Deaf Children Of Hearing Parents Research Articles

The acquisition of Hong Kong Sign Language in deaf and hard-of-hearing children: A longitudinal study of sign language development in a bimodal bilingual co-enrollment programme

ABSTRACT This study followed the development of Hong Kong Sign Language (HKSL) proficiency in 31 deaf bimodal bilingual children (kindergarten through Primary 6) over two years. The Hong Kong Sign Language Elicitation Tool (HKSL-ET) was used at three time points to elicit the production of agreement, classifier, modal, negation, and wh-question structures. These were scored for accuracy based on specific language features, including classifier handshapes, non-manuals, phonological parameters, sign order, and use of space. Deaf children of hearing parents (dH children) showed significant improvements in accuracy for all structures and features, with most progress occurring between the first two assessments. By the third assessment, dH children showed similar performance to the deaf children of deaf parents (dD children) on most structures and features, but they were still significantly less accurate in their production of classifier constructions and use of space. This, along with an observed negative impact of later ages of acquisition on HKSL accuracy, underscores the importance of early exposure to sign language. Examining the relationship between signed and spoken language proficiency revealed a significant positive correlation between HKSL proficiency and Cantonese verbal expressive ability, suggesting that these languages may have mutually facilitative effects in terms of language development. Our findings highlight the utility of bimodal bilingual education in fostering linguistic development in deaf children.

Enablers and barriers for hearing parents with deaf children: Experiences of parents and workers in Wales, UK.

More than 90% of deaf children are born to hearing families who know little about deafness. Benefits from hearing screening at birth are often lost, as families find little information about pathways for deaf children but are key to ensuring deaf children receive relevant language and communication support. Systems surrounding deaf children and family members are crucial for children's health and social development. Experiences of hearing parents raising deaf children and understanding factors that influence families'experience of navigating pathways for deaf children through health and education servicesare currently underreported. An exploratory study was conducted in Wales, UK. Twenty participants were interviewed, including 10 hearing parents of deaf children and 10 people who work with deaf children using semistructured interviews. Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory was used as a lens to explore the micro-, meso-, exo-, macro- and chronosystems that surround children and families. This study explores potential supports and barriers in those systems. Findings are reported under two broad headings: enablers and barriers. Under enablers, it was found that provision of resources, supporting people and knowledge were key factors. Under barriers, a lack of knowledge, lack of provision and battling services and attitudes were key issues that need addressing. Hearing parents of deaf children in Wales, UK reported experiencing a range of enablers and barriers that impact upon their experiences of raising a deaf child. Further provision is needed by policymakers and governments to recognise support needs to improve the outcomes for deaf children. This project was developed from initial discussions with the stakeholder reference groupand progressed with the group's deaf paneland hearing parents with deaf children. The project's steering group was involved in study design, recruitment and continuous feedback on all stages of the research process.

Experiences of Hearing Children of Deaf Parents in Ireland.

Children of Deaf Adults (CODAs) are uniquely positioned at the intersection between Deaf and hearing communities and often act as interpreters for their parents and hearing individuals. Informed by previous research which has highlighted language brokering as a core element of CODAs' experiences, along with the research which identifies the risk for parentification among CODAs, the aim of this study is to explore CODAs' experiences of their roles within deaf-parented households and beyond the household, at the intersection between the Deaf and hearing worlds. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 CODAs (Mean age 36.33years, Range 22-54years) in Ireland. Three themes were generated from the analysis of the interviews: "It was really normal", Facing the Stigma associated with Deafness, and Being a Language Broker. The findings suggest that healthcare and education providers need a better understanding of the unique situations faced by CODAs in their roles as mediators between their parents and the hearing community, so that children and Deaf parents can be appropriately supported in their interactions with professionals.

Use of pointing in parent-child interactions by hearing children of deaf and hearing parents: A follow-up from 1- to 3-years of age.

Pointing plays a significant role in communication and language development. However, in spoken languages pointing has been viewed as a non-verbal gesture, whereas in sign languages, pointing is regarded to represent a linguistic unit of language. This study compared the use of pointing between seven bilingual hearing children of deaf parents (Kids of Deaf Adults [KODAs]) interacting with their deaf parents and five hearing children interacting with their hearing parents. Data were collected in 6-month intervals from the age of 1;0 to 3;0. Pointing frequency among the deaf parents and KODAs was significantly higher than among the hearing parents and their children. In signing dyads pointing frequency remained stable, whereas in spoken dyads it decreased during the follow-up. These findings suggested that pointing is a fundamental element of parent-child interaction, regardless of the language, but is guided by the modality, gestural and linguistic features of the language in question.

