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The purpose of this paper is to highlight the role that technology plays in the education of students with hearing impairments. The paper delves into ambitious topics like assistive technologies and languages, access and inclusion, teacher education and practice, and the challenges encountered. The research employed a quantitative approach, selecting 172 teachers from Punjab's special education department as a study sample using a simple random technique. Primary data was collected using a self-developed questionnaire. The collected data was, therefore, analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Overall, the findings presented a positive outlook, demonstrating how technology enhances the learning experience, communication, and academic performance. The study clearly highlights several challenges, including insufficient specialized tools, inadequate teacher training, financial constraints, and more. The study highlights the significance of precision, aggregative processes, and teamwork in addressing the challenges of limited resources, teachers' preparedness, and accessibility. recommendations include incorporating specialized digital tools, focusing on continuous teacher professional learning, requesting funding, and creating awareness and/or cultural shifts. Such findings provide an understanding of the possible pros and cons of technology integration, which will help educators create an inclusive learning environment for students with hearing impairments.

This qualitative, descriptive study explored the experiences of college students with Deaf, deaf, and Hard of Hearing (D/d/HH) hearing difficulties within online learning environments (OLEs). This study used an inclusive and equitable theoretical framework of connectivism to address audism and the marginalization of college students with D/d/HH. The LIFE-R section's "After LIFE" semi-structured interview protocol collected data from 15 college students with hearing difficulties in OLEs recruited from the National Deaf Center-Listserve. The 12 themes highlighted that without extrinsic support, participants perceived inequitable accessibility of technology, hearing devices, or resources. In closing the research gap, the study's findings indicated that (1) college students with D/d/HH were underrepresented, had unique hearing differences, and needed consistent access to hearing assistance technology and resources; (2) connectivism extrinsic support: Provided equitable accessibility and a positive impact on self-advocacy and autonomy, engagement and emotions, and availability and effectiveness of technology-assisted hearing devices or resources, and (3) Audism: Provided inequitable accessibility and a negative impact on self-advocacy and autonomy to utilize technology hearing devices or resources, engagement, and emotions (i.e., frustration, anger, alienation, and isolation). The recommendations for improving accessible and effective technology hearing devices or resources utilizing a connectivism framework, implementing policies, best practices, professional development, and training. Future studies should explore students with difficulties hearing in OLEs without a medical diagnosis, intersectional identities, and larger sample sizes.

The global COVID-19 pandemic has led to significant challenges in Turkey, as in many other countries, in the transition from face-to-face to online education at all levels of education. This shift has brought forth numerous obstacles, particularly for d/Deaf and hard-of-hearing (d/Dhh) university students. Hence, this research aims to identify the challenges encountered during online learning amidst the pandemic at the School for the Handicapped (SfH), the only institution in Turkey providing vocational higher education to hearing-impaired students. Conducted as a qualitative case study at the SfH, the research involved 20 hearing-impaired students and 19 faculty members as participants. Data obtained from the Mergen Anadolu Learning Management System platform, WhatsApp Platform and other platforms, was used for online education. Interviews, open-ended questionnaires, and the researcher's journal were compiled and analyzed inductively. Findings from the study highlighted a multitude of challenges encountered in the online learning process, affecting both faculty members and students at the SfH. The challenges encountered by participants in online learning at the SfH were found to be related to difficulty in understanding lessons, lack of subtitles and sign language translation, difficulty accessing computers and software, Internet problems, low camera usage, low motivation, and lack of interaction.

The purpose of this research is to describe the challenges and factors causing difficulties of deaf students in mastering writing skills at inclusive universities in Indonesia. This research is focused in Central Java province because of the more universities are considered as inclusive universities. This research was conducted in September-December 2022. The subjects in this research were selected using the purposive sampling method. Based on these limits, 35 Deaf students from six inclusive universities were obtained as respondents. The data collection techniques used questionnaires, observations, interviews, and concentrated discussions. Furthermore, the data analysis steps undertaken consisted of: (a) data analysis, (b) data revision, and (c) data verification. The results of this research concluded that the challenges experienced by students were broadly related to: (a) difficulty in mastering vocabulary, (b) understanding punctuation, and (c) difficulty if mastering complex sentences. As for more specifically related to academic text writing skills, the obstacles experienced by students including: (a) composing effective sentences, (b) developing paragraphs, (c) paraphrasing techniques, (d) writing academic texts in accordance with linguistic rules, and (e) writing bibliography. Furthermore, factors causing the occurrence of the obstacles in the mastery of academic text writing skills including: (a) unaccessible learning resources, (b) less effectively interwoven communication during lectures, and (c) different sentence structure in Sign Language with Indonesian sentence structure.

Background: Two intervention approaches are implemented in South Africa to alleviate the deleterious consequences of congenital or early onset hearing impairment on language acquisition and subsequent poor learning outcomes. Aim: This study investigated the learning outcomes of foundation phase learners with severe to profound hearing impairment who received Listening and Spoken Language -- South Africa (LSL-SA) (adapted Auditory Verbal Therapy) therapy compared to those who received Traditional Speech-Language Therapy (TSLT). Setting: The study was conducted at four early intervention (EI) schools for children with hearing impairment across three provinces in South Africa. Methods: Data were collected through record reviews of their Speech-Language Therapy Outcomes and South African National Department of Basic Education academic report cards. Data were analysed using quantitative statistics. Results: Findings demonstrated that children with hearing impairment enrolled in LSL-SA outperformed those enrolled in TSLT in achieving age-equivalent language outcomes. A higher percentage of learners enrolled in LSL-SA achieved meritorious to outstanding learning outcomes. While a comparable number of learners progressed to mainstream schooling, children with hearing impairment enrolled in LSL-SA are enrolled for a shorter duration until discharge than those enrolled in TSLT. This is an important finding, particularly in low-middle income countries (LMICs). Conclusion: Listening and Spoken Language -- South Africa graduates achieved superior learning outcomes dependent on language attainment, providing contextually relevant evidence supporting the effectiveness of the LSL-SA EI approach. Contribution: These context-specific outcomes stress the obligation to upscale and fast-track EI services. Implications for investment in LSL-SA are proposed through collaboration between families, educators, and early interventionists.

