Deaf Education Research Articles

Differentiating Language for Students Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing: A Practice-Informed Framework for Auditory and Visual Supports.

Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) serving students who are d/Deaf or hard of hearing (Deaf/hh) and their deaf education counterparts must navigate complexities in language that include modalities that are spoken or signed and proficiency, which is often compromised. This tutorial describes a practice-informed framework that conceptualizes and organizes a continuum of auditory and visual language supports with the aim of informing the practice of the SLP whose training is more inherently focused on spoken language alone, as well as the practice of the teacher of the Deaf/hh (TDHH) who may focus more on visual language supports. This product resulted from a need within interdisciplinary, graduate programs for SLPs and TDHHs. Both cohorts required preparation to address the needs of diverse language learners who are Deaf/hh. This tutorial includes a brief review of the challenges in developing language proficiency and describes the complexities of effective service delivery. The process of developing a practice-informed framework for language supports is summarized, referencing established practices in auditory-based and visually based methodologies, identifying parallel practices, and summarizing the practices within a multitiered framework called the Framework of Differentiated Practices for Language Support. Recommendations for use of the framework include guidance on the identification of a student's language modality/ies and proficiency to effectively match students' needs and target supports. An examination of established practices in language supports across auditory and visual modalities reveals clear parallels that can be organized into a tiered framework. The result is a reference for differentiating language for the interdisciplinary school team. The parallel supports also provide evidence of similarities in practice across philosophical boundaries as professionals work collaboratively.

A case study of university mass casualty simulation with high school deaf students who sign.

Deaf people who use signed languages are a cultural and linguistic minority. Previous studies involving healthcare and emergency medical service professionals and their interactions with deaf people within the United States and globally have demonstrated a disconnect and lack of trust. The researchers, in this study, explored an emergency preparedness and mass casualty response with deaf people at a university-run mass casualty simulation. Seven culturally deaf high school students from a local deaf school participated in this simulation. Deaf student responses on the survey reflected their experiences involving poor communication skills between health professionals, first responders, and deaf students. By adopting the whole community approach, the students' experiences reinforce the need to include cultural and linguistic education training led by deaf people to increase communication skills among health professionals and first responders in supporting deaf people in emergencies.

A critical sociocultural turn in deaf education: operationalizing the Enduring Principles of Learning within the bright triad

A critical sociocultural turn in deaf education: operationalizing the Enduring Principles of Learning within the bright triad

The historical demography of the Martha's Vineyard signing community.

The deaf population of Martha's Vineyard has fascinated scholars for more than a century since Alexander Graham Bell's research on the frequent occurrence of deafness there and since Groce's book on the island's signing community (Groce, N. E. (1985). Everyone here spoke sign language: Hereditary deafness on Martha's Vineyard. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.). In Groce's work, and in that of subsequent scholars, the Vineyard signing community has often been portrayed as remote and outlying, having developed independently of mainland signing communities for roughly 133years until 1825. We re-examine that interpretation in light of historical, demographic, and genealogical evidence covering the period 1692-2008. We argue that the Vineyard signing community began in Chilmark in 1785, 93years later than previously thought, and that it had had a brief period of independent development, roughly 40years, before becoming well connected, through deaf education, to the nascent New England signing community. We consider the implications of the Vineyard community's history for our understanding of how village signing communities develop.

Sign Bilingualism Method Bridging the Gap between Language and Literacy among Deaf Learners

The education of Deaf/d students faced unique education challenges, particularly in the language and literacy development. This paper provides a comprehensive overview current education system of Deaf. It addresses critical issues such as language acquisition, literacy proficiency, mathematical learning, and logical problem-solving skills among Deaf learners. The paper underscores the importance of the sign bilingualism method in the education of Deaf individuals, emphasizing its role in bridging the gap between language and literacy development. It stresses the pivotal role of Sign Bilingualism in achieving objective language development and its use in literacy development. By recognizing the significance of Sign Bilingualism in Deaf education, educators and stakeholders can contribute to a more inclusive learning environment for Deaf learners.