Designing inclusion: a smart learning ecosystem for hearing parents of deaf children

Smart Learning Ecosystems are intelligent, purpose-oriented platforms supporting innovative learning. However, for these ecosystems to be true engines of innovation they should be fully accessible. This vision reflects the inclusion policies underpinning the SDGs of the Agenda 2030 that recommend the adoption of knowledge and technologies to drive a social change in the direction of inclusion and social sustainability. In this paper we present the case of a smart learning ecosystem that brings together hearing parents of deaf children and other stakeholders involved in the care and education of deaf children. After an intense user research based on digital ethnography, interviews, and a questionnaire, a prototype of a digital application supporting learning of the Italian Sign Language and communication among stakeholders was designed and tested. The prototype served the objective to raise awareness about current biases on deafness and the need to stimulate the creation of a culture of inclusion and peer-to-peer learning.

Raising Handshape Awareness

Although previous research shows that the use of rhyme in early language stimulation has a positive impact on children’s sign language development, this area of sign language acquisition has not been adequately researched. 90% of deaf children are born to hearing parents who barely know sign language before their child is born, and yet they are the primary language role models in their child’s life. As L2 sign language users, hearing parents of deaf children teach language skills in their L2 to their deaf child who acquires sign language as one of their L1s. In this article, we focus on the potential application of the Icelandic Sign Language (ÍTM) handshape inventory in both early language intervention with signing children and in teaching ÍTM as an L2. We argue that the handshape inventory can be used as a teaching tool when teaching sign language as M2L2 to hearing adults and as a visual language stimulation tool for signing children (M1L1 or M2L1). The main purpose of using the handshape inventory is to raise phonological awareness of signing children and adults learning sign language. This can be done by explicitly teaching handshapes to adult learners and using signed rhymes in early language stimulation.

175th Anniversary of the American Annals of the Deaf: Part III-1961 to the Present.

175th Anniversary of the American Annals of the Deaf: Part III—1961 to the Present Peter V. Paul The editorial for this issue is the third and final rendition of a celebration of the 175th anniversary of the American Annals of the Deaf. In this issue, I cover the period from 1961 to the present. Much as in the editorials in the two previous celebration issues (Paul, 2022a, 2022b), my initial primary focus was on articles covering various aspects of the development of language and literacy. However, here I have strayed from this original emphasis to discuss other interesting, perhaps groundbreaking articles. The time frame covered by this editorial, and by this special Annals issue, has been marked by stark economic and political events in America. These include the Cuban Missile Crisis, the assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., the emergence of the counterculture of the 1960s, the Vietnam War, the stock market crash of 1987, and the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan—to name a few. Events that have affected the education and social welfare of individuals of color, those with disabilities, and others include the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, better known as Public Law 94-142 (and subsequently amended several times), the American With Disabilities Act, and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. The period since 1961 has also seen the rise of inclusion and the disability rights movement, challenging the utility and effectiveness of special education programs and services and our long-standing perspectives on constructs such as disability and deafness. I could go on—think of the explosive impact of the Internet and the introduction of transformational digital devices (e.g., iPads, iPhones) and social media platforms. Oh yeah, Gallaudet University appointed its first deaf president in 1988. And I was proud to be selected the first deaf editor of the Annals in 2011. Range of topics There was no avoiding the challenge posed by the selection of articles for discussion and the few chosen for reprinting in this issue. Initially, I was intrigued by the titles and quick perusals of 146 articles. This was a smaller number than those I considered for the first celebration issue (194), and much smaller than the total contemplated for the second (338). Looking at issues from 1998 to about 2010, I was captivated by a few of the editorials by the previous Annals editor, Donald F. Moores, covering controversial and interesting topics such as demography (Moores, 2001a), teacher preparation (Moores, 2003), the No Child Left Behind Act (Moores, 2004), and residential schools (Moores, 2009). Several of his editorials on cochlear implants were also of interest (Moores, 2002, 2005, 2008–2009, 2010). Perhaps Moores’s approach and style of writing served as an inspiration for my editorials. [End Page 407] Looking at articles from the inception of my editorship in 2011 to the present, I found it difficult to select articles to read (again!) and discuss or to highlight as reprints. In fact, making selections for the 50 years from 1961 to 2011 was equally difficult because I had read and synthesized a number of articles on a range of topics—such as American Sign Language– English bilingualism, Cued Speech, the developmental differences between deaf children of deaf parents and deaf children of hearing parents, language and literacy development, lipreading/speechreading, signed systems, and vocabulary—in writing my own published works. I hope that some of my readers are familiar with my stances on these issues. Of course, I promise not to say anything more here about the qualitative similarity hypothesis (Wang & Andrews, 2014, 2015). As usual, the Annals contained information on a wide range of topics—not only the above-mentioned cochlear implants (pros and cons!), Cued Speech, inclusion, and digital technology, but also communication and signed systems, instructional television, intelligence (oh, the debates…), internal speech, locus of control, mainstreaming, mathematics, the purpose of science in the curriculum, signed language, speech and hearing issues, Visual Phonics, visual sequential memory, and on and on. Several issues of the Annals provided lists of speech and hearing centers, organizations and associations (National Association of the Deaf, etc...

