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Copyright of Education & Science / Egitim ve Bilim is the property of Turkish Education Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Historically, the valuing of deaf children's voices on their own schooling has been underrepresented in educational policies, curriculum frameworks and discursive practices and, in particular, in the debates and controversies surrounding oralism and Irish Sign Language in deaf education in Ireland. This article discusses children's everyday lived experiences of oralism and Irish Sign Language using ethnographic interviews and observational methods. The data yielded narrative understandings of how deaf children's schooling experiences served as a cauldron for the development of time, space and relational domains for individual and collective self-expression, cultural production and reproduction of the secret lore and understandings of Irish Sign Language and development of a hidden curriculum of sign language in a policy and practice context dominated by oralism. This paper concludes with recommendations for the development of a sign bilingual curriculum across the full scope and sequence of schooling in Ireland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new test, the ASL Receptive Skills Test (ALS-RST), adapted from the BSL Receptive Skills Test (BSL-RST), was administered to 160 deaf children, ages 3-5, as part of the Early Education Longitudinal Study conducted by the Science of Learning Center on Visual Language and Visual Learning. An analysis of the test's psychometric properties was conducted. The results support the use of the ASL-RST for measuring ASL grammatical knowledge for developing signers at this young age level. The overall reliability of the test across all age groups was .96. An ANOVA revealed significant differences among sample age groups, as well as significant differences among groups of children differentiated by whether their families reported regularly using sign in the home. An analysis of items grouped by the grammatical feature that determined the structure of the ASL-RST showed systematic gains by age and systematic differentiation by the degree of grammatical complexity represented by the items. These grammatical differences in score performance are discussed from a developmental perspective in light of the current research literature on ASL acquisition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Subject of this article are the three main forms of education of children with special educational needs - the individual, differentiated and integrated forms. Focusing on the most important positive and negative characteristics of these forms, the idea is being defended that they are interrelated, complementary and should be used in combination but not opposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study assessed Theory of Mind (ToM) abilities in a group of oral deaf children and in their hearing mothers using a battery of ToM tasks. It also investigated the connection between mother and child in ToM performance. Participants were: 17 oral deaf children (aged 5 to 14 years) were paired by gender, age, and mental age with 17 hearing children; 17 hearing mothers of deaf children and 17 hearing mothers of hearing children. Compared to the hearing children, the deaf children faced difficulties in all ToM tests, and the hearing mothers of the deaf children were less capable than the mothers of the hearing children in all the ToM tests. Further, a specific ToM interaction model was found between the hearing mothers and the deaf children. The results confirmed ToM poor performance faced by the oral deaf children, showed the ToM level of hearing mothers of deaf children, and the ToM style of hearing mothers-deaf children dyads. Also, findings underline some educational implications related to the socio-relational origin of the ToM deficit in oral deaf children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Acta Comportamentalia is the property of Instituto de Psicologia y Educacion de la Universidad Veracruzana and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Abstract: Deaf children have significant difficulties in comprehending written text. This is mainly due to the hearing loss that prevents them from being exposed to oral language when they were an infant. However, it is also due to the type of educational intervention they are faced with, which accustoms them to decoding single words and isolated sentences, rather than entire texts. This paper presents an evolved version of a literacy web tool for deaf children based on stories and comprehension exercises. Two substantial improvements were made with the respect to the first version of our application. First, the text of the stories is now presented to children in the context of animated web pages. Second, intelligent dynamic feedback is given to the users when resolving the exercises. A preliminary evaluation study with deaf children, as the treatment group, and hearing children, as the control group, assessed the usability and effectiveness of the new system and its graphical interface. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This article explores the role of the Deaf child as peer educator. In schools where sign languages were banned, Deaf children became the educators of their Deaf peers in a number of contexts worldwide. This paper analyses how this peer education of sign language worked in context by drawing on two examples from boarding schools for the deaf in Nicaragua and Thailand. The argument is advanced that these practices constituted a child-led oppositional pedagogy. A connection is drawn to Freire's () theory of critical pedagogy. Deaf children's actions as peer educators are framed as an act of resistance towards the oppression of their language and culture. A contrast is drawn between oralist pedagogy that is historically associated with punitive practices and didactic methods and the experiential and dialogic interaction that characterised peer learning of sign languages. The argument is made that the peer teaching and learning processes enabled the self-actualisation of the Deaf children whereas the oralist methods were based on a deficit model that focused on modifying deaf children according to the norms of hearing