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Studies on various sign languages have pointed out that some kind of mouth action co-occur in sign language utterances together with other body components. Although the consistency of such phenomenon has been studied in adult signing, no research has been conducted so far on the mouth actions occurring in the signing of school-aged children. In this paper, mouth actions will be described in a developmental perspective and paralleled with co-speech gestures of hearing children. In particular, mouth actions and manual gestures will be investigated in two groups of 10 bilingual Italian/Italian Sign Language (LIS) deaf and hearing children (from 6 to 14 yrs old) by using a naming task. The aim is to parallel quantitatively and qualitatively mouth actions and co-verbal gestures in order to understand their role with respect to sign and vocal naming. Furthermore, three adult signers were considered as models for understanding the typology and occurrence of mouth action in adult signing and compare it with children signing.

The aim of this study was to investigate, using an eye-tracking tool, the processes behind the exploration of written texts performed by deaf people with different language skills and different educational backgrounds. Our sample comprised 36 deaf participants (12 of whom use Italian sign language most of the time, 12 who use Italian only, and 12 who can use both languages) and 12 hearing participants who could not understand any sign language. This research shows how in respect of oculomotor movements the discriminant variable is linked to the different educational backgrounds and the reading habits of participants.

The present study examined whether full access to sign language as a medium for instruction could influence performance in Theory of Mind (ToM) tasks. Three groups of Italian participants (age range: 6-14 years) participated in the study: Two groups of deaf signing children and one group of hearing-speaking children. The two groups of deaf children differed only in their school environment: One group attended a school with a teaching assistant (TA; Sign Language is offered only by the TA to a single deaf child), and the other group attended a bilingual program (Italian Sign Language and Italian). Linguistic abilities and understanding of false belief were assessed using similar materials and procedures in spoken Italian with hearing children and in Italian Sign Language with deaf children. Deaf children attending the bilingual school performed significantly better than deaf children attending school with the TA in tasks assessing lexical comprehension and ToM, whereas the performance of hearing children was in between that of the two deaf groups. As for lexical production, deaf children attending the bilingual school performed significantly better than the two other groups. No significant differences were found between early and late signers or between children with deaf and hearing parents.

A picture naming task, the Boston Naming Test, originally developed for spoken language, has been adapted to Italian Sign Language in order to assess the vocabulary of Italian deaf signing children. Thirty deaf and thirty hearing children and adolescents (aged 6–14 years) participated in the study. In the deaf signing group, half of the children attended a bilingual school. Results show no significant differences between deaf and hearing participants in the number of correct responses provided, but do show interesting differences in the lexical accuracy observed for individual items and in error types reported for sign and speech. In the deaf group, children attending a bilingual school performed significantly better than those who did not attend a bilingual programme.

Purpose: In this paper, the accessibility of e-learning environments designed for deaf learners is discussed. Starting from a discussion of the meaning of text and web accessibility, the paper describes the development of a Deaf-centered E-Learning Environment (DELE) which focusing on utilizing the visual skills of the target users. This work is conducted under the auspices of the Italian FIRB-VISEL project (E-Learning, Deafness, Written Language: A Bridge of Letters and Signs Towards Knowledge Society) which involves the development of a distance learning environment aimed at improving the literacy skills of prelingual deaf children and young adults. Design/methodology/approach: The e-learning environment is based on embodied cognition/semantics, imitation, storytelling, and the construction of educational games. Conceptual metaphors provide the browsing structure of the entire environment, in which the learning paths are developed. Findings: DELE is currently undergoing testing in which end-users are providing feedback about their use of the system. Social implications: The authors think that DELE could positively affect the didactic methodology used with deaf young people, through a new visual-based approach to teaching. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first time in which such a theoretical approach has been applied to an e-learning environment for deaf users. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

When addressing linguistic problems of prelingual deaf people, research in the field of deaf education has proven how technology can enhance the quality of content transmission and of student's learning experience. E-learning facilities allows reaching isolated groups of deaf learners and address their pedagogical needs through an immersive and challenging learning environment. We will describe the working framework of the FIRB-VISEL project, aimed at creating an interactive e-learning environment where deaf people can improve their linguistic skills in the local language. In order to address both signers and non signers, we focus on how to convey information and learning strategies without losing track of their learning advancements and their motivation. We found that embodiment theory and its application to education could be beneficial. In this paper, we outline the path we have followed in the development of learning objects based on embodiment theory and their application to the field of deaf education. © 2011 IADIS.