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Cochlear implantation in children with hearing impairment (HI) have demonstrated significant outcomes in the areas of spoken language development and education. However, it has been reported that children with cochlear implant (CI) have variable performance in regular educational settings. Therefore, the aim of study is to understand the issues related to classroom performance in children with cochlear implant from a teacher's point of view. Children with cochlear implant placed in mainstream education were recruited for the study. The class teacher filled out a questionnaire that was developed which included 14 domains that was identified based on previous literature. The results indicated significant lacunae in the areas of communication, listening, and social interaction, use of appropriate compensatory strategies, test taking skills, reading, and writing. Children with CI exhibited considerable deficits in mainstream education. However, the study highlighted the potential areas that required professional support to cope with mainstream education. The results of the study can also help to enhance teacher education and thereby facilitate better learning opportunities for children with CI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study we explored the revision process and strategies implemented by deaf and hearing students who attend the same bilingual school context (LIS and Italian). For that we analysed and compared the types and quality of revisions made by deaf and hearing participants to their first draft of a narrative text (‘Frog, Where Are You?’) in order to produce their final draft. Results show that there were no significant differences in the revision process and actions of deaf students compared to hearing students. However, the deaf writers made more changes to their texts than their hearing counterparts. Furthermore, that bilinguism does not appear to interfere with the development of narrative writing skills and revision strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study investigates what competencies are needed by teachers of children who are deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH), in the changing circumstances of their profession in Jordan. One hundred and five teachers of children who are DHH from kindergarten up to primary grade took part in this study. A scale was developed in order to achieve the goals of the study. The results revealed that the teachers’ competencies on the development of Instructional Planning Strategies subscale ranked first as the most important teaching competency that teachers need to develop. Competencies in definitions and communication skills, assessment, managing the classroom environment, and team working ranked lower, with developing positive attitude ranked the last. Moreover, the results showed that there were significant differences at (α = 0.05) according to school type in favour of private schools, according to educational settings in favour of local public schools (inclusion settings), and according to teachers’ background in favour of ordinary teachers with general teaching qualifications. Based on the findings, appropriate recommendations for the educational system of the DHH in Jordan were outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Objective: There are very few measures of language development in spoken Greek that can be used with young deaf children. This study investigated the use of Cyprus Lexical List (CYLEX), a receptive and expressive vocabulary assessment based on parent report that has recently been adapted to Standard Greek, to measure the vocabulary development of deaf Greek-speaking children with cochlear implants. Design: A Standard Greek version of CYLEX was used to collect data on receptive and expressive vocabulary development from parents of thirteen deaf children with cochlear implants aged between 21 and 71 months. These data were compared with data collected previously from typically developing hearing Greek-speaking children. Results: Use of the test by parents of deaf children was found to be reliable. No correlation was found between children's vocabulary scores and chronological age. A positive correlation was however found between children's post-implant age and expressive vocabulary. The vocabulary skills of implanted children with a mean post-implant age of 20 months were not significantly different from those of typically developing hearing children of similar chronological age. Conclusion: CYLEX is a reliable and useful tool for exploring vocabulary development with this clinical group. Findings confirm the results of other studies in indicating that the vocabulary size of implanted pre-school-aged deaf children is related to the amount of time that children have used their implant, rather than chronological age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the important elements of the therapy of young hearing-impaired children is rehabilitation camps. They accelerate the process of language and communication skills acquisition. In the current social-legal and financial situation organisers of rehabilitation camps may encounter some difficulties. The aim of the research was an attempt to determine the role of rehabilitation camps by means of a diagnosis of their effectiveness using parents' and therapists' opinions and objective results of progress in the development of hearing, communication and language skills in children. The research demonstrated effectiveness of rehabilitation camps in the scope discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report an analysis of lexical noun phrases (NPs) in narrative and expository texts written by Dutch deaf individuals from a bimodal bilingual perspective. Texts written by Dutch deaf children and adults who are either proficient in Sign Language of the Netherlands (SLN) or low-proficient in SLN were compared on structures that either overlap in Dutch and SLN (presence of overt subject and object NPs, NP modifiers, and NP-internal agreement), or are absent in SLN (articles). We found that deaf participants experienced significant difficulty with lexical NPs. Further, deaf proficiently signing children (but not adults) more often omitted obligate articles than deaf low-proficiently signing children. Deaf proficiently signing children and adults did not differ from low-proficiently signing children and adults, however, in the use of NP modifiers, NP-agreement errors and omissions of obligatory NPs. We conclude that proficiency in sign language seems to affect particularly those aspects that differ substantially across sign language and oral language, in this case, articles. We argue that adopting a bimodal bilingual approach is important to understand the writing of deaf children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interest in research on Estonian Sign Language, or eesti viipekeel (EVK), has been increasing. Studies have been conducted on different aspects of EVK, such as ways of expressing time (Trükmann 2006) and color terms (Hollman and Sutrop 2007, Hollman 2008). Moreover, EVK has lately received more attention in legislation. The language obtained an official status in 2007, which the Deaf community greatly appreciated. Therefore, an overview of the Estonian Deaf community and EVK should be given in order to identify the areas that have been studied and those that have not received much attention. The main aspects of the Deaf community covered in this article are as follows: history, members, and Deaf associations. The distinguishing features of the language used by the Deaf community are also described, and Deaf children's educational options in Estonia are explained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A directory lists schools in the U.S. that provide educational services for the deaf and hard of hearing including the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind, The Alaska State School for the Deaf and Blind, and the Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind is presented.