society. The implications of this for current policy and practice are inferred to be about access to sign languages and the importance of Deaf communities in deaf children's education. The argument is made that space needs to be created for deaf children to engage in peer learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Background: Only a small number of longitudinal studies have been conducted to assess the literacy skills of children with hearing impairment. The results of these studies are inconsistent with regard to the importance of phonology in reading acquisition as is the case in studies with hearing children. Colin, Magnan, Ecalle, and Leybaert (2007) revealed the important role of early phonological skills and the contribution of the factor of age of exposure to Cued Speech (CS: a manual system intended to resolve the ambiguities inherent to speechreading) to subsequent reading acquisition (from kindergarten to first grade) in children with deafness. The aim of the present paper is twofold: (1) to confirm the role of early exposure to CS in the development of the linguistic skills necessary in order to learn reading and writing in second grade; (2) to reveal the possible existence of common factors other than CS that may influence literacy performances and explain the inter-individual difference within groups of children with hearing impairment. Method: Eighteen 6-year-old hearing-impaired and 18 hearing children of the same chronological age were tested from kindergarten to second grade. The children with deafness had either been exposed to CS at an early age, at home and before kindergarten (early-CS group), or had first been exposed to it when they entered kindergarten (late-CS group) or first grade (beginner-CS group). Children were given implicit and explicit phonological tasks, silent reading tasks (word recognition and sentence comprehension), word spelling, and vocabulary tasks. Results: Children in the early-CS group outperformed those of the late-CS and beginner-CS groups in phonological tasks from first grade to second grade. They became better readers and better spellers than those from the late-CS group and the beginner-CS group. Their performances did not differ from those of hearing children in any of the tasks except for the receptive vocabulary test. Thus early exposure to CS seems to permit the development of linguistic skills necessary in order to learn reading and writing. The possible contribution of other factors to the acquisition of literacy skills by children with hearing impairment will be discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Copyright of Imagens da Educação is the property of Universidade Estadual de Maringa and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The sign INSTITUTE is the source of a family of ASL signs that are used to refer to residential schools for deaf children and to other institutions. The members of the INSTITUTE sign family-although initialized-are well-established within the Deaf community and, importantly, are used to refer to highly-valued aspects of Deaf culture. This is true despite the fact that initialized signs are sometimes rejected within the Deaf community. We examine the etymology of the sign INSTITUTE and suggest two plausible hypotheses for its origin. In analyzing the etymology of the sign INSTITUTE and its derivatives, we consider historical changes in how state residential schools for deaf children were named in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For all families with deaf children, choosing communication methods is a complex and evolving business. This process is particularly complex for migrant background families, who must not only negotiate the role that speaking or signing will play in their communication practices, but also which spoken language(s) will be used – that of the host society or the heritage language? For many years, it was believed that oral language maintenance was an impossible goal for deaf children. However, recent advances in cochlear implant and hearing aid technology may make language maintenance a more achievable goal. This article reviews the literature and results from a case study of seven migrant background families with deaf children to shed light on the language practices evolving in migrant families with deaf children and the benefits and difficulties inherent in language maintenance with this population. It shows that a number of factors affect the degree to which deaf children are able to develop fluency in the heritage language, such as type of hearing loss and age at cochlear implantation. Regardless of the level of proficiency dveloped, it shows that attempting language maintenance has a positive effect on family relationships, communication and participation in the ethnic community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much of the debates in late nineteenth-century Britain regarding the education of deaf children revolved around communication. For many Victorians, sign language was unacceptable; many proponents of oralism attempted to ‘normalise’ the hearing impaired by replacing deaf methods of communication with spoken language and lipreading. While debates on language were raging in late nineteenth-century England, another facet of normalisation, that of occupational training, was being developed at St John’s Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, the only Catholic deaf school in England. This school not only functioned to develop the Catholic faith of the deaf, but also expected to improve the social and economic status of deaf Catholics. Elementary education, and particularly occupational training, was meant to transform the deaf child into a faith-filled, respectable, working-class citizen. This essay aims at moving the normalisation debates away from language skills and towards this alternative mode of integration. