Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education - current issue

Modeling Reading Vocabulary Learning in Deaf Children in Bilingual Education Programs

Hermans, D., Knoors, H., Ormel, E., Verhoeven, L. — 2008-02-04

The acquisition of reading vocabulary is one of the major challenges for deaf children in bilingual education programs. Deaf children have to acquire a written lexicon that can effectively be used in reading. In this paper, we present a developmental model that describes reading vocabulary acquisition of deaf children in bilingual education programs. The model is inspired by Jiang's model of vocabulary development in a second language (N. Jiang, 2000, 2004a) and the hierarchical model of lexical representation and processing in bilinguals (J. F. Kroll & E. Stewart, 1988). We argue that lexical development in the written language often fossilizes and that many words deaf readers acquire will not reach the final stage of lexical development. We argue that this feature is consistent with many findings reported in the literature. Finally, we discuss the pedagogical implications of the model.

Mode of Acquisition as a Factor in Deaf Children's Reading Comprehension

Wauters, L. N., Tellings, A. E. J. M., van Bon, W. H. J., Mak, W. M. — 2008-02-04

This article examines the role of mode of acquisition (MoA) of word meanings in reading comprehension: children acquire word meanings using perceptual information (e.g., hearing, seeing, or smelling the referent) and/or linguistic information (e.g., verbal explanations). A total of 72 deaf and 99 hearing children between 7 and 15 years of age performed a self-paced reading task. Comprehension scores increased with age in both groups, but reading speed increased over age only for the hearing participants. For both groups, reading times on linguistically acquired words were longer than on perceptually acquired words. Although deaf children scored lower than hearing children in both conditions, comprehension scores for both groups were lower on linguistic items than on perceptual items. Thus, MoA influences reading comprehension, but the deaf show difficulty on both the perceptual and the linguistic items.

Parental Involvement in the Habilitation Process Following Children's Cochlear Implantation: An Action Theory Perspective

Zaidman-Zait, A., Young, R. A. — 2008-02-04

Action theory and the qualitative action-project method are used in this study to address and illustrate the complexity of parenting children who have received cochlear implants (CIs) as well as the intentionality of parents engaged in that process. "Action" refers to individual and joint goal-directed and intentional behaviors. Action theory has the advantage of using the perspectives provided by manifest behavior, internal processes, and social meaning in the analysis of action. Two cases are used to describe the individual and joint actions and projects, as related to parents' involvement in the habilitation process of children's postcochlear implantation. These joint projects are described at the levels of meanings/goals, functional processes, behaviors, structural support, and resources. From the rich descriptions and analysis of the cases, we draw potentially illuminative implications for the "current thinking" in relation to parenting children with CIs.

Motor Development of Deaf Children With and Without Cochlear Implants

Gheysen, F., Loots, G., Van Waelvelde, H. — 2008-02-04

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of a cochlear implant (CI) on the motor development of deaf children. The study involved 36 mainstreamed deaf children (15 boys, 21 girls; 4- to 12-years old) without any developmental problems. Of these children, 20 had been implanted. Forty-three hearing children constituted a comparison group. Motor development was assessed by three standardized tests: the Movement Assessment Battery for Children, the Körperkoordinationstest für Kinder, and the One-leg standing test. Results showed that the hearing children performed on average significantly better than the deaf children (whether or not using a CI). Regarding the use of a CI, there was only a significant difference on one subtest between both groups, although there was a nonsignificant trend for the deaf +CI group to score somewhat worse on average than the deaf –CI group. This led to some significant differences between the hearing group and the deaf +CI group on measures requiring balance that did not hold for the hearing/deaf –CI comparison. Although this study could demonstrate neither a positive nor a negative impact of CI on balance and motor skills, the data raise the need for further, preferably longitudinal, research.