This paper reports a mixed-method study on the factors shaping language learning through didactic audiovisual translation. The aim is to analyse the determinants influencing the effective implementation of an integrative project, revealing the strengths and weaknesses of the learning process. Data from 172 students were gathered through initial and final questionnaires, which offered insights into their perceptions of didactic audiovisual translation. The results demonstrate a noticeable shift in learners' attitudes towards audiovisual translation as a language learning tool during the tasks. This transformation led to the recognition of potential benefits, not only in conventional modes like subtitling and dubbing but also in less recognised modes such as audio-description and subtitling for the deaf and hard of hearing.

Job burnout can lead to serious mental health problems and damage physical health, so it is meaningful to explore the predictors of job burnout. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between resilience, self-regulation and job burnout of parents of deaf and hard-of-hearing children in mainland China. A questionnaire on resilience, self-regulation and job burnout was conducted for 416 parents of children with deaf and hard of hearing, and the data were analyzed using mplus. The results show that resilience can reduce job burnout, and self-regulation regulates the relationship between resilience and job burnout. This study focuses on the relationship between resilience, self-regulation and job burnout of parents of deaf and hard-of-hearing children in mainland China, and expands the research field of resilience and job burnout. The limitation and influence of this study are also discussed.

The U.S. Supreme Court has heard several cases regarding special education. These cases have resulted in decisions that have addressed issues involving special education programming and procedural issues. On March 21, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling in "Perez v. Sturgis Public Schools." This decision, which was the most recent special education case heard by the highest court in the United States, involved litigation in special education. In this brief article, we address the Supreme Court's decision in "Perez" by (a) examining the background of the case; (b) reviewing the decision by the lower courts and the U.S. Supreme Court; and (c) discussing the implications of the case for special educators.

Disabled people encounter numerous barriers to accessibility and face discrimination and inequalities in their daily lives. The situation is even more complex for migrants with a disability, who have to learn how to navigate a new bureaucratic system. This study focuses on deaf adult migrants and the linguistic and bureaucratic challenges they face in Swedish society. The data consists of interviews with 43 deaf migrants participating in language learning courses in four folk high schools catering to deaf people in Sweden. Crip Theory and Crip Linguistics are used as lenses to explore the impact of able-bodiedness and linguistic norms on this particular group. The findings show that deaf migrants experience infantilisation, that sign language interpreters are often seen as a one-size-fits-all solution without much consideration for other factors influencing communication, and that normative able-bodiedness underlies many of the bureaucratic issues deaf migrants face.

Purpose: The present study evaluated the applicability of the sentence-focused framework to Mandarin-speaking children with cochlear implants (CIs) by examining the relative contribution of receptive/expressive noun and verb lexicon sizes to later grammatical complexity. Method: Participants were 51 Mandarin-speaking children who received cochlear implantation before 30 months of age. At 12 months after CI activation, parents were asked to endorse words that their child could understand only or understand and say using the infant version of the Early Vocabulary Inventory. At 24 months after CI activation, parents were asked to endorse the grammatical structures that their children were able to say using the Grammatical Complexity subtest in the Mandarin Communicative Development Inventory--Taiwan. Children's receptive/expressive noun and verb lexicon sizes and grammatical complexity scores were computed from these parent checklists. Results: Correlational analyses showed that children's receptive/expressive noun and verb lexicon sizes at 12 months after CI activation were all highly correlated with their grammatical complexity scores at 24 months after CI activation ([rho]s = 0.52-0.63, ps < 0.001). Regression analyses further revealed that verb lexicon sizes at 12 months after CI activation outweighed noun lexicon sizes in accounting for grammatical complexity at 24 months after CI activation. Conclusions: Our findings supported the prediction of the sentence-focused framework. Emphasizing the role of verbs in early intervention has the potential to enhance grammatical outcomes in Mandarin-speaking children with CIs.

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the impact of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions (e.g., face mask wearing and social distancing) on individuals who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing (D/HH). The study aimed to describe perceptions of challenges and valued resources to inform efforts to mitigate negative consequences of the pandemic. A survey was used to solicit information about the pandemic-related experiences of 108 individuals who are D/HH and/or parents or service providers of children who are D/HH. Questions elicited perceptions of pandemic related challenges, resources, and supports. Results demonstrated high percentages of respondents reported experiencing substantial impacts of face mask wearing on communication. Additionally, respondents reported negative consequences of social distancing on the way they connected with others. Findings point to the need for increased awareness of risks for impacts on communication and social well-being and consideration of additional supports.

Purpose: This study investigated irony comprehension by Mandarin-speaking children with cochlear implants, focusing on how prosodic and visual cues contribute to their comprehension, and whether second-order Theory of Mind is required for using these cues. Method: We tested 52 Mandarin-speaking children with cochlear implants (aged 3-7 years) and 52 age- and gender-matched children with normal hearing. All children completed a Theory of Mind test and a story comprehension test. Ironic stories were presented in three conditions, each providing different cues: (a) context-only, (b) context and prosody, and (c) context, prosody, and visual cues. Comparisons were conducted on the accuracy of story understanding across the three conditions to examine the role of prosodic and visual cues. Results: The results showed that, compared to the context-only condition, the additional prosodic and visual cues both improved the accuracy of irony comprehension for children with cochlear implants, similar to their normal-hearing peers. Furthermore, such improvements were observed for all children, regardless of whether they passed the second-order Theory of Mind test or not. Conclusions: This study is the first to demonstrate the benefits of prosodic and visual cues in irony comprehension, without reliance on second-order Theory of Mind, for Mandarin-speaking children with cochlear implants. It implies potential insights for utilizing prosodic and visual cues in intervention strategies to promote irony comprehension.