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The qualitative study described in this article examines the knowledge of basic concepts demonstrated by six young deaf children* with high/low levels of mathematical ability as measured by performance on a formal (i.e. Bracken Basic Concept Scale) and informal (i.e. classification/sorting task) assessment. Findings indicate that children with lower mathematics ability, as measured by the Test of Early Mathematics Ability (TEMA-3), also demonstrated limited understanding of basic concepts and weaker thinking skills as evidenced by a lack of ability to categorise or classify at a level comparable to their more mathematically able peers. Such performance suggests that a foundation in basic concept knowledge and thinking skills may be critical to the development of early numeracy skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In May 2011 National Deaf Children's Society (NDCS) investigations revealed that almost one in five English local authorities were cutting vital specialist education services for vulnerable deaf children, despite the education budget being protected by the Government. This article looks in detail at why specialist education support for deaf children is so important, at the cuts that have been made and the impact they are having on deaf children and their teachers across the country [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hearing-impaired children need extra help when learning new words and concepts. Because they cannot truly understand and perceive all the information they hear or read, a very effective method is to use images and sign language during the learning process. aSIGNment helps in pro- viding an education for hearing-impaired children, starting from preschool, by using technology to bring a new way in meeting their needs during the learning process and in obtaining the supervision of a qualifed educator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Achievement in mathematics is an issue of great concern not only to students and parents but also to employers and researchers in Kenya. This is because the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) has continuously reported dismal results in this area, and especially in geometry. Also, KNEC indicates that it presents difficulties to both the teachers and learners during instructional sessions. In an extension of research demonstrating causal effects of electronic learning environments on special education learners' achievement and perceptions of mathematics instruction, the present study experimentally examined the effectiveness of a special electronic learning program (SELP) to improve hearing-impaired learners' achievement of basic geometry and their perception of the Geometry learning environment. Sixty-six hearing-impaired learners from four special education schools situated in Rift Valley province were sampled purposively on the basis of the school's accessibility to participate in the study. The study employed the Solomon-Four Group Design research method. The specific dependent measures were the learners' achievement in geometry and their perception of the classroom learning environment. Measurement of achievement and perception were conducted using two instruments: (i) the Geometry Achievement Test (GAT), and (ii) the Special Learners Classroom Environment Questionnaire (SLCEQ). GAT's reliability was computed using K-R20 formula yielding a reliability of 0.78. On the other hand, SLCEQ reliability was determined using Cronbach alpha yielding a reliability coefficient of 0.82. The study established that SELP was modestly effective in improving the achievement of hearing-impaired learners on geometry and their perception of the classroom environment. The study concludes that teachers can arrest the special learners' problem of poor performance in geometry through the use of electronic learning programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes a development work whose focus was examining whether designing a game as an educational technology based on interdisciplinary dialogue between design and education can contribute to education of deaf children in learning a language. Through methods and techniques of design it was sought to identify how this area of knowledge can be part of the processes of teaching and learning in terms of developing learning materials to enhance the strategies of acquiring knowledge. The work was guided by the Multi-Tracks, which is a game to help the acquisition of a second language by deaf children. This game was developed in light of methods and techniques of design, under the Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Design/Education - LIDE, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in partnership with the National Institute of Education for the Deaf in Rio de Janeiro-INES/RJ. The development work was particularly interested in designing learning materials for deaf children by considering their special traits and dialogue with the surrounding reality. Considering that educational technology research in special education is rather weak, it was thought that this work may contribute to this interdisciplinary area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies demonstrated a positive relationship between deaf children's ASL acquisition and their English literacy skills and the importance of parental language input. This study examined the role of mothers' ASL skill in the English literacy skills of their deaf children. Mothers and their deaf children in grades six through nine took the TGJASL-R. Correlations were performed to determine if a relationship exists between the mothers' ASL skill level, and the children's English literacy measured by the STAR test. No significant relationship was found; marginal significance was found between the students' ASL skill and their English literacy score. