American Annals of the Deaf最新文献

The researchers investigated how teachers perceive the inclusion of deaf and hard of hearing (D/hh) students in mainstream classrooms in Saudi Arabia. They also examined how teachers' perception of this inclusion is influenced by their position (as a teacher in special or mainstream education). The researchers collected 196 teacher responses using an existing online survey (partly open-ended). They found that, overall, teachers in Saudi Arabia had slightly negative perceptions of teaching D/hh students in mainstream classrooms. But their teaching position did not seem to influence their perceptions. The researchers recommend that efforts be made to reduce negative perceptions of inclusion as a teaching practice in Saudi Arabia. Teachers working with D/hh children in mainstream schools should receive enough training to work successfully with these students. Awareness should be raised of inclusion's benefits and how inclusion differs from mainstream education.

The language wars have driven decision-making and educational options for D/deaf and hard of hearing children for over a century, yet we still have not made sufficient progress in closing the linguistic and educational gaps between D/deaf and hard of hearing children and their hearing peers. Perhaps it is time to abandon the bifurcated approach that has driven our field since the infamous Milan Conference of 1880. This commentary explores how a "Radical Middle" approach can frame the way we prepare teachers of the deaf, how we conduct and disseminate research, how we support families, and how the D/deaf and hearing communities can work together in positive and proactive ways. There is strength in unity. We are stronger as a field when we come together to support one another and find ways for collaboration and partnership across philosophical lines and communication preference.

In this concluding article of an American Annals of the Deaf Special Issue, we draw on Vygotsky's Fundamentals of Defectology to argue that the essence of deaf pedagogy is not centered on constructing deaf students' hearing abilities but on a biosocial orientation that considers the whole multimodal child with unfettered access to natural signed languages. In alignment with this biosocial view, we recognize and resist the overarching influence of biomedical professionals and systems on deaf education. Such biomedical influence comes with convenient detachment from accountability in education systems while arguably causing at least significant, if not maximal, harm to the optimal developmental outcomes of deaf children. The article ties together the articles of the Annals Special Issue, along with additional Vygotskian perspectives, to bring forth the emergence and exploration of biosocial accountability in deaf education.

For much of the history of deaf education, spoken language bilingualism was not considered a viable goal. It was believed that given the challenges of meaningful auditory access, age-appropriate development in even one language would be daunting. However, implementation of universal newborn hearing screening during the early 2000s, along with early fitting of hearing technologies, including cochlear implants, has afforded significantly improved access to spoken language during the critical early years of language acquisition for most deaf children. In this context, it is timely to reconsider the possibilities of spoken language bilingualism in the education of deaf students. The present article therefore focuses on examining the available literature with a view to summarizing current understandings and reflecting on how these understandings can inform future research and practice and the multiple ways in which bilingualism can be operationalized in the education of deaf students.

When the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, teachers around the United States shifted to distance learning practically overnight. In both general education and special education, many teachers did not have tools or strategies in place to provide deaf students with accessible lessons and support. Teachers needed to change their materials quickly and clearly in order to meet the needs of all their students in the new distance format. The unique needs of deaf and hard of hearing students meant that unique accommodations and solutions needed to be considered and used for the distance learning formats. In the present article, we provide an overview of the challenges schools faced in the quick move to distance learning, present the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), and give some examples of ways in which UDL can benefit students who are deaf in distance learning.

The objective of the study was to analyze the pragmatic competence of children with cochlear implants (CIs). The researchers explored whether children with CIs participated in communicative exchanges in a similar way to children with typical hearing (TH), as well as how the participation of children with CIs was regulated by the activity they performed. The sample consisted of 31 children with CIs (prelingually deaf, with a hearing age equal to or greater than 2 years) and 31 children with TH. The researchers used two activities to carry out the study: conversation and picture naming. The results showed that the children with CIs participated in longer communicative exchanges than their peers with TH and had greater difficulty providing adequate responses to their interlocutor. The type of linguistic activity and their hearing age influenced the responses of the children with CIs.