Purpose: There are well-established guidelines for the recording, transcription, and analysis of spontaneous oral language samples by researchers, educators, and speech pathologists. In contrast, there is presently no consensus regarding methods for the written documentation of sign language samples. The Handshape Analysis Recording Tool (HART) is an innovative method for documenting and analyzing word level samples of signed languages in real time. Fluent sign language users can document the expressive sign productions of children to gather data on sign use and accuracy. Method: The HART was developed to document children's productions in Australian Sign Language (Auslan) in a bilingual-bicultural educational program for the Deaf in Australia. This written method was piloted with a group of fluent signing Deaf educational staff in 2014-2016, then used in 2022-2023 with a group of fluent signing professionals to examine inter- and intrarater reliability when coding parameters of sign accuracy. Results: Interrater reliability measured by Gwet's Agreement Coefficient, was "good" to "very good" across the four phonological parameters that are components of every sign: location, movement, handshape, and orientation. Conclusions: The findings of this study indicate that the HART can be a reliable tool for coding the accuracy of location, orientation, movement, and handshape parameters of Auslan phonology when used by professionals fluent in Auslan. The HART can be utilized with any sign language to gather word level sign language samples in a written form and document the phonological accuracy of signed productions.

Purpose: Processing real-world sounds requires acoustic and higher-order semantic information. We tested the theory that individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show enhanced processing of acoustic features and impaired processing of semantic information. Methods: We used a change deafness task that required detection of speech and non-speech auditory objects being replaced and a speech-in-noise task using spoken sentences that must be comprehended in the presence of background speech to examine the extent to which 7-15 year old children with ASD (n = 27) rely on acoustic and semantic information, compared to age-matched (n = 27) and IQ-matched (n = 27) groups of typically developing (TD) children. Within a larger group of 7-15 year old TD children (n = 105) we correlated IQ, ASD symptoms, and the use of acoustic and semantic information. Results: Children with ASD performed worse overall at the change deafness task relative to the age-matched TD controls, but they did not differ from IQ-matched controls. All groups utilized acoustic and semantic information similarly and displayed an attentional bias towards changes that involved the human voice. Similarly, for the speech-in-noise task, age-matched--but not IQ-matched--TD controls performed better overall than the ASD group. However, all groups used semantic context to a similar degree. Among TD children, neither IQ nor the presence of ASD symptoms predict the use of acoustic or semantic information. Conclusion: Children with and without ASD used acoustic and semantic information similarly during auditory change deafness and speech-in-noise tasks.

Recent evidence suggests that deaf children with CIs exposed to nonnative sign language from hearing parents can attain age-appropriate vocabularies in both sign and spoken language. It remains to be explored whether deaf children with CIs who are exposed to early nonnative sign language, but only up to implantation, also benefit from this input and whether these benefits also extend to memory abilities, which are strongly linked to language development. The present study examined the impact of deaf children's early short-term exposure to nonnative sign input on their spoken language and their phonological memory abilities. Deaf children who had been exposed to nonnative sign input before and after cochlear implantation were compared to deaf children who never had any exposure to sign input as well as to children with typical hearing. The children were between 5;1 and 7;1 years of age at the time of testing and were matched on age, sex, and socioeconomic status. The results suggest that even short-term exposure to nonnative sign input has positive effects on general language and phonological memory abilities as well as on nonverbal working memory--with total length of exposure to sign input being the best predictor of deaf children's performance on these measures. The present data suggest that even access to early short-term nonnative visual language input is beneficial for the language and phonological memory abilities of deaf children with cochlear implants, suggesting also that parents should not be discouraged from learning and exposing their child to sign language.

This exploratory study provides an overview of prominent themes pertaining to portrayals of sign languages (SLs) and Deaf people in the South African press (2011-2019), as well as an analysis of a subset of articles to illustrate the discursive constructions of each of the prominent ideological framings. The findings of the paper suggest that many ways of representing South African Sign Language (SASL) and their users align with international trends. The two most prominent ideological framings are the medical/disability model and the linguistic minority model. Within the medical model, SLs are seen as inferior means of communication used by a disabled minority. Within the linguistic minority framework SLs are regarded as natural, legitimate languages deserving equal status to spoken languages. The paper also identifies an ideological framing that is not predicted by the international literature, coined here as 'diversity tokenism'. Diversity tokenism is when SL is mentioned only to increase perceived diversity, where diversity is a commodity that holds social capital. This portrayal of SASL seems to be increasing and holds a warning: although SASL users have received official recognition and rights through the recent declaration of SASL as an official language, it might not be the end of the battle to ensure that users of SASL can live out their linguistic citizenship.

The process by which user experiences (UX) for children are created is uncertain, especially for deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) children. This paper seeks to (I) describe the origins of UX and child-computer interaction and to describe what is being taught to designers today; (II) use the example of digital assessment to extract insights from practitioners about UX design for DHH children; and (III) describe opportunities for amending today's UX design curricula to foster more equitably designed products for children. Interviewing 13 practitioners revealed the following findings. (1) Allowing non-designer participants to self-identify their profession makes them more likely to discuss design concepts. (2) The challenge of working with children is more about legal/risk assessment than any gaps in design education. (3) Practitioners who design products for children follow similar processes to designers who design for adults; age-specific language is the main difference child and adult UX.

