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Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education Advance Access published online on April 8, 2008
The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, doi:10.1093/deafed/enn009
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

The Relationship Between the Reading and Signing Skills of Deaf Children in Bilingual Education Programs

Daan Hermans

Pontem, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Harry Knoors

Viataal, Sint Michielsgestel, The Netherlands and Radboud University Nijmegen, Behavioral Science Institute, The Netherlands

Ellen Ormel

Radboud University Nijmegen, Behavioral Science Institute, The Netherlands and Pontem, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Ludo Verhoeven

Radboud University Nijmegen, Behavioral Science Institute, The Netherlands


  Abstract

This paper reports on one experiment in which we investigated the relationship between reading and signing skills. We administered a vocabulary task and a story comprehension task in Sign Language of the Netherlands and in written Dutch to a group of 87 deaf children from bilingual education programs. We found a strong and positive correlation between the scores obtained in the sign vocabulary task and the reading vocabulary task when age, short-term memory scores, and nonverbal intelligence scores were controlled for. In addition, a correlation was observed between the scores in the story comprehension tasks in Sign Language of the Netherlands and written Dutch but only when vocabulary scores for words and signs were not taken into account. The results are briefly discussed with reference to a model we recently proposed to describe lexical development for deaf children in bilingual education programs (Hermans, D., Knoors, H., Ormel, E., & Verhoeven, L., 2008). In addition, the implications of the results of the present study for previous studies on the relationship between reading and signing skills are discussed.

No conflicts of interest were reported. Correspondence should be sent to Daan Hermans, Pontem, Wijchenseweg 122, 6538 SX Nijmegen, The Netherlands (e-mail: D.Hermans{at}pontem.nl).

Received March 26, 2007; revised January 27, 2008; accepted February 17, 2008


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