The Development of the Ability to Recognize the Meaning of Iconic Signs

Tolar, T. D., Lederberg, A. R., Gokhale, S., Tomasello, M. — 2008-02-04

Early developmental psychologists viewed iconic representation as cognitively less complex than other forms of symbolic thought. It is therefore surprising that iconic signs are not acquired more easily than arbitrary signs by young language learners. One explanation is that children younger than 3 years have difficulty interpreting iconicity. The current study assessed hearing children's ability to interpret the meaning of iconic signs. Sixty-six 2.5- to 5-year-olds who had no previous exposure to signs were required to match iconic signs to pictures of referents. Whereas few of the 2.5-year-olds recognized the meaning of the iconic signs consistently, more than half of the 3.0-year-olds and most of 3.5-year-olds performed above chance. Thus, the ability to recognize the meaning of iconic signs gradually develops during the preschool years. Implications of these findings for sign language development, receptive signed vocabulary tests, and the development of the ability to interpret iconic symbols are discussed.

Hyperlink Format, Categorization Abilities and Memory Span as Contributors to Deaf Users Hypertext Access

Farjardo, I., Arfe, B., Benedetti, P., Altoe, G. — 2008-02-04

Sixty deaf and hearing students were asked to search for goods in a Hypertext Supermarket with either graphical or textual links of high typicality, frequency, and familiarity. Additionally, they performed a picture and word categorization task and two working memory span tasks (spatial and verbal). Results showed that deaf students were faster in graphical than in verbal hypertext when the number of visited pages per search trial was blocked. Regardless of stimuli format, accuracy differences between groups did not appear, although deaf students were slower than hearing students in both Web search and categorization tasks (graphical or verbal). No relation between the two tasks was found. Correlation analyses showed that deaf students with higher spatial span were faster in graphical Web search, but no correlations emerged between verbal span and verbal Web search. A hypothesis of different strategies used by the two groups for searching information in hypertext is formulated. It is suggested that deaf users use a visual-matching strategy more than a semantic approach to make navigation decisions.

Using Balanced and Interactive Writing Instruction to Improve the Higher Order and Lower Order Writing Skills of Deaf Students

Wolbers, K. A. — 2008-02-04

This article reports the findings of balanced and interactive writing instruction used with 16 deaf and hard-of-hearing students. Although the instruction has been used previously, this was the first time it had been modified to suit the specific needs of deaf children and the first time it had been implemented with this subpopulation of students. The intervention took place in two elementary classrooms (N = 8) and one middle school classroom (N = 8) for a total of 21 days. A comparison of pre- and posttest scores on both writing and reading measures evidenced that students made significant gains with use of genre-specific traits, use of contextual language, editing/revising skills, and word identification. Students showed neither gains nor losses with conventions and total word count. In addition, a one-way multiple analysis of variance was used to detect any school-level effects. Elementary students made significantly greater gains with respect to conventions and word identification, and middle school students made significantly greater gains with editing and revising tasks.

Self-esteem and Satisfaction With Life of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing People--A Resource-Oriented Approach to Identity Work

Hintermair, M. — 2008-02-04

In the context of the current identity discussions, the interrelations between acculturations, psychological resources, and self-esteem as well as the satisfaction with life of deaf and hard-of-hearing people (N = 629) were examined by means of a questionnaire-based survey. To check these interrelations, one-factor and two-factor analyses of variance were employed. The results show that bicultural, deaf, and hearing acculturation styles have the advantage over marginal acculturation, but the results for marginal acculturation need to be discussed in depth to ensure a comprehensive understanding of them. All in all, bicultural acculturation seems to be a secure option for psychosocial well-being. The availability of psychological resources (optimism, self-efficacy) seems to be of special importance for the quality of self-esteem and satisfaction with life. On the other hand, the power of these psychological resources is closely associated with good communicative conditions in the individual biographies of the participants in this study as well as with their education level. Going beyond a methodological discussion then, the mission for educators would seem to be one of making good communicative conditions available to each deaf or hard-of-hearing child and optimizing academic achievement so as to ensure a secure, comprehensive, and differentiated opening up of the world and psychological empowerment. In this way, a good foundation can be laid for developing quality of life.

DEAF THEIRS, DEAF OURS: The Deaf Way II Reader--Perspectives from the Second International Conference on Deaf Culture

Christie, K. — 2008-02-04

Disability Harassment

Johnson, H. A. — 2008-02-04

Anatomy?

Kelly, A. B. — 2008-02-04

Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose

Shannon, N. B. — 2008-02-04

Beautiful Minds

Adams, R. E. — 2008-02-04

Shopping for Perfection: Ethics and Deafness in the 21st Century

Mann, W. — 2008-02-04