The poor academic performance and literacy level of deaf learners in Namibia are a major concern, and it is necessary to understand the center of the situation. Even though deaf learners can become proficient readers and writers, the challenge remains in finding an appropriate instructional approach to attain these results. This presents an even greater challenge, as deaf learners not only differ from their hearing peers, but also significantly differ from one another in terms of their various familial and social contexts, language use, and overall holistic development. The Bilingual-Bicultural approach is considered a good approach for teaching deaf learners, and it offers them the chance to become biliterate; therefore this study explored the impact of a Bilingual-Bicultural literacy program on 41 d/hh learners (age = 7-13 yrs). Through a one-group pre-test post-test design, a group of participants were pre-evaluated, followed by an intervention and post-evaluation. The intervention's main goal was to implement practical teaching strategies using a Bilingual-Bicultural teaching approach that can reduce the delay and gap in language learning and literacy for deaf learners. Results from t-tests calculated to determine the statistical significance of the pre and post-test with regard to the total scores and all the sub-tests for NSL as well as Written English skills indicated significant results (p<0.05). The study offers insight into the psychology of teaching deaf learners while also advancing the theory and application of the Bilingual-Bicultural approach. Additionally, it promotes debate of the best practices for ensuring that deaf learners receive a quality education and full participation in society.

In recent years, an increasing number of deaf and hard of hearing (D/HH) undergraduates have chosen to study in STEM fields and pursue careers in research. Yet, very little research has been undertaken on the barriers and inclusive experiences often faced by D/HH undergraduates who prefer to use spoken English in research settings, instead of American Sign Language (ASL). To identify barriers and inclusive strategies, we studied six English speaking D/HH undergraduate students working in research laboratories with their eight hearing mentors, and their three hearing peers sharing their experiences. Three researchers observed the interactions between all three groups and conducted interviews and focus groups, along with utilizing the Communication Assessment Self-Rating Scale (CASS). The main themes identified in the findings were communication and environmental barriers in research laboratories, creating accessible and inclusive laboratory environments, communication strategies, and self-advocating for effective communication. Recommendations for mentors include understanding the key elements of creating an inclusive laboratory environment for English speaking D/HH students and effectively demonstrating cultural competence to engage in inclusive practices.

Individuals with deaf-blindness and co-occurring diagnoses, such as intellectual and developmental disabilities, may experience difficulty with independence, specifically with communication. One behavior-analytic procedure that may be useful for increasing independence and teaching communication to this population is the behavior-chain interruption strategy (BCIS). The current study examined the use of the BCIS to teach a 65-year-old deaf-blind participant with severe intellectual disability to use a SadoTech Elderly Monitoring Pager to notify others in the environment when help was needed. The researcher alternated between establishing operation (EO; help needed, items missing, or inoperable) and abolishing operation (AO; help not needed, items present, and operable) trials for three previously mastered daily living routines. The results demonstrated that following intervention, the participant used the device independently during EO trials and never used it during AO trials across behavior chains, and similar results were obtained during a treatment-extension phase. Limitations and implications for applied practice are discussed.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the ability to discriminate yes/no questions from statements in three groups of children--bilateral cochlear implant (CI) users, nontraditional CI users with aidable hearing preoperatively in the ear to be implanted, and controls with normal hearing. Half of the nontraditional CI users had sufficient postoperative acoustic hearing in the implanted ear to use electric-acoustic stimulation, and half used a CI alone. Method: Participants heard recorded sentences that were produced either as yes/no questions or as statements by three male and three female talkers. Three raters scored each participant response as either a question or a statement. Bilateral CI users (n = 40, 4-12 years old) and normal-hearing controls (n = 10, 4-12 years old) were tested binaurally in the free field. Nontraditional CI recipients (n = 22, 6-17 years old) were tested with direct audio input to the study ear. Results: For the bilateral CI users, performance was predicted by age but not by 125-Hz acoustic thresholds; just under half (n = 17) of the participants in this group had measurable 125-Hz thresholds in their better ear. For nontraditional CI recipients, better performance was predicted by lower 125-Hz acoustic thresholds in the test ear, and there was no association with participant age. Performance approached that of the normal-hearing controls for some participants in each group. Conclusions: Results suggest that a 125-Hz acoustic hearing supports discrimination of yes/no questions and statements in pediatric CI users. Bilateral CI users with little or no acoustic hearing at 125 Hz develop the ability to perform this task, but that ability emerges later than for children with better acoustic hearing. These results underscore the importance of preserving acoustic hearing for pediatric CI users when possible.

Prior to the emergence of the coronavirus disease in 2019 (COVID-19), studies revealed lower involvement of fathers in the education of learners who are Deaf and Hard of hearing (LDHH). Although research evidence reveals that work structure and other commitments may be responsible for fathers' limited involvement in the education of their children, there is limited research evidence on the involvement of fathers of LDHH in remote education during the COVID-19 lockdowns. Based on the perceptions of mothers of LDHH, this study therefore explored fathers' involvement in the remote education of their LDHH. Hinged on the Theory of Planned Behaviour, two research questions were raised and answered in the study. Eight mothers of LDHH from KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa participated in this qualitative study. Data was gathered via a semi-structured telephonic interview, and the collected data was analysed thematically. The findings revealed that: (1) the involvement of fathers in the remote education of LDHH saw a fair increase during the lockdowns when compared to the pre-COVID-19 era; (2) father-child communication approaches, technical devices needed for remote learning, and ability to intervene promptly when technical glitches arises were factors that influenced the perceptions of the fathers' involvement in the remote education of LDHH during the lockdowns. Based on the findings, appropriate recommendations were made for policy and practice.

