Deaf and hearing individuals' beliefs about the capabilities of deaf people

The study explored the beliefs of 100 residents of Greece about the capabilities of deaf people living in that country. Participants included deaf adults who communicated in Greek Sign Language (GSL), deaf adults who communicated orally, hearing adults who attended GSL courses, and hearing adults who did not attend such courses. Beliefs were explored through the ODP (Opinions About Deaf People) scale (Berkay, Gardner, & Smith, 1995) and an open-ended interview. All participant groups viewed deaf people's capabilities positively, but Deaf users of GSL expressed the most positive beliefs. The findings suggest that less positive beliefs reflect diverse ideological views toward GSL and Deaf culture or an awareness of the obstacles preventing deaf people from developing their potential. The Deaf community's role in empowering deaf people and the role of GSL courses in promoting awareness regarding deaf people are also discussed.     

Self-concept in hearing and prelingual, profoundly deaf students. A comparison of teachers' perceptions.

A self-concept measure was administered to a group of 68 deaf students aged 8-19 years and a comparison group of 68 hearing students. Teachers for both of the groups completed observer reports of self-concept. Although tentative, the findings indicate that hearing teachers' perceptions of students' self-concepts are in closer agreement for hearing students than they are for deaf students. At the same time, the results show that deaf students do not appear markedly different from hearing students in their own reports of self-concept.     

A comparison of the vocal patterns of deaf and hearing mother-infant dyads during face-to-face interactions

This study was part of a longitudinal investigation of the impact of deafness on the cognitive, social, and communicative development of infants. The current study reports analyses of the vocalizations of deaf and hearing infants and their Deaf or hearing mothers during normal face-to-face interactions when the infants were 9 months old. Results indicate essentially no differences in the amount of positive or negative vocalizations emitted by infants in any of the four groups observed. However, there is a heightened use of vocal games by hearing mothers interacting with deaf infants, indicating that these mothers are incorporating several additional sensory modalities into their vocal expressions. This is interpreted as one way in which parents make their vocal communication more salient and accessible to an infant with a hearing loss. Deaf mothers are also highly active and engaged with their infants, but have been found to rely more extensively on vigorous tactile contact rather than auditory input during these same interactions.     

Reading comprehension and information processing strategies

The present study investigated the relationship between the reading comprehension and information processing strategies of relatively fluent oral readers of Oriya orthography. The study was necessary, because Oriya orthography has some significant differences from English orthography and these differences could bear implications for the reading strategies and processes. Hence, it was envisaged that findings in the field of reading research using English orthography may not hold good for the readers of Oriya orthography. One hundred students of grade V were taken as subjects in the present study. Reading comprehension tasks simultaneous and successive information processing tasks and a nonverbal measure of intelligence were administered to all the subjects. Results show that good comprehenders were relatively more intelligent than the poor comprehenders. So far as their performance on simultaneous and successive information processing strategies were concerned good cornprehenders were better off on both types of coding tasks and these differences were found to be statistically significant even after the effect of intelligence was partialled out. However, no differential proficiency on either of these coding strategies was observed neither for the good nor for the poor comprehender group.     

Counselling in order to develop tolerance between hearing people and deaf people in bicultural working groups

When hearing people and deaf people work together, two languages and two cultures come into contract. The purpose of this study is to describe some necessary prerequisites for social interaction in bicultural groups between hearing people and deaf people working together. The method used was one in-depth interview. The result indicated the need for counselling on an individual level as well as on a group level. On an individual level the motivation for contract and positive attitudes toward on another were most frequently reported. On the group level the ability to collaborate and hearing colleagues' competence in sign-language were most frequently reported. A combined counselling and guidance model was suggested on both levels. Furthermore, regarding the working group, group therapeutic approaches were also needed. Counsellors proficient in sign-language were suggested.     

When parents are deaf versus hard of hearing: patterns of sign use and school placement of deaf and hard-of-hearing children

This paper investigates the importance of knowing whether or not deaf and hard-of-hearing students have one or more deaf or hard-of-hearing parents. As noted by Mitchell and Karchmer (2004), deaf and hard-of-hearing school-age children and youth in the United States with at least one parent identified as "hearing impaired" are nearly evenly split between having at least one deaf parent and having at least one hard-of-hearing parent. However, there is no literature on the importance, if any, of this distinction. Findings from the investigation reported herein suggest that the distinction between having a deaf versus a hard-of-hearing parent is quite substantial, particularly as it pertains to the use of signing in the home. Further, signing in the home, which is reliably predicted by parental hearing status, is a significant predictor of the school setting in which the student is currently placed and the instructional use of signing in the classroom. Limitations related to the available measure of parental hearing status are discussed.     