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bushenyi District Education Department in Uganda, east Africa, is supporting 123 deaf children registered in 14 units attached to primary schools—eight per cent of deaf children in Bushenyi. Yet fewer than two per cent of deaf children attend school in Uganda as a whole. The history of this ground-breaking, parent-led, yet government-funded, community-based initiative is explored in the light of global efforts to promote Education for All. It is argued that government commitment to teacher education, parent involvement and Sign Language development has led to more positive attitudes towards deaf children and their right to attend school in their communities. Furthermore, community involvement is essential in achieving quality education for all for deaf and disabled children, and attempts to implement Northern policies and practices on inclusive education are likely to fail. The imaginative use of community-based human resources can lead to more genuine forms of educational inclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Through reviewing existing documentation and conducting interview, this article reconstructs the history of deaf education in Hong Kong in the early days, investigates how the development of Hong Kong Sign Language was related to the language policies different deaf schools, and finds out deaf people's view on the issue of medium of instruction. According to the information collected, formal deaf education in Hong Kong began in 1935 with the establishment of the first deaf school. Although that school prohibited the use of signs, deaf children spontaneously developed a gestural system of communication among themselves due to the pressing needs for communication. This gestural communication system can he viewed as an early from of sign language, ht the postwar period, the number of deaf schools gradually increased. Some of them introduced the Nanjing/Shanghai variety of Chinese Sign Language, which influenced the subsequent development of Hong Kong Sign Language. Through our interviews, we found that the majority of the deaf interviewees, whether they graduated from oral or signing schools, fell that the use of sign language could enhance their learning and that they could turn back time, they wished their hearing teachers could use sign language as the medium of instruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to emphasize the importance of Romanian Sign Language research for the improvement of the communication between the Deaf and the hearing in general and for the education of deaf children and training of interpreters in particular. The article also briefly presents the work we have undertaken in this respect, pointing out several theoretical aspects related to the morphology of Romanian Sign Language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deaf children in the United States who are fluent in American Sign Language and proficient in written English are bilingual, but often those skills must be taught directly in the school setting. This paper explores the development and initial field testing of a system designed to connect technology with tangible books to create interactive stories that model both languages. Interviews with teachers and observations of the students were analyzed. Results indicate that the prototype is feasible to use in classrooms for the Deaf and that it is engaging to the children. Additional research is recommended to test for the effect on literacy development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Four-year-old Olivia, who is deaf and has used a cochlear implant for 3 years, and her mother, Laura, enjoy looking at storybooks together at home. During storybook reading, Laura notices that Olivia tries to imitate some words that she reads to her yet does not seem to understand many words or story events. Laura is unsure whether to stop the storybook interaction and encourage Olivia’s attempts at word imitation and directly teach her the new vocabulary or continue reading the story for pleasure. Olivia’s preschool teacher, Ms. Lynn, also notices that Olivia displays a keen interest in storybook reading but is not able to answer or ask simple questions about the story. What can Laura and Ms. Lynn do collaboratively to support Olivia’s emerging language and literacy skills to better prepare Olivia for her upcoming transition into kindergarten? [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A pressing concern in the education of deaf children is their lack of academic success as measured by literacy rates. Most deaf children finish high school reading below a fourth-grade level. Educational television programs have successfully fostered preschool hearing children's emergent literacy skills. As for preschool deaf children, however, there has been only limited research on whether this medium can be effective. This study uses descriptive analyses to determine the type and frequency of literacy behaviors that preschool deaf children engage in while viewing an educational video in American Sign Language. Children were videotaped during three such sessions, and the videos were coded for literacy-related engagement behaviors. The results of this study indicate that preschool deaf children engaged in a variety of such behaviors regardless of age and ASL exposure and that these behaviors increased after multiple video viewings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents Part I of a piece that explores the life and career of deaf lifeguard Leroy Colombo. In Part I the author addresses Colombo's childhood and young adult life and how his experiences at a deaf boarding school helped influence his decision to become a swimmer and lifeguard. Colombo's association with the island of Galveston, Texas and his experience of having bacterial meningitis, which caused his deafness, are discussed. Other topics include the Texas School for the Deaf (TSD), Colombo's swimming skills,and rescues made by Colombo on beaches in the Gulf of Mexico.

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]

The article profiles the speech-language pathology program at the University of Akron in Akron, Ohio. The program was developed in order to provide specialty training for speech-language pathologists (SLPs) who work with hearing impaired and deaf infants, toddlers and children. The author describes the interdisciplinary educational approach used by the program which includes specialists in practice areas including early intervention, social work, audiology, special education and listening and spoken language.

The article profiles the master's degree speech-language pathology program at Nazareth College in Rochester, New York. The program was designed to provide specialty training for speech-language pathologists working with deaf and hard of hearing children. The author briefly describes the history, curriculum and the philosophy of the program. Speech-language pathologists who attend the program are better able to work with culturally diverse children who are deaf or hard of hearing and in particular, those who use cochlear implants and have differing experiences with spoken language.