Pre-school education is significant in the education of deaf children. The pre-school teacher is a gateway to realising the inclusion of deaf children in schools. In this study we investigated prospective pre-school teachers' opinions and thoughts about sign language in deaf children's education. In this descriptive study we employed the qualitative research method: semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 prospective pre-school teachers who took the elective sign language course in the fall semester of the 2018-2019 academic year. The main themes obtained from the interviews were as follows: "Quality in early childhood education", "Innovative practices in teacher training", "Inclusive education in the pre-school period", "Effective teaching for deaf children" and "Sign language competence of teachers." The research findings suggest that prospective teachers must learn sign language that would contribute to their professional competence and that they would actively use sign language in their future professional lives.

Online course design and delivery rapidly expanded due to COVID-19. The impact on Deaf/Hard of hearing (D/HH) learners since the pandemic is unknown. In this prepandemic qualitative study, however, ninety-three (93) D/HH online students participated in a survey, from which nine (9) participated in a focus group interview to share their experiences in their online classes. The results describe both the positive influences and the challenges affecting this population in mainstream online classes. A forthcoming article will study postpandemic perspectives to further guide online course design and delivery for D/HH learners.

Purpose: Postoperative rehabilitation programs for cochlear implant (CI) recipients primarily emphasize enhancing speech perception. However, effective communication in everyday social interactions necessitates consideration of diverse verbal social cues to facilitate language comprehension. Failure to discern emotional expressions may lead to maladjusted social behavior, underscoring the importance of integrating social cues perception into rehabilitation initiatives to enhance CI users' well-being. After conventional rehabilitation, CI users demonstrate varying levels of emotion perception abilities. This disparity notably impacts young CI users, whose emotion perception deficit can extend to social functioning, encompassing coping strategies and social competence, even when relying on nonauditory cues such as facial expressions. Knowing that emotion perception abilities generally decrease with age, acknowledging emotion perception impairments in aging CI users is crucial, especially since a direct correlation between quality-of-life scores and vocal emotion recognition abilities has been observed in adult CI users. After briefly reviewing the scope of CI rehabilitation programs and summarizing the mounting evidence on CI users' emotion perception deficits and their impact, we will present our recommendations for embedding emotional training as part of enriched and standardized evaluation/rehabilitation programs that can improve CI users' social integration and quality of life. Conclusions: Evaluating all aspects, including emotion perception, in CI rehabilitation programs is crucial because it ensures a comprehensive approach that enhances speech comprehension and the emotional dimension of communication, potentially improving CI users' social interaction and overall well-being. The development of emotion perception training holds promises for CI users and individuals grappling with various forms of hearing loss and sensory deficits. Ultimately, adopting such a comprehensive approach has the potential to significantly elevate the overall quality of life for a broad spectrum of patients.

Background: Deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children may experience difficulties in word decoding development. Aims: We aimed to compare and predict the incremental word decoding development in first grade in Dutch DHH and hearing children, as a function of kindergarten reading precursors. Methods and procedures: In this study, 25 DHH, and 41 hearing children participated. Kindergarten measures were phonological awareness (PA), letter knowledge (LK), rapid naming (RAN), and verbal short-term memory (VSTM). Word decoding (WD) was assessed at three consecutive time points (WD1, 2, 3) during reading instruction in first grade. Outcomes and results: The hearing children scored higher than the DHH children on PA and VSTM only, although the distribution of WD scores differed between the groups. At WD1, PA and RAN predicted WD efficiency in both groups; but PA was a stronger predictor for hearing children. At WD2, LK, RAN, and the autoregressor were predictors for both groups. While at WD3, only the autoregressor was a significant predictor. Conclusions and implications: WD development in DHH children on average shows similar levels as in hearing children, though within the DHH group more variation was observed. WD development in DHH children is not as much driven by PA; they may use other skills to compensate.

This case study describes the use of a syntax intervention with two deaf children who did not acquire a complete first language (L1) from birth. It looks specifically at their ability to produce subject-verb-object (SVO) sentence structure in American Sign Language (ASL) after receiving intervention. This was an exploratory case study in which investigators utilized an intervention that contained visuals to help teach SVO word order to young deaf children. Baseline data were collected over three sessions before implementation of a targeted syntax intervention and two follow-up sessions over 3-4 weeks. Both participants demonstrated improvements in their ability to produce SVO structure in ASL in 6-10 sessions. Visual analysis revealed a positive therapeutic trend that was maintained in follow-up sessions. These data provide preliminary evidence that a targeted intervention may help young deaf children with an incomplete L1 learn to produce basic word order in ASL. Results from this case study can help inform the practice of professionals working with signing deaf children who did not acquire a complete L1 from birth (e.g., speech-language pathologists, deaf mentors/coaches, ASL specialists, etc.). Future research should investigate the use of this intervention with a larger sample of deaf children.

This paper discusses language use and identity patterns in ethnic minority/ethnically heterogeneous multigenerational deaf families in Romania, where at least one of the family members belongs to the ethnic Hungarian minority. Early childhood and school linguistic socialization, language use within the family, and cross-generational transmission of identity to children are explored. The research is based on five ethnic minority/ethnically heterogeneous multigenerational deaf family case studies. The research results show that within ethnic-national minority/ethnically heterogeneous multigenerational deaf families, complex identity patterns may develop and multifaceted linguistic communication models may prevail, including the use of national oral languages and national sign languages of the parties involved. At the same time, a kind of special linguistic and cultural enrichment, a striving for cultural-linguistic balance, may occur.