HIV/AIDS knowledge and information sources among deaf and hearing college students

A sample of 34 deaf undergraduate college students at Gallaudet University and 46 hearing undergraduate college students at the University of Maryland Baltimore County completed a questionnaire that asked about their knowledge and sources of information concerning the human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS). The deaf students had significantly lower scores on an "HIV/AIDS Knowledge Index" than the hearing students. This difference could not be explained by the deaf students' gender, class standing, family structure, or father's or mother's education level. The deaf students obtained more of their information about HIV/AIDS from family and friends than the hearing students, who relied to a greater extent on teachers, television, and reading material. The interpersonal sources used by the deaf students are more prone to factual errors than formal sources. Deaf students need methods of educating themselves about HIV/AIDS that are more accurate and that recognize the importance of sources as well as the content of information.     

Three suggested teaching strategies for students who are deaf or hard of hearing

This paper addresses current issues in deaf education including poor academic progress and employment outcomes of individuals who are deaf and hard of hearing (D/HH) as well as provides suggestions for improving overall academic achievement of this population. Specifically, three instructional strategies are recommended for teachers: choral responding, response cards, and peer tutoring. These three strategies have been shown to increase active student responding in classrooms for children who are typically developing and children who have disabilities. For international deaf students in countries that may rely on volunteers who lack basic requisite skills these general education teaching strategies are easy to use even by novice teachers. Recommendations are tendered for how teachers can include these simple teaching strategies in classrooms serving students who are D/HH.     

Parents of deaf children seeking hearing loss-related information on the internet: the Australian experience

Parents whose children are diagnosed in an infant screening program are required to make some difficult choices about the management of the hearing loss at a time when they are emotionally vulnerable. They are required to evaluate information and outcomes regarding issues such as technology for hearing impairment, communication options, education, and rehabilitation. The World Wide Web has become an important resource of health information for both health consumers and practitioners. The ability to obtain accurate health information online quickly, conveniently, and privately provides opportunity to make informed decisions. However, little is known about the level of the use of the Internet to acquire health information, particularly in the case of parents of deaf children seeking information. This study confirms that searches for health information on the Internet are conducted primarily by mothers. In the Australian context, there is minimal online information available to families beyond early intervention. Information on education issues, mental health, and deafness or the day-to-day management of a child or adolescent with a hearing loss are neglected topics on Web sites. This study also revealed that the majority of respondents had never visited HealthInsite or Medline Plus, two gateway sites for reliable consumer health information, although the information on these sites is more generic in nature and unlikely to assist parents to make informed choices on complex issues such as communication options or education. However, the study suggested that half the parents have talked to their doctor or hearing professional about information they found on the Internet, which is an encouraging tendency.     

Learning to look in the right place: a comparison of attentional behavior in deaf children with deaf and hearing mothers

Eleven 18-month-old children with profound prelingual hearing loss were video-recorded in a free-play session with their mothers. Five of the mothers were profoundly deaf and fluent users of British Sign Language (BSL) or Auslan. The other six were hearing and had enrolled in a signing program. Ten-minute segments from each session were analyzed to determine the number of switches in attention shown by each child. Switches in attention were subdivided into three categories: spontaneous (where the child spontaneously looked to the mother); responsive (where the child responded to some maternal action such as moving an object); and elicited (where the mother made a direct attempt to gain the child's attention. Failed attempts to gain attention were also noted. A comparison of deaf and hearing mothers revealed no difference in the proportion of spontaneous or responsive switches in attention shown by their children. Responsive switches were by far the most frequent category for both groups, but these most commonly focused on objects and did not provide an opportunity for maternal signing. Successful perception of signing typically followed from spontaneous or elicited attentional switches. Deaf mothers were generally more insistent on their children turning to look at them, and they were more successful in eliciting attentional switches although they also had more failed attempts. These overall differences between the two groups were overshadowed by large individual differences within the groups. Within the sample there were both deaf and hearing mothers who achieved successful signed communication with their children.     

Comparing motor development of deaf children of deaf parents and deaf children of hearing parents

Deaf children of Deaf parents perform better academically (Ritter-Brinton & Stewart, 1992), linguistically (Courtin, 2000; M. Harris, 2001; Vaccari & Marschark, 1997), and socially (Hadadian & Rose, 1991; M. Harris, 2001) than Deaf children of hearing parents. Twenty-nine Deaf children in residential schools were assessed to determine if a significant difference also exists in motor development between Deaf children with Deaf parents and Deaf children with hearing parents. In the locomotor area, 78.6% of Deaf children of Deaf parents and 73.3% of Deaf children of hearing parents reached or surpassed average performance levels. In regard to object control, 92.9% of Deaf children of Deaf parents and 93.3% of Deaf children of hearing parents reached or surpassed average performance levels. The study results show no significant difference between the motor development of Deaf children of Deaf parents and Deaf children of hearing parents.