Deaf education in Portugal and Brazil in the nineteenth century: Similarities and differences

ABSTRACT Deaf education officially began in Portugal in 1823, with Pedro Aron Borg, at the invitation of D. João VI and his daughter, D. Isabel. In Brazil, it began in 1857, when Édouard Adolfo Huet Merlo founded the first institution, with the consent of D. Pedro II. The Royal Institute for the Deaf-Mute and the Blind in Lisbon and the Imperial Institute for Deaf-Mutes in Rio de Janeiro shared the objective to promote the intellectual and professional development of deaf students. This study intends to identify similarities and differences in pedagogical proposals of the first deaf education institutions in the two countries during the nineteenth century. The study presents a documentary investigation that follows a qualitative approach. The research findings concluded that there were significant differences in how deaf education originated in Portugal and Brazil, and in their approaches to language acquisition. Nevertheless, there were many common aspects, including the administrative organisation of the institutes, the pedagogical proposal design, and the appointment of former students as specialised tutors of younger deaf students. In both countries, the main purpose of the schools was to prepare deaf students for adulthood through professional training.

Introduction: Deaf Education and Research with Filipino, South Korean, and Taiwanese Communities.

Introduction: Deaf Education and Research with Filipino, South Korean, and Taiwanese Communities.

Engineering Education and Reasonable Accommodation for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students

Engineering Education and Reasonable Accommodation for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students

A Linguist Informs Deaf Education with Sign Language Research

A Linguist Informs Deaf Education with Sign Language Research

The development of mobile application for the deaf to learn better

Education is very important for all individuals, including people with disabilities such as the deaf, to advance the nation and survive. In this case, effective communication of educational material is important to create a conducive learning environment. Most people also believe that deaf people can make a big contribution to society if they receive the right education, and this becomes a challenge for deaf teachers and students. Therefore, this paper aims to find a solution that can become a means of independent education for deaf people. This paper is using design thinking method to achieve the goal. The result of this research is the development of an educational mobile application specifically for the deaf, namely 'V-Voice'. This application provides various learning features, such as; animated videos, education games and texts that are attractively designed. Through 'V-Voice', it is hoped that deaf people can study harder independently and be helped to manage information and develop their soft skills and hard skills.

Teaching Literacy to Filipino Deaf Students in Multilingual Classrooms Amid a Pandemic.

This article describes the current landscape of teaching literacy to Filipino Deaf students in a multilingual, multi-cultural classroom amid the pandemic. The article highlights the uniqueness of Filipino Deaf students as multilingual learners in a multi-cultural classroom and the lack of literature and research on Deaf multilingualism both locally and globally. Moreover, the article focuses on the role of Deaf teachers in teaching Filipino Deaf students, especially in their literacy development. The steps being done to ensure that the curriculum is inclusive of Deaf learners who use Filipino Sign Language (FSL), teacher preparation and materials development, and the challenges in the shift to distance learning amid the COVID-19 pandemic are also discussed. Future directions and recommendations include review of curriculum and adaptation, enhancement of teacher preparation, promotion of collaborative teaching and research efforts, and the production of more appropriate and accessible instructional materials for Deaf students.

Pengembangan Website ‘BALASAN’ Sebagai Upaya Peningkatan Minat Belajar Bahasa Isyarat Indonesia

This website development uses fun and interactive methods. This website collaborates with GERKATIN which provides Bisindo classes which discuss understanding the world of the Deaf, how to communicate with the Deaf, and learning the basics of Indonesian Sign Language to build inclusive communication relationships. In this web development, there are 3 Bisindo service options that can be chosen according to your needs. One of the services is the Bisindo class, where we can take direct (face to face) classes accompanied by experienced Deaf teachers. To be able to take this class you can choose a level, namely level 1 & 2. The class schedule starts when the class quota has been met. Each class is held 10 times according to the schedule determined by GERKATIN.

