A commentary on Williams's (2012) invited article on the use of adapted vocabulary learning interventions focuses on three areas: (a) Vocabulary interventions with storybook reading originally designed for hearing children can be adapted for deaf children. (b) Teachers are invited to reflect on how the read-aloud process in English differs from…

The researcher investigated the use of three types of dictionaries while reading by high school students with severe to profound hearing loss. The objective of the study was to determine the effectiveness of each type of dictionary for acquiring the meanings of unknown vocabulary in text. The three types of dictionaries were (a) an online…

Postsecondary American Sign Language (ASL) students are capable of teaching short lessons related to sign language and Deaf culture to gifted students in elementary school. College students who work as "interest-area mentors" benefit gifted students while building their own academic discipline and professional skills. In Part 1 of a 2-part series…

A qualitative study was conducted that reflected an analysis of a 6-week poetry unit in a language arts classroom of 6th and 8th graders at a school for the deaf in a large city in the northeastern United States. The school served a large population of children of poverty who were of Latino and African American descent. The study was guided by 4…

Over time children's educational television has successfully modified programming to incorporate research-based strategies to facilitate learning and engagement during viewing. However, research has been limited on whether these same strategies would work with preschool deaf children viewing videos in American Sign Language. In a descriptive…

The authors present a perspective on emerging bilingual deaf students who are exposed to, learning, and developing two languages--American Sign Language (ASL) and English (spoken English, manually coded English, and English reading and writing). The authors suggest that though deaf children may lack proficiency or fluency in either language during…

Previous research on the reading abilities of Deaf individuals from various cultural groups suggests that Black Deaf and Hispanic Deaf individuals lag behind their White Deaf peers. The present study compared the reading skills of Black Deaf and White Deaf individuals, investigating the influence of American Sign Language (ASL), culture, family…

The ongoing debate on Deaf epistemologies reflects two major paradigms in deaf education: positivism and constructivism. The present article investigates Deaf epistemologies through a metaparadigm, which should blur the boundaries among different paradigms and connect the epistemological inquiry to instructional practice for d/Deaf students. The…

The standard epistemology requires the use of hard science to gain knowledge and discover the truth. In contrast, Deaf epistemology relies heavily on personal testimonies, personal experiences, and personal accounts to document knowledge. In recent years, a number of deaf schools have adopted deaf-centric policies shaped by Deaf epistemology in an…

Epistemology is examined from two different perspectives within the framework of a broader evolutionary epistemology. Within this framework, reality is not absolute, and truth is a relative concept. People construct individual or personal epistemologies through their experiences, and develop or receive group or socially constructed epistemologies…

Deaf epistemology constitutes the nature and extent of the knowledge that deaf individuals acquire growing up in a society that relies primarily on audition to navigate life. Deafness creates beings who are more visually oriented compared to their auditorily oriented peers. How hearing individuals interact with deaf individuals shapes how deaf…

Deaf adults' access to smoking cessation programs is limited due to cultural, linguistic, and geographic barriers. Web-based stop-smoking interventions have demonstrated cessation rates comparable to other interventions. The Internet is widely used by Deaf adults, but difficulties with online English text remain. We found no published accounts of…

Mounting evidence points to joint attention as a mediating variable in children's adaptive behavior. Joint attention in interactions between hearing mothers and congenitally deaf (n = 27) and hearing (n = 29) children, ages 18-36 months, was examined. All deaf children had severe to profound hearing loss. Mother-child interactions were coded for…

The study compared psychosocial risk behaviors of adolescents who were deaf or hard of hearing with those of their hearing peers in a residential treatment facility. Statistically significant differences emerged between groups. The adolescents who were deaf or hard of hearing demonstrated clinically higher scores than those of their hearing peers…

Teachers of students with "low-incidence" disabilities, such as students who are deaf or hard of hearing, face unique challenges in putting education policy into practice. The present article presents professional development findings from the Third Annual National Survey of Accommodations and Assessment for Students Who Are Deaf or Hard of…