How do communication modes of d/Deaf and hard-of-hearing prereaders influence the amount of storybook text teachers report reading during read alouds?

Abstract

ABSTRACTDeaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) literature, including the reading behaviour of Deaf adults, suggests that Teachers of the deaf (TODs) read different amounts of text during read alouds to DHH prereaders based on the spoken and visual communication modes DHH prereaders use, such as: American Sign Language (ASL), only spoken English (speech), simultaneously spoken and conceptually signed English (ConceptSE), and simultaneously spoken and Signing Exact English (SEE). To date, no studies have surveyed teachers of the d/Deaf serving DHH children using these communication modes to determine whether TODs read different amounts of text during read alouds. To address this gap, we surveyed 69 TODs: 16 TODs serving DHH children using ASL (DHH-ASL), 18 serving DHH children using only spoken language (DHH-speech), 17 serving DHH children using ConceptSE (DHH-ConceptSE), and 18 serving DHH children using SEE (DHH-SEE). A binomial logistic regression indicated that the majority of TODs serving DHH-ASL report relying mainly on the illustrations during read alouds while the majority of TODs serving DHH-SEE report reading almost every word of the text during read alouds, resulting in these two groups being significantly different from each other in read-aloud behaviour. Interestingly, approximately half of the TODs serving DHH-speech and DHH-ConceptSE reported each type of reading behaviour. These results raise several issues about the kinds of input TODs are providing DHH children during read alouds.