This study aims to examine emotion recognition and false belief performances of 4-5-year-old (48-71 months) deaf or hard-of-hearing (DHH) children. The performances have been assessed using the Turkish Version of the Theory of Mind Task Battery for Children. The DHH children have been continuing schooling in inclusive settings with an auditory-oral approach. The emotion recognition performances of hearing children (n = 100) and DHH (n = 100) children have appeared to be similar. The ANOVA analysis has revealed that the groups do not differ concerning false belief performances between the ages of 4 and 5.5. However, from the age of 5.5, hearing children have performed better than DHH children. According to correlation analysis, parental education has been determined as a remarkable factor in DHH children's false belief development. The findings point to the need for research across a wide range of ages to better understand the developmental course of false belief in DHH children.

Deaf patients who communicate in American Sign Language (ASL) experience communication challenges leading to medical errors, treatment delays, and health disparities. Research on Deaf patient communication preferences is sparse. Researchers conducted focus groups based on the Health Belief Model with culturally Deaf patients and interpreters. The ASL focus groups were interpreted and transcribed into written English, verified by a third-party interpreting agency, and uploaded into NVivo. Deductive coding was used to identify communication methods and inductive coding was used to identify themes within each. Writing back-and-forth introduced challenges related to English proficiency, medical terminology, poor penmanship, and tendencies of providers to abbreviate. Participants had various speechreading abilities and described challenges with mask mandates. Multiple issues were identified with family and friends as proxy interpreters, including a lack of training, confidentiality issues, emotional support, and patient autonomy. Video remote interpreter challenges included technical, environmental, and interpreter qualification concerns. Participants overwhelmingly preferred on-site interpreters for communication clarity. While there was a preference for direct care, many acknowledged this is not always feasible due to lack of providers fluent in ASL. Access to on-site interpreters is vital for many Deaf patients to provide full access to critical medical information. Budget allocation for on-call interpreters is important in emergency settings.

Research has demonstrated that deaf children of deaf signing parents (DOD) are afforded developmental advantages. This can be misconstrued as indicating that no DOD children exhibit early language delays (ELDs) because of their early access to a visual language. Little research has studied this presumption. In this study, we examine 174 ratings of DOD 3- to 5-year-old children, for whom signing in the home was indicated, using archival data from the online database of the Visual Communication and Sign Language Checklist. Our goals were to (1) examine the incidence of ELDs in a cohort of DOD children; (2) compare alternative scaling strategies for identifying ELD children; (3) explore patterns among behavioral ratings with a view toward developing a greater understanding of the types of language behaviors that may lie at the root of language delays; and (4) suggest recommendations for parents and professionals working with language-delayed DOD children. The results indicated that a significant number of ratings suggested ELDs, with a subset significantly delayed. These children likely require further evaluation. Among the less delayed group, ASL skills, rather than communication or cognition, were seen as the major concern, suggesting that even DOD children may require support developing linguistically accurate ASL. Overall, these findings support the need for early and ongoing evaluation of visual language skills in young DOD children.

Classrooms are complex learning environments, with instruction, climate, and teacher--student interactions playing important roles in students' academic progress. To investigate the learning environments of deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) students, we developed a new observational tool called the Quality of the Learning Environment-DHH rating scale (QLE-DHH) and rated 98 teachers of DHH students being educated in a range of classroom environments. The present study sought to (1) determine if the items on the QLE-DHH are good indicators of theoretically meaningful dimensions of classroom quality; (2) determine to what extent these dimensions predicted language and reading outcomes of DHH students; and (3) examine how teachers of DHH students were rated on the indicators of classroom quality. The findings suggested that the QLE-DHH has excellent structural validity. Ratings predicted student reading outcomes. Finally, the QLE-DHH was able to capture teachers' strengths and skills in need of improvement. The QLE-DHH appears to hold promise for use in both research and teacher preparation programs.

In the current study, we used a sequential explanatory design to examine secondary writing instruction for deaf students in various school settings. An examination of secondary writing instruction was carried out in two cycles using a survey and subsequent focus group discussions. The first cycle (n = 222) presented an overview of secondary writing instruction for deaf students with diverse skill levels. The second cycle (n = 18) focused on writing instruction specific to grade-level or college-bound deaf students. We compared results from both cycles to investigate the similarities and differences in instructional practices and research needs between the two groups. We found that teachers are generally more prepared to instruct deaf students who are at grade level due to widely available curricula aligned with grade-level benchmarks. This contrasts with the challenges teachers face with creating or adapting materials for those who have experienced language deprivation. According to teachers, grade-level students receive 1.5 hr more weekly in writing instruction compared to the full sample. This study also indicates the importance of training teachers to teach skills in crafting arguments through writing, given its applicability to deaf students' future academic and personal goals.

This article reports on speech-language pathologists' (SLPs') knowledge related to myths about spoken language learning of children who are deaf and hard of hearing (DHH). The broader study was designed as a step toward narrowing the research-practice gap and providing effective, evidence-based language services to children. In the broader study, SLPs (n = 106) reported their agreement/disagreement with myth statements and true statements (n = 52) about 7 clinical topics related to speech and language development. For the current report, participant responses to 7 statements within the DHH topic were analyzed. Participants exhibited a relative strength in bilingualism knowledge for spoken languages and a relative weakness in audiovisual integration knowledge. Much individual variation was observed. Participants' responses were more likely to align with current evidence about bilingualism if the participants had less experience as an SLP. The findings provide guidance on prioritizing topics for speech-language pathology preservice and professional development.

This study addressed the critical gap in research on the academic English vocabulary knowledge of deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) students at the college level, with a specific focus on academic English verbs. An English vocabulary test was developed to assess knowledge of academic verbs at three distinct corpus-defined lexical frequency ranges. The test was administered to the DHH students along with two comparison groups of college peers--students of English as an Additional Language (EAL) and hearing native-English-speaking students. Results revealed near-ceiling performance by hearing native speakers but significant vocabulary challenges in the DHH and EAL learner groups, who exhibited parallel lexical knowledge. Learner group performance increased as verb frequency range increased and as overall English proficiency level increased. The findings demonstrate that lexical frequency effects guide English verb acquisition in the targeted populations.

