological sidered to be a problem with English (King & Quigley, patterns that resemble those found in lexicalized finger- 1985; Paul, 1998). More recently, researchers have be- spelling to teach deaf students unknown English vocabulary gun to investigate how American Sign Language, or would increase their ability to learn the fingerspelled and ASL, can support and facilitate reading in English (see orthographic version of a word. There were 21 deaf students (aged 4–14 years) who participated.
  • In This Issue: Speech Day 10

    In This Issue: Speech Day 10

    Soundwave 2016 The Mary Hare Magazine June 2016 maryhare.org.ukmaryhare.org.uk In this issue: Speech Day 10 HRH Princess Royal visits 17 Sports Day 28 Ski Trip 44 Hare & Tortoise Walk 51 Head Boy & Head Girl 18 Primary News 46 SLT & Audiology 53 1 Soundwave 2016 The Mary Hare Magazine June 2016 maryhare.org.uk Acknowledgements Contents Editors, Gemma Pryor and Sammie Wilkinson Looking back and looking forward The Mary Hare Year 4–20 by Peter Gale Getting Active 21–28 Cole’s Diner 29–30 Welcome to this wonderful edition of Soundwave – Mr Peter Gale a real showcase of the breadth and diversity of experiences Arts News 31–33 which young people at Mary Hare get to enjoy. I hope you Helping Others 34–35 will enjoy reading it. People News 35–39 This has been a great year but joined us for our whole school under strict control and while Our Principal one with a real sadness at its sponsored walk/run and a they are substantial, they only Alumni 40–41 heart – the death of a member recent visit from Chelsea allow us to keep going – to of staff. Lesley White made a Goalkeeper Asmir Begovic who pay the wages and heat the Getting Around 42–45 huge contribution to Mary Hare presented us with a cheque school and to try to keep on and there is a tribute to her on for £10,000 means that the top of the maintenance of two Mary Hare Primary School 46–48 page 39. swimming pool Sink or Swim complex campuses.
  • Deaf Culture Connections Day!!!

    Deaf Culture Connections Day!!!

    Deaf Culture Connections Day!!! (TEST ROWS) PLEASE HAVE YOUR DESKS CLEARED OFF (EXCEPT YOUR COMPOSITION BOOK OR PAPER, PEN/PENCIL): ALL PHONES, MUSIC, AND OTHER MATERIALS PUT AWAY ---V O I C E D A Y --- POWERPOINT PRESENTATION - THIS MATERIAL WILL BE ON NEXT THURSDAY’S TEST, AND THE FINAL EXAM ASL in the USA: The 3rd/4th most used language in this country! Approx. 3 in 1000 have severe hearing loss Average deaf person 20-30+ millions of deaf graduates high school with a or hard of hearing 3-4th grade reading level people in this country While research shows English skills are best acquired through ASL, the 90% of deaf children majority of the medical are born to hearing community still encourages hearing parents to avoid parents signing!!! What is Language? --- A real language develops naturally, when people wish to communicate American Sign Language is a real language Deaf children need a REAL language beginning at a young age (ASL!) To force them into Oralism=similar to the story of forcing a child who only knows English to read lips and try to learn while the teacher speaks only Cantonese, while every class subject is written in German. Lip reading- 30% from lips at the MOST (also view “body language”, context, etc.) Speech Therapy- like piano lessons: can be great, but it depends on the individual. Saying “algebra” should not be more important than understanding algebra! Learning a language (whether your What are first, second, third, etc…) some Activates your brain!!! benefits of Awareness and appreciation of other
  • The Sources of Deaf Humor

    The Sources of Deaf Humor

    The Sources of Deaf Humor An Exploration of the Reasons Deaf Humor Differs from That of Hearing People by Erika Cancio-Bello Ted F emald, Advisor Bachelor Thesis in the Department of Linguistics Swarthmore College Swarthmore, Pennsylvania 2015 1 Table of Contents Section Page Title Page ................................................................... 0 Table of Contents .......................................................... 1 I. Introduction ................................................................. 2 II. Language-Related Jokes .................................................. 3 1. Sign Language Puns .................................................... 3 2. Bilingual Puns .......................................................... 8 3. Modality Jokes ........................................................ 11 III. Deaf Experience Jokes ................................................... 16 4. Zap Stories (Jokes About Hearing People) ........................ 16 5. Deaf Culture ........................................................... 19 6. Visual Humor .......................................................... 23 7. Jokes Circulated Within the Community .......................... 25 IV. Conclusion ................................................................ 27 Bibliography ..............................................................29 2 INTRODUCTION As a student of linguistics, I have been exposed to information about the particulars of many different languages, extant and historical. Many times the purpose of these
  • The Two Hundred Years' War in Deaf Education

