Michigan State University > College of Education : JDSDE-Author-Corner : What Really Matters In the Early Literacy Development of Deaf Children? - messages

What Really Matters in the Early Literacy Development of Deaf Children? : re: conversational competence 1st?

coopae1 — Tue, 19 May 2009 14:21:13 GMT

I realize I'm over a year late on this. Time flies by so quickly and this is the first opportunity I've had to catch up with all of the good information on this website.

Dr. Mayer, you mentioned in one of your posts the difference in learning to read a logographic text like Chinese when there is little or no transfer to their oral language. I have always wondered how people do learn to read Chinese and if there is any way that information can be used in teaching children who are DHH to read English.

What Really Matters in the Early Literacy Development of Deaf Children? : re: Meat and Potatoes...what should I be doing to help my deaf child?

Lhlawton — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 12:45:24 GMT

To the mom (and teacher) looking for a way to teach English to her child and therefore give her better access to the written language, I would seriously urge you to investigate Cued Speech as the last writer just mentioned. It is vastly different from Visual Phonics in that it can present visually the entire English language as it is spoken in connected speech. It was invented 40 years ago to address this exact crisis and that is the literacy level of deaf children. Many school systems in the county have been using it (including Fairfax, VA where I'm a teacher of the deaf) and more research in this country is being done all the time. Advocates include DR. Carol LaSasso at Gallaudet, Dr. Kelly Crain in Florida and Dr. Charles Berlin, formerly of Tulane University and now also in Florida. Anyone who is seriously concerned about reading levels and access to English for children who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing needs to learn about Cued Speech.

What Really Matters in the Early Literacy Development of Deaf Children? : re: Meat and Potatoes...what should I be doing to help my deaf child?

kristie — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 18:15:01 GMT

Anyone interested in the benefits and ways of facilitating phonemic awareness, reading,writing, vocabulary, and overall English language competency for Deaf and hard of hearing children should learn more about Cued Speech. One of many links on Google is: http://www.cuedspeech.com/whatis.asp

What Really Matters in the Early Literacy Development of Deaf Children? : re: Meat and Potatoes...what should I be doing to help my deaf child?

cmayer — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 02:48:01 GMT

There tends to be less research in most areas of D/HH education than would be ideal. Intervention research - studying how well a strategy actually works after it is implemented - is even less common in our field. While not numerous, there are some intervention studies of VP - although of course it would be great to have more.

As for the question you are asking - I do know what you mean. I'd just point out that not all hearing children necessarily know the word once they have sounded it out. This varies from child to child. Some children have a more extensive language base when they begin reading than others and they just "know" more words.

This doesn't mean that sounding out a word is not necessary for learning to read - only that it is not enough. That's why working on vocabulary and language is part of a reading program for all learners.

Using VP helps learners at the sublexical level - by developing phonemic awareness. This helps with the decoding (e.g., sounding out) that is a necessary aspect of learning to read. But there also needs to be development of language at the level of English word and sentence. For children who can't access English via audition alone, some combination of auditory, visual (e.g., speechreading, signing, fingerspelling) and kinesthetic (e.g., mouthing) strategies can be used to provide this exposure to English.

The example presented in the visual phonics workshop I attended was the word "cast" - which many D/HH misread as "cats". D/HH children using VP recognize that it is "cast" not "cats" - which they demonstrate by using the VP cues with mouthing and/or voicing. This is when the teacher or parent can explain the meaning of the unknown word using sign language etc. - not unlike what a teacher of hearing children would do.

It's also important to emphasize that VP is not a program, but a tool that would be employed in a well designed literacy program that focusses on both meaning and form.

What Really Matters in the Early Literacy Development of Deaf Children? : re: Meat and Potatoes...what should I be doing to help my deaf child?

sbechard — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 22:33:12 GMT

I am interested in knowing more, and have been looking into a few articles on VP myself - I do see many times where the lack of research is noted, and that is a concern. One thing that is very curious to me is the idea of this...

When I think about my hearing daughter sounding-out words, she has the language background to have the word make sense to her as she says it, even if it's a word she hasn’t seen before. For instance, if she sounds-out a new word in print like “dragon”, she knows what a dragon is, hears it flow together, and can relate meaning to that. However, if my deaf daughter got to the point where she could use Visual Phonics to “sight-out” the same word – even if she did so correctly with the visual symbols, she still wouldn’t have that auditory link to the word, and therefore no meaning attached to it. Does that make sense? It makes me curious as to how that can improve reading? Can anyone out there help me understand that – is there something I am missing that answers that question?

What Really Matters in the Early Literacy Development of Deaf Children? : re: on the topic of writing influenced by sound...

cmayer — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 01:17:52 GMT

I couldn't agree with you more! You are describing an excellent strategy for helping students make the link between face to face language and text. This is a strategy that we discuss regularly with the candidates in our D/HH teacher preparation programme.