This longitudinal multiple-case study research focused on the scaffolding strategies that two Israeli deaf mothers use to boost their young hearing children's engagement in reading interactions. Despite being significant to language learning, few studies have examined the dialogic reading practices of deaf-signing mothers. The study shows that until the age of 22 months, the mothers shared picture books with their children. Between the ages of 12 to 24 months, the mothers used mostly low-demand cognitive prompts and responsive utterances. Between the ages of 24 to 36 months, they used more high-demand prompts (including open-ended questions) and expanded their responses. In line with previous studies, this research demonstrated that the Israeli deaf mothers used the books as a foundation for storytelling and reading conversations. The shared reading provided the mothers with opportunities to model the construction of ISL narratives and language functional behaviors, such as asking questions, describing things or expanding on the text.

In Sri Lanka, about 300,000 Sinhala speaking people are either deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) and would benefit from a common Sinhala sign language, technological resources such as captioning, and educational and social support. There is no fully developed common sign language for members of the Sinhalese community, a severe shortage of sign language interpreters, and few resources for teachers. This exploratory study was undertaken in all nine provinces of Sri Lanka into the use of sign language, access to education for people with disabilities, and the availability of trained or qualified educators to work with the DHH people. Data were gathered via interviews and focus groups with Special Education Assistant Directors, Principals and Teachers in Deaf Schools, and Teachers of Special Education Deaf Units in mainstream schools. The DHH members of Sri Lankan society are marginalized, under-supported, and require urgent attention to their educational and social needs. This study provides a basis for much needed attention and reform.

There is great variability in the ways in which the speech intelligibility of d/Deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children who use spoken language as part, or all, of their communication system is measured. This systematic review examined the measures and methods that have been used when examining the speech intelligibility of children who are DHH and the characteristics of these measures and methods. A systematic database search was conducted of CENTRAL; CINAHL; Cochrane; ERIC; Joanna Briggs; Linguistics, Language and Behavior Abstracts; Medline; Scopus; and Web of Science databases, as well as supplemental searches. A total of 204 included studies reported the use of many different measures/methods which measured segmental aspects of speech, with the most common being Allen et al.'s (2001, The reliability of a rating scale for measuring speech intelligibility following pediatric cochlear implantation. "Otology and Neurotology," 22(5), 631-633. https://doi.org/10.1097/00129492-200109000-00012) Speech Intelligibility Rating scale. Many studies included insufficient details to determine the measure that was used. Future research should utilize methods/measures with known psychometric validity, provide clear descriptions of the methods/measures used, and consider using more than one measure to account for limitations inherent in different methods of measuring the speech intelligibility of children who are DHH, and consider and discuss the rationale for the measure/method chosen.

Purpose: The present study investigates the perception of vowel nasality in French-speaking children with cochlear implants (CIs; CI group) and children with typical hearing (TH; TH group) aged 4-12 years. By investigating the vocalic nasality feature in French, the study aims to document more broadly the effects of the acoustic limitations of CI in processing segments characterized by acoustic cues that require optimal spectral resolution. The impact of various factors related to children's characteristics, such as chronological/auditory age, age of implantation, and exposure to cued speech, has been studied on performance, and the acoustic characteristics of the stimuli in perceptual tasks have also been investigated. Method: Identification and discrimination tasks involving French nasal and oral vowels were administered to two groups of children: 13 children with CIs (CI group) and 25 children with TH (TH group) divided into three age groups (4-6 years, 7-9 years, and 10-12 years). French nasal vowels were paired with their oral phonological counterpart (phonological pairing) as well as to the closest oral vowel in terms of phonetic proximity (phonetic pairing). Post hoc acoustic analyses of the stimuli were linked to the performance in perception. Results: The results indicate an effect of the auditory status on the performance in the two tasks, with the CI group performing at a lower level than the TH group. However, the scores of the children in the CI group are well above chance level, exceeding 80%. The most common errors in identification were substitutions between nasal vowels and phonetically close oral vowels as well as confusions between the phoneme /u/ and other oral vowels. Phonetic pairs showed lower discrimination performance in the CI group with great variability in the results. Age effects were observed only in TH children for nasal vowel identification, whereas in children with CIs, a positive impact of cued speech practice and early implantation was found. Differential links between performance and acoustic characteristics were found within our groups, suggesting that in children with CIs, selective use of certain acoustic features, presumed to be better transmitted by the implant, leads to better perceptual performance. Conclusions: The study's results reveal specific challenges in children with CIs when processing segments characterized by fine spectral resolution cues. However, the CI children in our study appear to effectively compensate for these difficulties by utilizing various acoustic cues assumed to be well transmitted by the implant, such as cues related to the temporal resolution of stimuli.

Purpose: This study builds upon an established effective training method to investigate the advantages of high variability phonetic identification training for enhancing lexical tone perception and production in Mandarin-speaking pediatric cochlear implant (CI) recipients, who typically face ongoing challenges in these areas. Method: Thirty-two Mandarin-speaking children with CIs were quasirandomly assigned into the training group (TG) and the control group (CG). The 16 TG participants received five sessions of high variability phonetic training (HVPT) within a period of 3 weeks. The CG participants did not receive the training. Perception and production of Mandarin tones were administered before (pretest) and immediately after (posttest) the completion of HVPT via lexical tone recognition task and picture naming task. Both groups participated in the identical pretest and posttest with the same time frame between the two test sessions. Results: TG showed significant improvement from pretest to posttest in identifying Mandarin tones for both trained and untrained speech stimuli. Moreover, perceptual learning of HVPT significantly facilitated trainees' production of T1 and T2 as rated by a cohort of 10 Mandarin-speaking adults with normal hearing, which was corroborated by acoustic analyses revealing improved fundamental frequency (F0) median for T1 and T2 production and enlarged F0 movement for T2 production. In contrast, TG children's production of T3 and T4 showed nonsignificant changes across two test sessions. Meanwhile, CG did not exhibit significant changes in either perception or production. Conclusions: The results suggest a limited and inconsistent transfer of perceptual learning to lexical tone production in children with CIs, which challenges the notion of a robust transfer and highlights the complexity of the interaction between perceptual training and production outcomes. Further research on individual differences with a longitudinal design is needed to optimize the training protocol or tailor interventions to better meet the diverse needs of learners.