    The Two Hundred Years' War in Deaf Education

    THE TWO HUNDRED YEARS' WAR IN DEAF EDUCATION A reconstruction of the methods controversy By A. Tellings PDF hosted at the Radboud Repository of the Radboud University Nijmegen The following full text is a publisher's version. For additional information about this publication click this link. http://hdl.handle.net/2066/146075 Please be advised that this information was generated on 2020-04-15 and may be subject to change. THE TWO HUNDRED YEARS* WAR IN DEAF EDUCATION A reconstruction of the methods controversy By A. Tellings THE TWO HUNDRED YEARS' WAR IN DEAF EDUCATION A reconstruction of the methods controversy EEN WETENSCHAPPELIJKE PROEVE OP HET GEBIED VAN DE SOCIALE WETENSCHAPPEN PROEFSCHRIFT TER VERKRIJGING VAN DE GRAAD VAN DOCTOR AAN DE KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT NIJMEGEN, VOLGENS BESLUIT VAN HET COLLEGE VAN DECANEN IN HET OPENBAAR TE VERDEDIGEN OP 5 DECEMBER 1995 DES NAMIDDAGS TE 3.30 UUR PRECIES DOOR AGNES ELIZABETH JACOBA MARIA TELLINGS GEBOREN OP 9 APRIL 1954 TE ROOSENDAAL Dit onderzoek werd verricht met behulp van subsidie van de voormalige Stichting Pedon, NWO Mediagroep Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen PROMOTOR: Prof.Dr. A.W. van Haaften COPROMOTOR: Dr. G.L.M. Snik 1 PREFACE The methods controversy in deaf education has fascinated me since I visited the International Congress on Education of the Deaf in Hamburg (Germany) in 1980. There I was struck by the intemperate emotions by which the methods controversy is attended. This book is an attempt to understand what this controversy really is about I would like to thank first and foremost Prof.Wouter van Haaften and Dr.
  • Representation of Cued Speech in Teacher of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Preparation Programs Aaron Rose

    Representation of Cued Speech in Teacher of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Preparation Programs Aaron Rose

    Washington University School of Medicine Digital Commons@Becker Program in Audiology and Communication Independent Studies and Capstones Sciences 2010 Representation of Cued Speech in teacher of the deaf and hard of hearing preparation programs Aaron Rose Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.wustl.edu/pacs_capstones Part of the Medicine and Health Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Rose, Aaron, "Representation of Cued Speech in teacher of the deaf and hard of hearing preparation programs" (2010). Independent Studies and Capstones. Paper 598. Program in Audiology and Communication Sciences, Washington University School of Medicine. http://digitalcommons.wustl.edu/pacs_capstones/598 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Program in Audiology and Communication Sciences at Digital Commons@Becker. It has been accepted for inclusion in Independent Studies and Capstones by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons@Becker. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Representation of Cued Speech in Teacher of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Preparation Programs By Aaron Rose An Independent Study Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree of: Masters of Science in Deaf Education Washington University School of Medicine Program in Audiology and Communication Sciences May 21, 2010 Approved by Heather Hayes, Ph.D., Independent Study Advisor Hilary Franklin, M.A., Secondary Reader Abstract This descriptive study investigates the representation of Cued Speech in teacher of the deaf preparation programs as well as attitudes towards inclusion of Cued Speech in those programs in the context of the 2004 reauthorization of IDEA. The issue of Cued Speech is discussed as a communication modality and implications for deaf education are presented.
  • Perceptions of the Use of Cued Speech in an Inclusive High School Context in Quebec

    Perceptions of the Use of Cued Speech in an Inclusive High School Context in Quebec

    Exceptionality Education International 2018, Vol. 28, No. 1, pp. 100–120 Perceptions of the Use of Cued Speech in an Inclusive High School Context in Quebec Audrey Dupont, France Beauregard Université de Sherbrooke Hélène Makdissi Université Laval Abstract Six students and six parents were interviewed about the use of Cued Speech (CS) in an inclusive context in Quebec, Canada. The objective of the study was to describe their perceptions of the use of the French version of Cued Speech in high school and to identify factors that could influence these perceptions. The results of the semi-structured interviews showed that CS use is often temporary but that it is helpful for developing oral and written language. It also supports inclusion, so long as certain conditions for its application are met with respect to interpreter services and interactions at school. In some circumstances, the participants found Quebec Sign Language useful to complement Cued Speech. The inclusion of students who are deaf or hard of hearing has often been studied, but mainly from the angle of the use of sign language or of oralism (Angelides & Aravi, 2007; Xie, Potměšil, & Peters, 2014). However, the inclusion of students using Cued Speech (CS) has received very little research attention (Crain & LaSasso, 2010). Even though the French equivalent of CS—Langue française parlée complétée, LPC—is commonly used in francophone European countries, this communication mode is still not widely used or studied in Quebec (Office des personnes handicapées du Québec, 2005). The aim of the present study was to come to a better understanding of the inclusion of students who are deaf in Quebec who use CS.
  • Training Teachers and Parents on Verbal Communication Among