What Really Matters in the Early Literacy Development of Deaf Children? : re: Meat and Potatoes...what should I be doing to help my deaf child?

cmayer — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 01:13:51 GMT

Thanks so much for the feedback on the article. It's nice to hear that it helped to clarify some issues for you. As for your questions, visual phonics has definitely been used successfully with students who use signed language as their primary means of communication. As you suggest, it plays a role in teaching reading and is a visual cue that is added to the mouthing and the signing. I'd refer you to the studies by Beverly Trezek published in JDSDE.

I need to say that I am not an expert in visual phonics so I invite others to contribute here - but my understanding is that one of the main differences betweem Cued Speech and Visual Phonics is that the first is a communication approach (used on an ongoing basis) and the second is an intervention for teaching reading, specifically phonemic awareness. Hope this makes sense.

What Really Matters in the Early Literacy Development of Deaf Children? : re: on the topic of writing influenced by sound...

Robin — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 00:58:53 GMT

My deaf son will write a paragraph, in English.
We have found that the best way for him to correct it, is by reading it out loud.
We struggled with the many errors that were showing up in his writing...but not in his "speech."
If he "says/hears" what he writes, the written errors are self corrected.
I wish I had known this trick earlier in the school year!
So, at home, we have also found that "reading aloud in English is a powerful pedagogical tool"...even for proof reading!

What Really Matters in the Early Literacy Development of Deaf Children? : re: Meat and Potatoes...what should I be doing to help my deaf child?

sbechard — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:54:51 GMT

Dr. mayer

Thank you so much. It is a relief to know that we are already using some of these strategies – but we definitely still have a long road ahead of us. Yesterday, I had a chance to read your article in it's entirety – what really struck me was your discussion about one of the main reasons English is so difficult to read and write for a child who doesn’t have a solid face-to-face language base, is because it is literally like a expecting them to suddenly know a foreign language. It seems so obvious, but yet, until I read that succinct comparison, the “light came on” – and I have already started signing somewhat differently with that in mind. I am still interested in getting the concept across clearly, and having her develop her beautiful natural language, but feel like the ASL my daughter learns comes very easily to her, while the English absolutely does not. I have started to model more of an English word order, syntax, etc. mainly for the exposure it gives her.

That doesn’t mean that I suddenly advocate SEE Sign over ASL, just that I am really recognizing that in order to read and write English, she has to have a solid knowledge of it – which will be very difficult for her, since she is so profoundly deaf. I also appreciated that you left the door open for both manual communication and oral communication as options.

I will definitely implement the strategies you’ve suggested, and am also planning to look into visual phonics. I’m curious, from your training, did they recommend it as a supplement to signing? For instance, was it supposed to be used when you are specifically reading books and practicing reading, or more often? Also, can you briefly explain the difference between visual phonics, and cued speech/cued language – or are they basically the same?

What Really Matters in the Early Literacy Development of Deaf Children? : re: Meat and Potatoes...what should I be doing to help my deaf child?

cmayer — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 01:45:12 GMT

It sounds like you are already doing a lot of positive things for your daughter - but I do understand the feeling of panic when it comes to literacy learning. The more I learn about the process, the more amazed I am that ANY child ever learns to read and write!

Yet we do have evidence for pedagogical approaches which support early literacy development. I would not presume to plan a program for your daughter from a distance, but I do feel comfortable making some suggestions that I hope are helpful.

1. Provide lots of exposure to English in a face to face form - signing with Enlgish mouthing in a TC program does this well. Adding voice to the mouthing can be very helpful for children with CIs. Even when the CI alone doesn't provide enough auditory input for language learning, it can still provide auditory information that supports language development (e.g., pitch, intensity etc.).

2. Reading in English - again, sign with voice/mouthing. When reading simple books, pointing at the words helps make the child make the one to one connection between print and spoken/signed/mouthed word. You can start by letting her point while you read, you point while she reads, and finally she points and reads herself.

3. Storytelling and reading of books for pleasure. These would be those books that are beyond her for the purposes of "reading and pointing". This exposes her to story structure and the rich vocabulary of books.

4. Using a strategy like visual phonics or speechreading/mouthing to support the development of phonemic awareness - making that important sound to letter connection that allows children to decode words they have never seen in print before. While whole word recognition is fine, it is limited. You can't learn to recognize every word in the English language.

If you are interested in learning Visual Phonics (and I recently attended a workshop), the training takes only two days. Of course, it takes time to become fluent but it is nothing like learning to sign - although those who already know how to sign find it easier to learn the Visual Phonics cues. If you were to google visual phonics, you'd get to their website to find a training opportunity in your area. If you have trouble with this, please let me know.