Design and Development of Indian Sign Language Character Recognition System

The purpose of this study is to look into the challenges involved in categorizing Indian Sign Language (ISL) characters. While a lot of research has been done in the related field of American Sign Language (ASL), not as much has been done with ISL. Lack of standard datasets, obscured traits, and variance in language with geography are the key barriers that have hindered much ISL research. Our study aims to progress this field by collecting a dataset from a deaf school and applying various feature extraction techniques to extract useful information, which is then input into a range of supervised learning algorithms. Our current results for each approach include four fold cross-validation. What sets our work apart from earlier research is that the validation set in our four-fold cross-validation contains photographs of people who are not the same people as those in the training set. Hand gestures and signs are used by those with speech impairments to communicate. Understanding what they're trying to say is challenging for the average person. Though extremely uncommon, there are many systems that convert data to Hindi. Therefore, it is imperative to implement a system that enables the general public to understand and interpret all signals, gestures, and communications. It will close the communication gap that exists between normal people and those who have speech difficulty. The two primary research approaches centered on human-computer interaction are sign language recognition and learning. Multiple sensors are required in order for data flow to be understood in sign language. This research paper focuses on the development of a Hindi-language training tool that can detect images and interpret what someone else is trying to say to persons who have speech impairments. Keywords: Indian Sign Language (ISL), American Sign Language (ASL), Feature Extraction, Supervised learning, Sign Language, etc.

Teaching sign language remotely in the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT Like language teachers everywhere, Deaf teachers of New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) had to suddenly move classes online when COVID-19 restrictions were implemented from March 2020. NZSL is conventionally taught through a direct immersion, communicative approach, so adapting instruction to a remote mode required NZSL teachers to develop new technical skills, and adapt teaching formats and strategies to accommodate the constraints of on-screen interaction and learning. The combination of a visual language produced in three dimensions with a screen-mediated mode of interaction creates particular challenges for sign language teachers and learners. This article reports a qualitative enquiry into 14 teachers’ experiences and strategies, with the aim of contributing to practice knowledge for sign language teachers, and to extend the literature on emergency remote teaching (ERT) addressing the teaching of community and signed languages, particularly in the adult community education sector. The study does not evaluate online teaching outcomes, but rather seeks to understand how NZSL teachers adapted to new challenges and what pedagogical knowledge may be carried forward.

The Chinese lexicon of deaf readers: A database of character decisions and a comparison between deaf and hearing readers.

We present a psycholinguistic study investigating lexical effects on simplified Chinese character recognition by deaf readers. Prior research suggests that deaf readers exhibit efficient orthographic processing and decreased reliance on speech-based phonology in word recognition compared to hearing readers. In this large-scale character decision study (25 participants, each evaluating 2500 real characters and 2500 pseudo-characters), we analyzed various factors influencing character recognition accuracy and speed in deaf readers. Deaf participants demonstrated greater accuracy and faster recognition when characters were more frequent, were acquired earlier, had more strokes, displayed higher orthographic complexity, were more imageable in reference, or were less concrete in reference. Comparison with a previous study of hearing readers revealed that the facilitative effect of frequency on character decision accuracy was stronger for deaf readers than hearing readers. The effect of orthographic-phonological regularity differed significantly for the two groups, indicating that deaf readers rely more on orthographic structure and less on phonological information during character recognition. Notably, increased stroke counts (i.e., higher orthographic complexity) hindered hearing readers but facilitated recognition processes in deaf readers, suggesting that deaf readers excel at recognizing characters based on orthographic structure. The database generated from this large-scale character decision study offers a valuable resource for further research and practical applications in deaf education and literacy.

Öğretmenlerin İşitme Engelli Öğrencilerin Yabancı Dil Olarak İngilizce Eğitimine Erişimine İlişkin Görüşleri

In Türkiye, K-12 Deaf students often do not learn English as hearing students learn. This paper applies a qualitative approach and uses semi-structured interviews as the data source to analyze the perspectives of nine teachers of Deaf students on Deaf students' access to English as a foreign language education in Türkiye. In analysis, the study applies content analysis and considers Bourdieu's forms of capital, the theory of figured world, and social model of disability as the theoretical framework. The findings show that teachers of Deaf students in Türkiye have an ideology of Deafness as a culture, view Turkish Sign Language as the primary language of Deaf individuals, and support using sign language as a medium in Deaf education. However, teachers of Deaf students prefer postponing English as a foreign language education for Deaf students until Turkish Sign Language is fully acquired. The findings of the study suggest integrating Turkish Sign Language in K-12 Deaf education as a medium and designing education programs to teach English as a foreign language to Deaf students simultaneously without postponing learning any languages.