    Training Teachers and Parents on Verbal Communication Among

    rde iso rs, D De on a ti f Lawal et al., Commun Disord Deaf Stud Hearing a S c t i u n d u i e Aids 2016, 4:2 m s Journal of Communication Disorders, & m o H C e DOI: 10.4172/2375-4427.1000159 f a o r l ISSN: 2375-4427i n a g n r A u i d o s J Deaf Studies & Hearing Aids Research Article Open Access Training Teachers and Parents on Verbal Communication among Children with Hearing Impairment: Preliminary Results from Schools in Kenya Luqman Lawal1*, Mathew Karia2, Chalese Buttars3, Jeffery Larsen3, Wakisa Mulwafu4 and Kaitesi Mukara5 1Division of Health Policy and management, University of Minnesota School of Public health, MN, USA 2Department of Special needs, Speech Language Pathology program, Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya 3Department of Communicative disorders and deaf education, Utah State University, UT, USA 4Department of ENT, University of Malawi College of Medicine, Blantyre, Malawi 5College of Medicine, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Department of ENT, University of Rwanda, Rwanda *Corresponding author: Luqman Lawal, Department of Health Policy and Management, University of Minnesota School of Public health, MN, USA, Tel: +16513075288; E-mail: [email protected] Received date: April 21, 2016; Accepted date: May 25, 2016; Published date: June 1, 2016 Copyright: © 2016 Lawal L, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Abstract Purpose: We sought to assess the outcome of training parents and teachers on verbal communication with children that have hearing impairment in selected schools in Kenya.
  • The Pedagogy of Initial Reading at Sizwe School for the Deaf

    The Pedagogy of Initial Reading at Sizwe School for the Deaf

    COPYRIGHT AND CITATION CONSIDERATIONS FOR THIS THESIS/ DISSERTATION o Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. o NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes. o ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original. How to cite this thesis Surname, Initial(s). (2012) Title of the thesis or dissertation. PhD. (Chemistry)/ M.Sc. (Physics)/ M.A. (Philosophy)/M.Com. (Finance) etc. [Unpublished]: University of Johannesburg. Retrieved from: https://ujdigispace.uj.ac.za (Accessed: Date). THE PEDAGOGY OF INITIAL READING AT SIZWILE SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF by BlAH REFILOE DIKONKETSO MOKGOBU Short Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements l for the degree of \'\ ~:';. MAGISTER EDUCATIONIS in EDUCATIONAL LINGUISTICS in the FACULTY OF EDUCATION at the RAND AFRIKAANS UNNERSITY SUPERVISOR: PROF. E. HENNING DR. R. E. SWART NOVEMBER 1995 (i) ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my gratitude towards the following people and institutions: • My Heavenly Father, for providing me with the physical strength and the mental ability to complete this study. • My supervisor, Prof. Elizabeth Henning, an erudite scholar in the paradigm of ": . qualitative research, for her priceless contributions and most valuable discussions during . the course of this study. • Sizwile School for the Deaf, for allowing me to do" my research in the school, most special Mr. T. Mdladla for allowing me to intrude and discover the Sub B pupils' valuable perceptions of reading in their class-room life.
  • Research Brief: the Importance of Fingerspelling for Reading

    Research Brief: the Importance of Fingerspelling for Reading

    VISUAL LANGUAGE & VISUAL LEARNING NSF supported Science of Learning Center on Visual Language and Visual Learning, SBE-0541953, RESEARCH BRIEF: Gallaudet University. THE IMPORTANCE OF FINGERSPELLING FOR READING JULY 2010 Key Findings on the Importance of Fingerspelling for Reading: LEARNING FROM RESEARCH • Deaf families fingerspell to their deaf children when they are very young. • Early exposure to fingerspelling helps these children become better # 1 readers. • Fingerspelling, reading, and writing are interrelated. • Fingerspelling facilitates English vocabulary growth, and larger the lexicon, the faster new vocabulary is learned. • Fingerspelling positively correlates with stronger reading skills. Deaf Written by: and hard of hearing children who are good fingerspellers are good Sharon Baker, Ed.D. readers, and vice versa. 1 of 8 NSF SCIENCE OF LEARNING CENTER ON VISUAL LANGUAGE AND VISUAL LEARNING RESEARCH BRIEF NO. 1: THE IMPORTANCE OF FINGERSPELLING FOR READING Fingerspelling and American Sign hearing children from deaf families tend to read at Language higher levels than deaf and hard of hearing children from hearing families.11 Fingerspelling likely On the most simplistic level, fingerspelling can be contributes to this success. Unfortunately, young defined as the use of handshapes to represent deaf and hard of hearing children from hearing letters of the alphabet. Indeed, before the families are not generally given the same early complexity of fingerspelling was documented, learning opportunity. Indeed, the absence of researchers thought fingerspelling was merely a fingerspelling is particularly evident in preschools manual representation of English orthography for deaf and hard of hearing children.9 To 1 (print). They believed fingerspelling was primarily understand the role of fingerspelling in language for representing proper nouns or for English words acquisition and later literacy, it is important to 2,3 without a sign equivalent.