5. Engage in lots of word plays and songs. This helps children develop the attention to the sounds of words, rhyme etc. that support early literacy learning. Just think about how most books for young children are written with this word play in mind (e.g., Hop on Pop).

While doing this is easier if you can use audition alone, it is possible to learn about the "sounds" of English via visual cues. It is not about having good speech - it's about developing phonological awareness. Visual phonics can be used in these activities, and as we were told in our workshop, "Mouth is a must, voice is a choice".

I hope some of these ideas are helpful but please let me know if you have any questions.

What Really Matters in the Early Literacy Development of Deaf Children? : re: phonics plays a role in writing

cmayer — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:53:03 GMT

You ask some very good questions. The short answer is that there are no studies to suggest that one language or modality over another guarantees literacy. There are children who have come from a range of language learning situations who have gone on to develop solid reading and writing abilities.

That said, in the paper I am suggesting that two components are key to literacy development whatever the communication approach. The first is that the child must have adequate exposure to some form of face to face English (spoken, signed, mouthed) so that the child develops knowledge of the English language before they begin to read and write. ASL does not provide this foundation - but it can be used in concert with English in a bilingual home. As I say in the paper, it is not the presence of ASL but the absence of English that is the issue. If you'd like to read more on this point, you could also look at the chapter on reading and writing in Educating Deaf Students: From Research to Practice by Marschark, Lang & Albertini (2002).

The second point is that children need to have some way to decode/encode English print at the sublexical (smaller than word) level. For hearing children this is what we often call "sounding out" the words (i.e., phonemic awareness). D/HH children can learn to "sound out" words using some combination of auditory, visual and kinesthetic strategies (e.g., mouthing, visual phonics etc.)when audition alone is not enough. Students with more significant losses tend to rely more on the visual and kinesthetic strategies than those with milder losses.

As for Cued Speech, there is more research on this topic in the European context than in North America. The work done there has shown that children have used Cued Speech to develop the phonological awareness that supports literacy development. If you are interested in further reading on this topic you could look at LaSasso, Crain & Leybeart (Summer, 2003) in JDSDE, Vol.8(3).

What Really Matters in the Early Literacy Development of Deaf Children? : re: on the topic of writing influenced by sound...

cmayer — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:14:47 GMT

Thanks for sharing your personal experience. It is certainly true that repetition plays a role in the language acquisition process for all children. This is an aspect of what I wrote about earlier when I talked about adequate exposure in quality and quantity to the target language whether it is spoken or signed.

It is also true that lots of interactions with books and print(e.g., reading, being read to, writing etc.) positively support early literacy development. However, in learning to read and write, children also need to make sense of the code (the alphabet) and the relationship it has to spoken English. For most children (hearing or D/HH)it is the case that this must be explicitly taught. Most don't learn it only by reading. This is where strategies like visual phonics come in.

Visual phonics is not meant to teach vocabulary - it helps children at the sublexical level. It helps them make sense of the phoneme-grapheme (letter-sound) connection so that they can say/sign/mouthe the word. That doesn't mean that they will necessarily know the word they have decoded when they say/sign it. That's where lots of experience communicating with English comes in - speaking, signing, reading etc. And it's also true that children who can decode more automatically tend to enjoy reading more as it is less of a struggle. This, along with being read to, helps them develop a love of books.

I guess I'm saying that this is not an either-or choice between meaning and form but a balance between the two. One last comment re: the issue of spelling. Hearing children also use invented spellings in the early stages (e.g., tim for time, ons for once), but this sorts itself out as they have continued experience with print in the standard form. It's not something I worry about.

What Really Matters in the Early Literacy Development of Deaf Children? : re: phonics plays a role in writing

bballard — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 16:15:26 GMT

Hi, the parent of a deaf/HOH child here, I'd like to ask a couple of questions if I may. You said, "some deaf learners have developed phonological awareness and become successful readers via visual strategies". Is the data available to determine if those deaf learners who have developed the best use of phonological awareness are children where ASL is the first language of the home or not? Is there statistical evidence available to draw a correlation between language of the home and development of phonological awareness? What about those children raised in a home with parents who utilize Cued Speech on a consistent basis? Is there a difference in this group's phonological awareness and ability to transfer that to writing?

Thanks for all of you information and study in this topic.

What Really Matters in the Early Literacy Development of Deaf Children? : re: on the topic of writing influenced by sound...

atussing — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 13:11:15 GMT

Well, being hard of hearing with deaf parents, I have had different learning strategies growing up. I attended an early development program at age two, and proceeded to develop my language skills from there. Although I did use auditory advantages, wearing a bone conductor, the most important thing to my advantage was repetition. I don't always believe that visual phonics is effective to a profoundly deaf child. It is used often at the residential school I work at, and there have been some complications to recognize a word and to spell it correctly. For example, if the word BLUE has its own symbols, without the symbol of "E" because you don't hear "E" in the word, students will sign the word BLU.