The paradoxes of inclusion: cognitive and socio-emotional developmental trajectories of deaf and blind primary education students in mainstream and special schools

IntroductionStudents with special educational needs (SEN) have historically found participating in the regular education system challenging. Since the 1990s, inclusion has been considered the optimal strategy for their development. However, the effects of inclusive education on deaf and blind students are still little studied.MethodsIn the present article, we report the results of a longitudinal study on the cognitive and socioemotional developmental trajectories of 23 deaf and 29 blind primary education students attending mainstream (8 deaf and 10 blind) and special schools (15 deaf and 19 blind). The study was conducted in Santiago de Chile between 2018 and 2019.ResultsOur descriptive results suggest that deaf students attending special schools perform better on most of the variables studied. For blind students, those attending traditional schools generally perform better than those attending special schools. However, in the case of socio-emotional variables, blind students attending special schools tend to show fewer problems. However, almost all of the indicated differences are not statistically significantly different.DiscussionWe then discuss the need to consider the characteristics of each group of students with SEN when defining an adequate educational system for their optimal development.

Sign language usage of deaf or hard of hearing Sri Lankans.

In Sri Lanka, about 300,000 Sinhala speaking people are either deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) and would benefit from a common Sinhala sign language, technological resources such as captioning, and educational and social support. There is no fully developed common sign language for members of the Sinhalese community, a severe shortage of sign language interpreters, and few resources for teachers. This exploratory study was undertaken in all nine provinces of Sri Lanka into the use of sign language, access to education for people with disabilities, and the availability of trained or qualified educators to work with the DHH people. Data were gathered via interviews and focus groups with Special Education Assistant Directors, Principals and Teachers in Deaf Schools, and Teachers of Special Education Deaf Units in mainstream schools. The DHH members of Sri Lankan society are marginalized, under-supported, and require urgent attention to their educational and social needs. This study provides a basis for much needed attention and reform.

The Results of Using Online Interactive Learning to Enhance English in Daily Life towards ASEAN for Lower Secondary Students with Hearing Impairment: A Case Study of Deaf School in Surin Province

The Results of Using Online Interactive Learning to Enhance English in Daily Life towards ASEAN for Lower Secondary Students with Hearing Impairment: A Case Study of Deaf School in Surin Province

Blind and Deaf Together: Cross-Disability Community at Virginia's Residential School for Black Disabled Youth

Disability history has embraced the cultural model of Deafness which argues that residential schools fostered a common identity unified around the use of sign language. This article argues that this model was built on examinations of primarily (and exclusively) white institutions, resulting in scholarship that erases the distinct experiences of deaf African Americans. Cross-disability experiences were central to the lives of Black children at the Virginia State School, a residential school for deaf and blind African American youth. Far from a statistical outlier, the majority of Southern states used this cost saving measure to educate blind and deaf African Americans. Though not exclusively utilized for African Americans, the disproportionate use of combined schools reflects a Jim Crow approach to disability designed to reduce state expenditures at the cost of services rendered to the Black community. Relying on previously unused sources of the Virginia State School, including surviving records of administrators and a school bulletin with student contributors, this article explores a community where nearly every aspect of life involved cross-disability relationships. Oral histories with former students add to this narrative, revealing how young people who came to identify as culturally Deaf, communicated with partially blind students through sign language and with fully blind students through spoken English. This approach to deaf and blind education regularized cross-disability interactions among African Americans in Virginia, producing a community at the school defined by their categorization as disabled and Black, more so than by specific disabilities.