Objectives: We provide a novel application of psycholinguistic theories and methods to the field of auditory training to provide preliminary data regarding which minimal pair contrasts are more difficult for listeners with typical hearing to distinguish in real-time. Design: Using eye-tracking, participants heard a word and selected the corresponding image from a display of four: the target word, two unrelated words, and a word from one of four contrast categories (i.e., voiced-initial [e.g., "peach-beach"], voiced-final [e.g., "back-bag"], manner-initial [e.g., "talk-sock"], and manner-final [e.g., "bat-bass"]). Results: Fixations were monitored to measure how strongly words compete for recognition depending on the contrast type (voicing, manner) and location (word-initial or final). Manner contrasts competed more for recognition than did voicing contrasts, and contrasts that occurred in word-final position were harder to distinguish than word-initial position. Conclusion: These results are an important initial step toward creating an evidence-based hierarchy for auditory training for individuals who use cochlear implants.

Graduate Records Examinations (GRE) remain an important criterion for admission to the graduate program. This study explored the predictive role of the GRE for college success among deaf students because most deaf and hard-of-hearing students experience lifelong difficulties in English language and literacy because of their different language acquisition processes. Additionally, the study examined the students' undergraduate grade point average (UGPA), first-semester grade point average (FSGPA), and graduating graduate grade point average (GGPA) to understand D/HH students' performance in a graduate program. Additionally, the study examined the use of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) as a substitute for the GRE criterion for graduate admission. The findings' discussions offer suggestions for using GRE scores in admitting D/HH students to graduate academic programs across the United States.

One of the most important recommendations in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted at the UN Summit in 2015 was "No one will be left behind". Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer pointed out that the dominant form of music education in training musicians is Romantic or Dionysian. Schafer finds this type of music education subjective and hedonistic and develops the concept of soundscape and sound education to enable "public" traffic between the sound environment and the children. Schafer's goal was to realize the social welfare element of sound or a Universal Design. To modify the Dionysian approach to music education and to construct a type of public music education based on physicality and Universal Design, the Japanese music educators and academics Shigeshita, Tsubonou, and Murao referred to music that assumes a virtual external audience (such as a club-type class chorus) as "music of the stage" and proposed that the "music of the square" is the opposite concept. This concept has affinities with Schafer's sound education. This paper aims to explore how music education should be developed in keeping with the goal of "no one will be left behind." For this, the future reconstruction of music is examined through an action research and philosophical studies based on sound education by Sumie Tonosaki, which was conducted at a school for the deaf in Aomori Prefecture from 2014 to 2016. Action research was conducted in a joint class of an elementary, junior high, and special needs school in Japan through a class titled, "Let's create a new soundscape by finding existing sounds," held in October 2021, in collaboration with children with special needs, elementary, and junior high school children of the Faculty of Education at Hirosaki University, based on the following practical activities: 1) experiencing environmental sounds via a soundwalk; 2) recording sounds of interest with a tablet device; 3) uploading recordings to the cloud; 4) converting URLs into QR codes; 5) exchanging QR codes between schools; and 6) playing sounds with a tablet device and improvisation (steps 3 and 4 were completed by teachers). The results revealed the possibility of an equal and creative classroom practice for deaf, elementary, junior high, and special needs children.

This study investigates teacher satisfaction with available assistive technology (AT) for students with sensory impairments in their classrooms. The study group included teachers of deaf and hard of hearing (Dhh) and blind and visually impaired students in Najran region, a southern city in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The findings suggest that teachers of students with sensory impairments feel that their schools should provide them with updated AT to better serve their students. Additionally, the results indicate that satisfaction with the available AT was not impacted by the teacher's gender. This study reinforces that more AT must be provided for students with sensory impairments. In addition to increasing the availability of AT, schools should educate teachers on techniques associated with implementing AT in their classrooms. This study confirms the importance of the technology in the educational process and the success of achieving its objectives.

During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, many universities in the United States converted face-to-face classroom teaching to remote, online based learning formats. Gallaudet University was among these universities and faced particular challenges due to the need for visually accessible classrooms for d/Deaf students. Because college students are primarily made up of early and emerging adults, and d/Deaf college students have been shown to have better academic success when social connection is fostered, the current study sought to determine how d/Deaf students at Gallaudet University were emotionally impacted by the change to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The research question for this study was: How did the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent emergency switch to online course participation influence college students' experience of well-being, self-efficacy, and loneliness? Results indicated that overall, d/Deaf students at Gallaudet university had positive emotional adjustment during this transition, despite challenges. Discussion describes within-group differences by age and how the University supported students and the campus community to encourage this positive outcome.

Although pedagogy focused on social justice, power, and privilege have been included in teacher preparatory programs for a number of years, such topics are much newer and relatively unexplored within the context of Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) preprofessional programs. This reflection provides information on use of a living document assignment to encourage undergraduate CSD students to grapple with these difficult topics (e.g., privilege, oppression, social justice, allyship) early in their professional careers resulting in benefits for the students, their future clients, and the field of CSD.