Visual Phonics does NOT, in my opinion promote vocabulary awareness. The only suggestion I make for this is to CONTINUE reading. Encourage the children to develop a love for it, and let their imaginations take ahold of them.

What Really Matters in the Early Literacy Development of Deaf Children? : Meat and Potatoes...what should I be doing to help my deaf child?

sbechard — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 22:35:00 GMT

Dr. Mayer,

Thank you for your thoughts and ideas on this extremely important subject. As a teacher of the deaf, I find the theoretical side of the discussion very interesting in regard to methods, choices, communication styles, etc. However, I am also the hearing parent of a 4-yr-old profoundly deaf child. I regularly feel a sense of panic when I consider how immense the process of learning to read will be for her, and how immeasurably important it is to her future success in so many areas.

With that in mind, can you please guide me to what you would consider the “meat and potatoes” of the research? In that, I mean, what specifically would you tell me to do to teach my deaf child to read proficiently? What strategies do you feel are most productive and beneficial? What should I be willing to learn as a parent?

To give you a very brief idea of our current situation, I am a fluent signer, and work in a school which advocates Total Communication. My daughter is a bilateral cochlear implant recipient, who is showing no real success with the CIs (whole other topic, I know). However, she is learning to sign beautifully and does attend a TC preschool.

For the sake of argument, let’s assume the auditory route, even with the CI’s, may not be very productive for her. Would you advocate I start using visual phonics along with the sign - or some other option? If so, where do I learn these things? How often do I use them? When do I start? Where do I get the materials? I feel the panic mode kicking in again…

Since I only have your expertise for a limited amount of time, I would sincerely appreciate your opinions and advice. I am open-minded and willing to consider different options in order to help her be a successful reader.

What Really Matters in the Early Literacy Development of Deaf Children? : re: phonics plays a role in writing

cmayer — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 16:06:30 GMT

I absolutely agree that visual phonics supports learners in the development of making phoneme-grapheme correspondences - in learning to write as well as to read. Many hearing children and some D/HH children sort this out without the support of visual phonics and it becomes evident in their use of invented spellings. This is one of the things I was writing about in the JDSDE article. However, visual phonics would provide that extra cue for children who need more support to make this sound-symbol connection - whether they are hearing or D/HH.

What Really Matters in the Early Literacy Development of Deaf Children? : re: phonics plays a role in writing

RachelNarr — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 16:01:13 GMT

Hi Everyone, Thought I might "chime in" here...
One of the other things teachers who use Visual Phonics have noticed is that it makes the spelling process more transparent for their students. To the extent that spelling is a part of writing...
Visual Phonics helps students see that MANY spellings can have one "sound" (or represent one phoneme). For example, "the long o sound" can be spelled oa, oe, ow, o_e, o... But it's all just "long o". SHOWING and explaining this to students helps them figure out the phonic patterns in spelling. I think this needs to be taught pretty explicitly to many students.

What Really Matters in the Early Literacy Development of Deaf Children? : re: Communication method and writing ability

DeafMom — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 20:43:27 GMT

Thank you, this is helpful.

What Really Matters in the Early Literacy Development of Deaf Children? : re: Communication method and writing ability

cmayer — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 20:02:01 GMT

When I am working with my teacher candidates (those teachers who are learning how to specialize in the education of D/HH learners), here are some of the things we discuss as to what should be in a effective literacy program. First there needs to be good assessment and evaluation so that the program can be designed to use the student's strengths to advantage and to address the areas of need. This includes both formal tests and more informal measures (e.g., a miscue analysis and a retell). From these assessments the teacher develops individual learning goals. A teacher should be able to explain to a parent why they have chosen particular goals and what strategies will be implemented to help a child meet these goals.

To my mind, a strong literacy program has a balance betweem more structured, bottom-up activities such as learning to decode and encode(e.g., developing those phoneme-grapheme links) and more top-down, meaning based activities (e.g., comprehension, using literacy for real purposes). The way I think about it is that children need to develop the skills to learn how to read and write, and also to learn how to using reading and writing as tools for further learning and for enjoyment. Depending on a child's assessment, the emphasis may be more on one area than another and the approaches may vary given a child's age. For example, a child just beginning to learn to read may spend more time on phonics and phonemic awareness but they should also have lots of opportunities to be read to and to use written language to label pictures, write stories etc. at centres or in lessons with the teacher. Ongoing assessment is also an important part of the process so that the teacher can keep track of how well goals are being met.

What Really Matters in the Early Literacy Development of Deaf Children? : re: Communication method and writing ability

DeafMom — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 14:34:15 GMT

Do you have some tips for parents on what we can watch for in our children's literacy programs at school? How can parents make sure that their child's school has an effective program for literacy development?