In this article the author discusses specialty training programs for professionals in the field of deaf education and listening and spoken language therapy. The author describes the history of early education intervention programs for deaf children in Canada and the role that families of deaf and hearing impaired children played in the development of training programs for deaf education specialists. The Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology Program at the University of Ottawa is briefly described.

The article profiles the Center for Teacher and Therapist Education at Fontbonne University in Missouri. The program promotes a collaborative approach to deaf education, focusing on speech-language pathology and early intervention. The history of the program is described as well as the core curriculum requirements. The program helps graduate students develop competence in subjects including pediatric audiology, auditory technology, language development, the education of children with disabilities and literacy development.

Pediatric audiologists play a vital role in detection, diagnosis, and intervention for young children with hearing loss and their families. Preparing the next generation of pediatric audiologists necessitates a creative approach that balances the requirements of a broad curriculum with the special skills needed to serve a unique and varied population of children who are deaf or hard of hearing and their families. Fortunately, many university programs across the United States have developed specialty tracks, and a growing number are working in partnership with government and other agencies to improve and expand personnel preparation in pediatric audiology. They are joined in this effort by a cadre of talented students who are genuinely committed to working with this population. Still, many challenges remain, among them the sustained financial resources needed to support graduate training programs and students. There is also a need to substantially increase the diversity of our work force in pediatric audiology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent developments in deaf education are influencing teacher preparation programs, which are facing challenges in meeting the critical need for highly qualified teachers. Of approximately 65 teacher preparation programs in the United States, II programs focus primarily on preparing teachers to work with children who are deaf or hard of hearing and who use listening and spoken language, and 54 programs focus primarily on visual communication strategies. Advances in technology, changes in the population of children served, and shifts in educational placements and certification requirements are trends that impact teacher preparation programs. Challenges to these programs include issues related to faculty, university support, curriculum development, student recruitment, and recognition of the profession's value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Language, Interaction & Acquisition / Langage, Interaction et Acquisition is the property of John Benjamins Publishing Co. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

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]

This paper contains three parts. In the first part, what it means to be bilingual in sign language and the spoken (majority) language is explained, and similarities as well as differences with hearing bilinguals are discussed. The second part examines the biculturalism of deaf people. Like hearing biculturals, they take part, to varying degrees, in the life of two worlds (the deaf world and the hearing world), they adapt their attitudes, behaviors, and languages to both worlds, and they combine and blend aspects of the two. The decisional process they go through in choosing a cultural identity is discussed and the difficulties met by some groups are examined. The third part begins with a discussion of why early bilingualism is crucial for the development of deaf children. The reasons that bilingualism and biculturalism have not normally had the favor of those involved in nurturing and educating deaf children are then discussed. They are of two kinds: misunderstandings concerning bilingualism and sign language; and the lack of acceptance of certain realities by many professionals in deafness, most notably members of the medical world. The article ends with a discussion of the role of the two languages in the development of deaf children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A sign bilingual approach to the education of deaf children was first introduced in the UK in 1990. This paper reviews the growth of sign bilingual education in the UK and documents significant milestones in the development of sign bilingual policy and practice since the 1980s. This overview demonstrates how key issues in sign bilingual education have evolved and how priorities have changed over time and enables comparisons with contexts beyond the UK to be drawn. Current issues in sign bilingual education are analysed within our twenty-first century educational context in which both the advancing technology and medical understanding are providing new opportunities for deaf pupils and changing their learning and communication needs. Particular themes addressed include research into early literacy and also the role of sign language for deaf children with cochlear implants. From this analysis, new directions for sign bilingual education are suggested in terms of learning and teaching and a future research agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1981, Swedish Sign Language gained recognition by the Swedish Parliament as the language of deaf people, a decision that made Sweden the first country in the world to give a sign language the status of a language. Swedish was designated as a second language for deaf people, and the need for bilingualism among them was officially asserted. This was reflected in the first bilingual curriculum, introduced in special schools for the deaf and hard of hearing in 1983, which stated that the language of instruction in these schools should be Swedish sign language as well as Swedish, the latter of which, for deaf children, was primarily intended to be in its written form. These provisions were designed to ensure that pupils would be able to develop their bilingualism. In 1994, this curriculum was replaced by a new one that raised the bar even higher. In accordance with this curriculum, schools became responsible for ensuring that all deaf and hard of hearing pupils would be bilingual by the time they completed school. In this paper, I will present details regarding the background of the Swedish Parliament's decision and also