Hearing parents learning American Sign Language with their deaf children: a mixed-methods survey.

Hearing parents with deaf children face difficult decisions about what language(s) to use with their child. Sign languages such as American Sign Language (ASL) are fully accessible to deaf children, yet most hearing parents are not proficient in ASL prior to having a deaf child. Parents are often discouraged from learning ASL based in part on an assumption that it will be too difficult, yet there is little evidence supporting this claim. In this mixed-methods study, we surveyed hearing parents of deaf children (n=100) who had learned ASL to learn more about their experiences. In their survey responses, parents identified a range of resources that supported their ASL learning as well as frequent barriers. Parents identified strongly with belief statements indicating the importance of ASL and affirmed that learning ASL is attainable for hearing parents. We discuss the implications of this study for parents who are considering ASL as a language choice and for the professionals who guide them.

Language Development and Special Educational Needs of Hearing Children of Deaf Parents

Language Development and Special Educational Needs of Hearing Children of Deaf Parents

Deaf Children of Hearing Parents Have Age-Level Vocabulary Growth When Exposed to American Sign Language by 6 Months of Age

To examine whether children who are deaf or hard of hearing who have hearing parents can develop age-level vocabulary skills when they have early exposure to a sign language. This cross-sectional study of vocabulary size included 78 children who are deaf or hard of hearing between 8 and 68months of age who were learning American Sign Language (ASL) and had hearing parents. Children who were exposed to ASL before 6months of age or between 6 and 36months of age were compared with a reference sample of 104 deaf and hard of hearing children who have parents who are deaf and sign. Deaf and hard of hearing children with hearing parents who were exposed to ASL in the first 6months of life had age-expected receptive and expressive vocabulary growth. Children who had a short delay in ASL exposure had relatively smaller expressive but not receptive vocabulary sizes, and made rapid gains. Although hearing parents generally learn ASL alongside their children who are deaf, their children can develop age-expected vocabulary skills when exposed to ASL during infancy. Children who are deaf with hearing parents can predictably and consistently develop age-level vocabularies at rates similar to native signers; early vocabulary skills are robust predictors of development across domains.

Early language intervention in deaf children of hearing parents

Language development is often hampered by the fact that 90 per cent of deaf children are born into hearing families who do not know Sign language (SL) or haven't had any previous contact with the deaf world. Such parents often use only spoken language to communicate with the child, which results in no or very little language exposure. Many deaf children only start to learn a language, signed or spoken, when they start attending school, usually between the ages of three and seven. As a result, the deaf child has a delay in cognitive and language development and finds it hard to learn a SL, like South African Sign Language (SASL), as well as a written language (e.g., English). This late exposure to SL proves to be a serious cognitive problem for deaf children when compared to those children who acquired language from birth. This problem led to the research question namely, whether deaf children’s language and cognition can still develop to the required level for school readiness if early language intervention (ELI) takes place within the critical period of language acquisition. To answer the question, a case study was done at a school for the deaf and blind with a small group of deaf learners in the foundation phase. The results show that the little language exposure these children received in only one year of school already made a huge difference to their language and cognitive development. This article also makes recommendations to the various stakeholders in deaf education.

Theory of Mind (ToM) Development in Thai Deaf Children.