Action theory and the qualitative action-project method are used in this study to address and illustrate the complexity of parenting children who have received cochlear implants (CIs) as well as the intentionality of parents engaged in that process. "Action" refers to individual and joint goal-directed and intentional behaviors. Action theory has the advantage of using the perspectives provided by manifest behavior, internal processes, and social meaning in the analysis of action. Two cases are used to describe the individual and joint actions and projects, as related to parents' involvement in the habilitation process of children's postcochlear implantation. These joint projects are described at the levels of meanings/goals, functional processes, behaviors, structural support, and resources. From the rich descriptions and analysis of the cases, we draw potentially illuminative implications for the "current thinking" in relation to parenting children with CIs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the role of mode of acquisition (MoA) of word meanings in reading comprehension: children acquire word meanings using perceptual information (e.g., hearing, seeing, or smelling the referent) and/or linguistic information (e.g., verbal explanations). A total of 72 deaf and 99 hearing children between 7 and 15 years of age performed a self-paced reading task. Comprehension scores increased with age in both groups, but reading speed increased over age only for the hearing participants. For both groups, reading times on linguistically acquired words were longer than on perceptually acquired words. Although deaf children scored lower than hearing children in both conditions, comprehension scores for both groups were lower on linguistic items than on perceptual items. Thus, MoA influences reading comprehension, but the deaf show difficulty on both the perceptual and the linguistic items. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1999, Mary Brennan wrote "By recognising the child as, in effect, a 'little linguist' we are also recognising the power and effectiveness of the child's linguistic capacity" (Brennan, 1999). The recognition of the power and effectiveness of deaf children's linguistic capacity needs to be taken a step further. Focus should be on the conditions in the children's environments necessary to develop their linguistic capacity to its fullest potential and to enhance the use of this capacity in academic and social learning. This leads to the issue of the identification of the right language and instructional mix for deaf children, the topic that is addressed in this article. Essential in this process of identification are the educational objectives parents of deaf children have and the choices they make. This is related to a second issue, that of professional advice. Both issues are characterized by several dilemmas. These dilemmas are illustrated and directions are put for- ward that will enable educators to negotiate these dilemmas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Surveys of 163 preservice, novice, and experienced teachers of students who are deaf and hard-of-hearing addressed practical knowledge and adherence to classroom rules of practice (brief statements of how to behave in frequently encountered teaching situations) and practical principles (general constructs about expectations of students). No significant differences were found among the three groups in their adherence to rules of practice about structuring of lessons, engagement of students with the curriculum, principles of classroom management and lesson planning, and lesson procedures. Significant differences were found for practical principles such as expectations for student achievement, ability of students to take responsibility for their education, and classroom deportment; preservice teachers had the highest expectations, and experienced teachers had the lowest. These findings raise several questions that are explored in this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compares the patterns of educational placements of implanted profoundly deaf children, hearing-aided profoundly deaf children and hearing-aided severely deaf children. Categories of educational placement used; Difference between the educational placement of implanted children and hearing-aided profoundly deaf children; Distribution of educational placements among age-matched groups of deaf children.

The article highlights the experimental diagnostic teaching clinic for hearing impaired children. A diagnostic teaching program was designed to correlate educational judgments of medical and paramedical personnel with those of teachers. The diagnostic teaching program was characterized by several unique features. Such features include a 1-1 teacher pupil ratio for 11 children, immediate attention to amplification needs, seminar sessions for teacher personnel conducted by an audiologist and psychologist, and provisions for medical or diagnostic reports as needed by the teachers. Each session, from which individual diagnostic teaching took place daily, was followed by group activities conducted by teacher aides. The evaluations by the teachers also included the administration on various tests, which were incorporated into the daily program.

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses articles in the issue on topics including education of deaf children, training and competences that teachers need to teach the deaf students, and review the literature on deaf pupils who also have autism.

The article focuses on the education of the deaf child. In order to teach the deaf child the meanings and use of natural, fluent, correct language, the teacher must be thoroughly familiar with the psychology of subject. The teacher must begin with the stages of learning to make the subject easy to learn.

The article reports that the Executive Committee of the Council on Education of the Deaf in the United States have approved a scheme for the proper individualized educational programs for deaf and hearing impaired children. The council is composed of representatives from the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf, the Conference of Executives of American Schools for the Deaf, and the American Instructors for the Deaf.