compare and discuss the steering documents for the schools in this regard. I will also describe some of the developmental work that was implemented early in schools for the deaf, where teachers collaborated closely with linguistic researchers. This work will be related to contemporary research on sign language linguistics and Swedish as a second language for deaf people. I will then present results from the bilingual approach, as reflected in the leaving certificates of deaf school leavers over the years. Finally, I will briefly discuss the current situation Swedish special schools face today, in which a quickly growing number of deaf children with cochlear implants are applying for admission. Although the need for bilingualism among these children is fully recognised, the attainment of this goal may require schools to adopt different means of instruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United States, students who are deaf or hard of hearing (SDHH) are required to participate in high-stakes standardized assessments under No Child Left Behind reforms. In 2006–2007, states added science to reading and mathematics as a tested content area. Many SDHH participate in these assessments using testing accommodations, but teachers have few evidence-based resources to draw upon when making accommodations decisions. Two research questions guided this study: (a) What were patterns of SDHH 2006–2007 test accommodations use in state standardized assessments in mathematics, reading, and science? (b) What evidence did teachers use to determine the effectiveness of accommodations for SDHH? A total of 290 participants described their assessment practices with SDHH via an online and paper-and-pencil survey. Extended time, small group, and test directions interpreted were the most frequently used accommodations by SDHH, but there were some different patterns in science for accommodations that included changes to the test items. Teachers reported both student satisfaction and test score validity epistemologies of accommodations’ effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this article, we will describe the development of an assessment instrument for Sign Language of the Netherlands (SLN) for deaf children in bilingual education programs. The assessment instrument consists of nine computerized tests in which the receptive and expressive language skills of deaf children at different linguistic levels (phonology, vocabulary, morphosyntax, and narration) are assessed. We will describe how the instrument was developed and normed, and present some psychometric properties of the instrument. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Cadernos de Pesquisa is the property of Fundacao Carlos Chagas and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article presents a study which examines the effect of repeated reading intervention on the reading fluency and achievement of deaf elementary students in the U.S. It notes the significant improvement of students' reading speed on passages that were reread during sessions and on the generalized reading fluency measures. It stresses the potential of repeated reading to improve the reading fluency of deaf students paired with comprehension strategy.

Background: The scholastic achievement of children with cochlear implants is one of the most important determinants of recipients' quality of life after cochlear implantation. The present study aimed to study the scholastic achievement of 27 children with cochlear implants attending mainstream schools and to compare their scholastic performance to their normal- hearing peers. Methods: From 30 children living in Tehran with an average age of 40 months at the time of cochlear implantation at our center, 27 participated in this study. The results of children's examinations and their performance in Persian literature, mathematics, and dictation in comparison to their normal peers and their overall scholastic performance during final examinations were the two measures utilized to assess the children's school performance. Parents reported their children's medical and educational history, characteristics of the family, and their participation in their children's therapy by completing questionnaires. Results: Mean score was 18.84 (SD=2.86) for mathematics, 19.18 (SD=1.59) for Persian literature, 19.35 (SD=1.36) for dictation, and 19.19 (SD=1.54) for overall academic performance. Compared to their normal-hearing classmates, most children with cochlear implants had an aboveaverage performance in mathematics, Persian literature, and dictation (59.3%, 66.7%, and 74.1%, respectively). The overall examination results showed that nearly half of them (48.1%) performed above average. Conclusion: The results of this study well indicate that children with cochlear implants can achieve a satisfactory scholastic performance in mainstream schools with their implant duration as the most important factor determining postimplant outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a description of the interactions between a nursery-aged prelingually deaf1 child and his specialist teacher recorded at four consecutive time points during the first year at school. The child comes from a hearing, Somali-speaking family where English is an additional language (EAL). Using Conversation Analysis procedures, findings show how, with the teacher's support, the deaf child accomplishes 'multi-element' turns (that is, turns in which semantic referents are combined using words and gestures—'elements') within and across time points. Gestures remain an essential feature of the child's communication at all times. The teacher's prior and next turns create and support language learning opportunities for the child, and this support is continually adjusted in response to the child's turns. It is suggested that these sequences of talk are an important mechanism driving the child's learning of spoken English. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on how deaf children develop literacy skills, and the role played by sign language in the reconstruction of written language of deaf children. It is stated that deaf children are linguistically and communicatively competent in their own natural sign language, and written language is a second language for them. It is mentioned that in Argentina, deaf children understand sign language when they join a deaf public school. At a school in Mendoza, Argentina, the constructivist approach was used to teach deaf children who had little reading and writing experience. The students started with simple sentences, and they learned how to write long texts within a year. They were given instruction in Argentine Sign Language (LSA).