This study explored theory of mind (ToM) development in school-aged deaf children. To address new questions, we gave a standard, well-controlled false-belief test to a large (n = 200) sample of severely-to-profoundly deaf children aged 8-15years in a non-Western culture (Thailand). There were 190 deaf children of hearing parents and 10 deaf native signers with signing deaf parents, consistent with overall population ratios. Comparing our Thai sample's ToM performance on standard tests of false-belief understanding with that reported in past studies, our results showed a 67% ToM success rate for Thai severely-to-profoundly deaf children of hearing parents similar to collective findings from past research on smaller samples in Australia, Estonia, France, Great Britain, Sweden, and the United States. Our Thai deaf native signers likewise performed equivalently to native signers of similar age studied in past research in Australia and the United States. Collectively, the detailed findings of our study suggest promising new directions for future studies to pursue in order to build upon this novel and theoretically provocative evidence about how ToM development and ToM delay unfold for school-aged deaf children growing up in varied cultures, school settings, and family circumstances.

Understanding the parental experiences of raising deaf children in Ghana

ABSTRACT Effective parenting promotes the physical, emotional, mental and social well-being of children. However, communication barriers between hearing parents and their deaf children can hinder these children’s upbringing and deprive them of the benefits of parental care and support services. While much is known about the challenges faced by persons with disabilities in Ghana, there is a dearth of knowledge about the parental experiences of raising deaf children. Face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 hearing parents of deaf children (3–15 years) to determine how they provided personal care to their deaf children, the support survices available to them and the challenges they faced. The participants spoke about their inability to communicate with their deaf children because they lacked sign language proficiency. This has had adverse impacts on the ability of most of the participants to provide basic skills training or determine their deaf children’s needs. We discuss the need to develop comprehensive support programmes to equip parents with skills to raise their deaf children.

Variables influencing executive functioning in preschool hearing-impaired children implanted within 24\xa0months of age: an observational cohort study

PurposeExecutive Functions (EFs) are fundamental to every aspect of life. The present study was implemented to evaluate factors influencing their development in a group of preschools orally educated profoundly deaf children of hearing parents, who received CI within 2 years of age.MethodsTwenty-five preschool CI children were tested using the Battery for Assessment of Executive Functions (BAFE) to assess their flexibility, inhibition, and non-verbal visuo-spatial working memory skills. The percentage of children performing in normal range was reported for each of the EF subtests. Mann–Whitney and Kruskal–Wallis were performed to assess differences between gender, listening mode, and degree of parents’ education subgroups. The Spearman Rank Correlation Coefficient was calculated to investigate the relationship between EF scores of audiological and linguistic variables.ResultsPercentages ranging from 76 to 92% of the children reached adequate EF scores at BAFE. Significant relations (p < 0.05) were found between EFs and early intervention, listening, and linguistic skills. Furthermore, CI children from families with higher education level performed better at the response shifting, inhibitory control, and attention flexibility tasks. Economic income correlated significantly with flexibility and inhibitory skills. Females performed better than males only in the attention flexibility task.ConclusionsThe present study is one of the first to focus attention on the development of EFs in preschool CI children, providing an initial understanding of the characteristics of EFs at the age when these skills emerge. Clinical practice must pay increasing attention to these aspects which are becoming the new emerging challenge of rehabilitation programs.

Parental Use of Multimodal Cues in the Initiation of Joint Attention as a Function of Child Hearing Status

ABSTRACT In the current study we examine how hearing parents use multimodal cuing to establish joint attention with their hearing (n = 9) or deaf (n = 9) children during a free-play session. The deaf children were all candidates for cochlear implantation who had not yet been implanted, and each hearing child was age-matched to a deaf child. We coded parents’ use of auditory, visual, and tactile cues, alone and in different combinations, during both successful and failed bids for children’s attention. Although our findings revealed no clear quantitative differences in parents’ use of multimodal cues as a function of child hearing status, secondary analyses revealed that hearing parents of deaf children used shorter utterances while initiating joint attention than did hearing parents of hearing children. Hearing parents of deaf children also touched their children twice as often throughout the play session than did hearing parents of hearing children. These findings demonstrate that parents differentially accommodate the specific needs of their hearing and deaf children in subtle ways to establish communicative intent.

La alteridad compleja de la comunidad sorda argentina

Se desarrollan tres partes: una perspectiva general de las relaciones interétnicas y del prejuicio, una visión específica del grupo cultural sordo de la Argentina y, posteriormente, se recorta del tema anterior un núcleo vital para el entendimiento de las relaciones sordos – oyentes centrada en el sector de los hijos oyentes de padres sordos. Mediante un enfoque intercultural-interlingüístico nos interrogamos sobre las relaciones que se instauran entre los actores socioculturales en un espacio interactivo de comunicación. De tal manera, abordamos la confrontación política entre la comunidad sorda y sectores del Estado desde la perspectiva de la interculturalidad, cuyo núcleo es el componente de poder en la situación social porque reformula la multiculturalidad de los contrastes culturales como político-culturales.

