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• There is evidence of significant differences in vocabulary knowledge between deaf children and hearing peers of the same age. • Significant differences were found between hearing and deaf students in their percentile and standard scores on a lexical comprehension task. • The results indicate the need for lexical intervention for deaf students in the final years of primary school. Special attention should be paid to taxonomic nouns, mentalistic terms and words which serve to define essential semantic features of other words. Vocabulary knowledge is an essential element in language development. There is evidence of significant differences in vocabulary knowledge between deaf children and hearing peers of the same age. These differences put deaf students at a disadvantage when compared to their hearing counterparts. The aim of this study was to investigate whether certain types of words characterise the lexical difficulties of deaf students. Our starting point is that this knowledge is needed to design interventions that are adapted to the particular needs of these students for their lexical development. We evaluated the lexical comprehension of 90 Spanish students. The sample comprised 45 hearing students and 45 students with severe or profound hearing loss. Both groups were attending the later years of primary school (8 to –12-year-olds). They were tested using the Spanish Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-III. The performance of both groups was statistically compared using percentiles and standard scores as well as a selected set of words from the test. No significant differences between hearing and deaf groups were found by age, sex, and sociocultural level. Significant differences were found between groups in their percentile and standard scores. There were no significant differences in performance between the two groups on only five of the 25 words with the highest error rate in the deaf group. The qualitative analysis of the remaining 20 words that were especially challenging for deaf students reveals results of interest which could help guide interventions. The results indicate the need for lexical intervention for deaf students in the final years of primary school. The specialised support service for deaf learners should approach the intervention by targeting a specific type of vocabulary, making the semantic relationships between these words more transparent and promoting a deeper understanding of them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes the narrative competences of deaf and hearing students in bilingual contexts in Spain and Italy. The results show that Italian deaf and hearing students write longer and more complex texts compared to Spanish students, and they use evaluative devices more frequently. There are no significant differences between Italian deaf and hearing students in the use of subordinate clauses and evaluative devices related to internal-mental states. Questions are raised about the influence of bilingual school contexts on textual and narrative competences, and a descriptive methodology that combines quantitative and qualitative aspects is used. The article concludes that the bilingual model and the teaching of sign language in the Italian context can positively influence the development of narrative competences in deaf students. [Extracted from the article]

SINCE TELEVISION CAPTIONING first became available in Spain, advances have occurred on two fronts: a progressive increase in the number of programs with captions and improved captioning technology. The present study explores the effectiveness of captioning through analysis of deaf viewers' comprehension, taking into account the contribution of the program's verbal and visual information. The study participants, comprising two groups of deaf students at different educational stages, were asked to explain what they had understood after watching a film under two conditions: voice and sound but without captions: and voice, sound, and captions. Results indicate that deaf students have difficulty accessing the information even under the voice/sound/caption condition, not only due to their level of reading ability, but also to the speed of caption presentation when oral content is literally transcribed on the screen in its entirety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]