This paper presents a study of children's use of fingerspelling. It is part of a larger longitudinal ethnographic study of deaf children, who were 3-6 years old when the study started. They are early signers using Swedish Sign Language in communication with teachers and peers. The aim of this paper is to examine the different functions which…

The purpose of this study was to examine the story behind one young deaf child who demonstrated exceptional early mathematical competence and the individual and family characteristics that might have contributed to his success. As an outlier, this child achieved a score on a test of early mathematical ability that was two standard deviations…

The Gallaudet Research Institute confirms a 22.5 per cent increase from 2.7 per cent (2000) to 25.2 per cent (2011) in deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) students whose parents use a language "other" than English or American sign language (ASL) at home. These DHH students who are also English language learners (ELLs) struggle to learn English, perhaps…

This study examined different perspectives of deaf education practitioners on deafness and reading comprehension. This involved a full deaf education support team comprising teachers of the deaf, communication support workers, and deaf instructors from a UK citywide service covering early years, primary and secondary settings. Using a focus group…

This paper reviews the impact that cochlear implantation has had on the practice of deaf education in terms of educational placement, communication choices, and educational attainments. Although there is variation in outcome, more children with implants are going to mainstream schools, and using spoken language as their primary means of…

Although speechreading has always served an important role in the communication of deaf people, educational interest in speechreading has decreased in recent decades. This paper reviews speechreading in terms of speech processing, neural activity and literacy, and suggests that it has an important role in intervention programmes for all deaf…

This paper discusses the experiences of parents of deaf children with additional complex needs (ACN) in accessing cochlear implant (CI) services and achieving ongoing support. Of a total study group of fifty-one children with ACN, twelve had been fitted with a CI. The parental accounts provide a rich and varied picture of service access. For some…

Auditory perception with cochlear implants (CIs) enables the majority of deaf children with normal learning potential to develop (near) age-appropriate spoken language. As a consequence, a large proportion of children now attend mainstream education from an early stage. The acoustical environment in kindergartens and schools, however, might be…

In the last two decades the population of deaf children has changed dramatically in these countries where universal hearing screening, early intervention, digital hearing aids, and cochlear implants are available. Most of these children can now acquire intelligible spoken language and they go to mainstream school in larger proportions. But…

The evolving technology of the cochlear implant has provided profoundly deaf children with increased access to classroom content and as a result expanded their academic potential. Colleges and universities provide a range of options available and offer opportunities for higher education that was previously reserved for a small group. However, the…

Studies carried out to support the existence of a critical period for language acquisition have concentrated mainly on the case of being in total deprivation from language contact, and in particular deprivation from auditory input in the entire time span before puberty. While arguing for a useful distinction between early and late critical…

Decades of research have demonstrated that deaf children generally lag behind hearing peers in terms of academic achievement, and that lags in some areas may never be overcome fully. Hundreds of research and intervention studies have been aimed at improving the situation, but they have resulted in only limited progress. This paper examines…

This study investigated mental health problems in 54 deaf adolescents between 11 and 18 years of age residing in the states of New South Wales and Tasmania in Australia. Mental health problems were assessed using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ; Goodman, 1997). The SDQ Self Report was translated into Australian Sign Language…

Little research has been undertaken into the profession of British Sign Language (BSL) teaching, despite a huge increase in the number of BSL classes offered over the past twenty years. Following the introduction of Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills standards in 2007, BSL teachers working in "further education" (FE) colleges were required to…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the support that exists for deaf students in the transition between further education and school into higher education in the UK. Deaf students make applications to higher education from a variety of educational institutions, such as Specialist Colleges for the Deaf, hearing impaired units within…