The Flemish Sign Language Diagnostic Instrument for Children up to Two Years Old: Adaptation of the ASL VCSL Checklist

The study focused on the adaptation and development of the first diagnostic instrument to assess the visual communication and Flemish Sign Language skills of deaf signing children (age ≤ 24 months). An adaptation of the standardized Visual Communication and Sign Language Check-list for Signing Children (VCSL; Simms et al., 2013) was followed by a pilot study with ten 24-month-old deaf children of different backgrounds who were divided into three cohorts: deaf children of deaf parents, deaf children of hearing parents with a signed input, and deaf children of hearing parents without a signed input. A high degree of agreement was noted between the milestones mastered by the three deaf children of deaf parents and the American Sign Language VCSL item sequence. Differences found between the three cohorts demonstrate the applicability of the Flemish Sign Language adaptation of the VCSL checklist.

“Physiologically, I am hearing, but psychologically, I am Deaf.” Identity: Lived experiences of hearing children born in families with Deafness in South Africa

The aim of this study was to explore hearing children of Deaf adult’s (CODAs) experiences of belonging and affiliation within the Deaf and hearing community. Respondents consisted of 10 CODAs between the ages 21 and 40 years of age, recruited through purposive and snowball sampling. They completed semi-structured interviews on their experiences of belonging and affiliation within the Deaf culture. Thematic analysis of the data revealed two broad themes: (i) being torn between two worlds and (ii) stigma and feelings of embarrassment. Most CODAs affiliate with both cultures, and with a clear preference for the Deaf community. They attributed their preference for the Deaf community from sense of family and deaf language learning. Their sense of embarrassment appeared to be from stigma attached to having Deaf parents as well as using sign language in public. Programs for promoting biculturalism of hearing children of Deaf parents may enhance their self-acceptance and identity development.

Psychological and ethical contexts of diagnosis of hearing children of deaf parents

Ethical and methodologically correct diagnosis of a child hearing Deaf parents requires a specialist with extensive knowledge. In every society there are people who use the visual-spatial language – they are deaf people. They are perceived by the majority as disabled people, less frequently as a cultural minority. The adoption of a particular attitude towards the perception of deafness determines the context of the psychologist’s assessment. Diagnosis in such a specific situation shouldbe viewed from the perspective of a child hearing as a bi-cultural person, a descendant of a Deaf parent – a representative of the Deaf culture and himself a psychologist representing the cultural majority of hearing people.

Implicações da Língua de Sinais na aquisição da escrita de filhos ouvintes de pais surdos

Este artigo tem como objetivo discutir a interferência da língua de sinais na aquisição da linguagem escrita de um sujeito ouvinte (10 anos de idade) filho de mãe surda. A pesquisa foi realizada em uma cidade do interior do Estado do Paraná, onde esse sujeito reside. Trata-se de um estudo de natureza qualitativa, de cunho etnográfico, apoiada em um estudo de caso. Os registros foram coletados por meio de entrevistas realizadas com professores, psicóloga e equipe pedagógica das escolas, onde o sujeito estudou e com o próprio sujeito. Os resultados confirmam a tendência de que a maioria dos filhos ouvintes de pais surdos tornam-se bilíngues, pelo fato de dominarem duas línguas (a de sinais e a língua oral). A língua de sinais incide no processo de aquisição da linguagem escrita desses alunos, visto que, ao internalizarem a estrutura sintática dessa língua e também da língua portuguesa, natural e simultaneamente, pode acarretar a mistura dessas línguas no momento da elaboração da escrita. Tal fato pode gerar consequências negativas no processo escolar, uma vez que os aspectos da cultura surda, vivenciados tanto pelos pais surdos quanto pelos filhos ouvintes, são totalmente negligenciados pela maioria das escolas. Pretende-se, com este artigo, contribuir com a área da Educação ao se destacar que os filhos de pais surdos, ainda que não carreguem o estereótipo da deficiência, necessitam de um olhar especial e diferenciado por parte da escola, a fim de que esses sujeitos não sejam excluídos de um efetivo processo de ensino e aprendizagem.