A directory for schools and programs in Canada that enroll or provide educational services to children with hearing disabilities is presented.

A directory for special schools and center programs for deaf children offered by various special schools in the U.S. is presented.

The aim of the present paper was to assess children's long-term use of their cochlear implant systems and to explore factors influencing the extent of daily use. The parents of 138 deaf children who had been implanted for seven years completed an annual questionnaire about the extent of their child's use of their implant system. The results revealed that seven years after implantation 115 children (83%) were wearing their implants full-time, 16 (12%) most of the time, three (2%) some of the time and four (3%) were non-users. The children were categorised into those who were full-time users (group F) and those who were not full-time users (group N). The mean age at implantation in group F was 4.4 years with a median of four whereas in group N the mean age at implantation was 5.8 years with a median of 5.5 years. This difference was highly statistically significant. There were no children who were total non-users implanted below the age of five. The predominant mode of communication was oral in group F and signed communication in group N and the difference was also statistically significant. In group F, 90 (78%) were in mainstream education, either mainstream school or a resource base in a mainstream school, whereas the respective percentage in group N was 57 per cent and this difference was statistically significant. Further investigation of those in group N shows a fluctuating pattern of use over the years prior to becoming complete non-users seven years after implantation. The four children who were complete non-users at seven years after implantation were all implanted at five and had other difficulties with all having complex family issues, three having significant other learning difficulties and one experiencing pain on stimulation. None had experienced device failure. In conclusion, this study of 138 children showed very high levels of full-time use seven years after implantation. Factors linked with full-time use seven years after implantation were early implantation, oral mode of communication and mainstream educational placement. Additional difficulties were not significant. Psycho-social issues such as family and educational support appeared to be important in facilitating continued use of the implant system. Non-use may occur after several years of use and in this group non-use followed a fluctuating pattern of use over time. The regular monitoring of device use may enable cochlear implant teams to be alert to potential non-users and to provide appropriate and timely support to the child, family and educational service. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article documented spoken language outcomes for pre-school children with hearing loss and examined the relationships between language abilities and characteristics of children such as degree of hearing loss, cognitive abilities, age at entry to ea:early intervention, and parent involvement in children's intervention programs. Participants were evaluated using a combination of the Child Development Inventory, the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, and the Preschool Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals depending on their age at the time of assessment. Maternal education, cognitive ability, and family involvement were also measured. Over half of the children who participated in this study had poor language outcomes overall. No significant differences were found in language outcomes on any of the measures for children who were diagnosed early and those diagnosed later. Multiple regression analyses showed that family participation, degree of hearing loss, and cognitive ability significantly predicted language outcomes and together accounted for almost 60% of the variance in scores. This article highlights the importance of family participation in intervention programs to enable children to achieve optimal language outcomes. Further work may clarify the effects of early diagnosis on language outcomes for preschool children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the education of the deaf pupils at Casa Pia de Lisboa, a Portuguese boarding-school, covering the period from 1820 to 1950. The intention is to show that a historical sedimentation of a scientific discourse about deafness is an effect of a new rationality of government begun by modernity and perfectly fitting a bio-political strategy. The development of medical and psychological sciences and their inscription in the educational landscape allows the appearance of new techniques and instruments in the observation and comprehension of the school population, as well as a rush of experts on social prophylactic. The field of practice offers a single heterogenous surface on which discursive objects are involved in the production of effects of power and types of subjectivities: this article is crossed by the double image normal-abnormal deployed by school practices. The conceptualisation of deafness as an abnormality justified the multiplication of corrective processes directed to an erasing of deafness. The deaf were fabricated as the Other of the educative arena and the hospitality given to them was no more than conditional. The oral lingo was conceived not only as the normal but also as the official language that the deaf had to assimilate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]