American Annals of the Deaf最新文献

For most young people, social capital plays an important role in transitioning to postsecondary education and employment. For youth who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH), social capital can mitigate negative effects of challenges they will likely encounter after high school. In phase 2 of a two-phase qualitative study in Australia, we investigated DHH young adults' perspectives on how DHH adolescents could best be supported to develop and use social capital to benefit their postschool transition. Nine university students whose primary communication mode was spoken language participated in semistructured interviews, discussing practical ways educators and families could assist DHH high school students. We close by recommending ways schools and families can facilitate social capital development of DHH adolescents in preparation for postsecondary education and employment. Importantly, this research gives voice to young DHH adults with the objective of improving DHH adolescents' outcomes.

This study investigated writing achievement in a Canadian cohort of school-aged deaf learners (N = 64). In the current context, in which most students are educated in inclusive settings and use hearing technologies, the goal was to establish whether outcomes approach those of hearing-age peers and identify demographic factors (e.g., gender, grade, additional disability, home language, hearing loss, hearing technology, auditory perception) influencing performance. Results indicated that a high percentage of participants performed in the average range or higher on a standardized, norm-referenced assessment, the Test of Written Language-Fourth Edition (TOWL-4, Hammill & Larsen, 2009). Grade, type of hearing loss, higher auditory perception scores, and absence of an additional disability were identified as variables of significance. As auditory access continues to improve, additional investigations of writing achievement in this population will be essential to further inform educational policy and pedagogical practice.

Transitioning to virtual learning environments during the COVID-19 pandemic made the numerous obstacles faced by deaf and hard of hearing students more apparent, and created new challenges for all involved. From this experience, much knowledge was gained that can continue to be implemented and researched to provide better access and accommodations for ongoing online education. In the present article, we introduce an American Annals of the Deaf Special Issue whose contributing authors offer a response to the challenges experienced by deaf education researchers, administrators, policymakers, faculty, and other educators in areas ranging from early childhood to higher education, as well as students and families, because of the abrupt transition to virtual learning. This Special Issue provides perspectives, strategies, and scenarios that can enhance deaf education across age and grade ranges and augment the research and literature base of online learning in deaf education.

The African worldview of Ubuntu predates Vygotskian theory, but the Ubuntu view that the community defines the person aligns uncannily with Vygotsky's biosocial proposition and contemporary conceptions of deaf ontology and epistemology. Unlike prevailing Euro-American thought, Ubuntu accentuates the view that it is not any physical or psychological characteristic of the individual that defines personhood. Instead, Ubuntu aphorisms, the containers of meaning in African epistemology, indicate that the reality of the communal world is at least equal if not superior to individual life histories. The author teases out similarities between Vygotskian thought and Ubuntu, illustrating deaf children's development along a different axis, facilitated by a holistic, diversified biosocial process in which neither their deafness nor disability indicates inferiority or coloniality. Grounded on the African principle No language is complete without other languages, the present article contributes to a nascent indigenous theorization of contemporary deaf education.

The SKI-HI Deaf Mentor Program is an early intervention model that supports families in creating an effective bilingual environment (American Sign Language [ASL]/English) with their deaf or hard of hearing child. The program can be adopted and implemented in any state. A Deaf Mentor is a deaf or hard of hearing adult specifically trained to engage with and teach families ASL using the Deaf Mentor Curriculum Manual. The program and materials were created for face-to-face delivery to families in home settings. When COVID-19 lockdowns and stay-at-home orders went into place in March 2020, Deaf Mentors had to think creatively to provide services to families virtually. This created a variety of challenges as well as new learning opportunities. The authors discuss both the challenges and positive experiences shared by Deaf Mentors about shifting family services to a virtual platform.

The authors examine the effects of American Sign Language (ASL) on English reading achievement and English reading comprehension. A systematic review of relevant primary research and research-integrated journal articles was conducted. Based on interpretations of a few salient articles and other sources (e.g., books) selected in a professional review, background on the ASL-English situation is provided. The authors discuss whether the findings reflect a pattern or suggest instructional implications for improving English reading comprehension. Also discussed is whether the findings are confounded by a lack of desirable research characteristics associated with sample sociodemography, teacher-student interactions, or school environment. The article concludes with recommendations for further research to examine the merits of ASL-English approaches or bilingual programs, focusing on improvement of the English reading skills of d/Deaf and hard of hearing children and adolescents.

The discussion on the role of American Sign Language (ASL) in deaf students' reading development has been long and contentious. The students' limited knowledge of English has been commonly perceived as a culprit in making reading difficult. However, a more nuanced explanation of reading performance and its relationship with competence in ASL's potential role is needed. In the present study, multivariate analyses of the variance in the ASL and English comprehension performance of 91 middle school students at an ASL-English bilingual school revealed some important insights. Inference-making skills in ASL are an important predictor. For the students with hearing parents, the quality of communicative access at home contributed significantly to the overall explanation of the variance in English passage comprehension; along with the age at exposure to ASL, it accounted for a large part of the variance in the ASL passage comprehension.

Few studies exist on the reading habits of the deaf population, and most of those that do were published more than 20 years ago. Hence, changes in reading habits due to the availability to the deaf population of online reading material and portable electronic devices have likely occurred. Additionally, in the hearing population, confinement causes changes in reading habits. We used an online questionnaire to compare the reading habits of 102 deaf and hard of hearing adult residents of Spain both before and during COVID-19 confinement. In general, more reading occurred during confinement, although not all participants showed this pattern: Regular readers read more during lockdown. Motivations for reading were largely unaffected by confinement. Furthermore, the time spent reading was not related to the availability of books at home: More was read in digital format during confinement.