Reading vocabulary knowledge and deafness

With respect to reading vocabulary knowledge and deafness, this article addresses two broad questions: (1) Why is vocabulary knowledge related to reading comprehension ability? (2) How is reading vocabulary (i.e., word meanings) acquired? The article argues that the answers to these questions are best addressed by a vocabulary acquisition model labeled the knowledge model. In essence, this model asserts that both breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge are critical. It is necessary to teach vocabulary, especially to poor readers, who are not likely to derive many word meanings from the use of context during natural or deliberate reading situations. On the basis of theoretical and research syntheses, the article offers implications for vocabulary instruction for deaf children and adolescents.     

A compelling desire for deafness

A case is described of a patient who has a compelling and persistent desire to become deaf. She often kept cotton wool moistened with oil in her ears and was learning sign language. Living without sound appeared to be a severe form of avoidance behavior from hyperacusis and misophonia. She had a borderline personality disorder that was associated with a poor sense of self. Her desire to be deaf may be one aspect of gaining an identity for herself and to compensate for feeling like an alien and gaining acceptance in the Deaf community. Will a compelling desire for deafness ever become a recognized mental disorder one day for which hearing patients may be offered elective deafness after a period of assessment and living like a deaf person? Those working in the field of deafness should be aware that individuals may occasionally be seeking elective deafness or self-inflicting deafness to obtain a hearing aid.     

Seeing the deaf in "deafness"

This article draws on some of the existing literature on the politics of identity and representation as related to minority group formation. It applies this to constructions of Deaf2 identity from a cultural and linguistic perspective and contrasts this with dominant constructions of Deaf people as disabled. It highlights a number of ways in which Deaf identity differs from disabled identity, demonstrating that the cultural and linguistic construction of Deaf people is a more useful tool for analysis. It raises questions aimed to examine the discourse on deafness and seeks further debate on how best the discourse can be progressed. The article raises issues related to the use of terminology and labeling in the field of deafness. It contends that the continued use of the word deafness is unworkable and should be more widely recognized as a social construct, which has current usage beyond the paradigm in which it was originally intended. The article concludes by recognizing the importance of diversity in identity formation, while simultaneously calling for an appreciation of the need to incorporate this diversity within wider theorizing, focused on commonality and cohesion in identity as a source of collective expression and political mobilization.     

Pure word deafness associated with extrapontine myelinolysis

Extrapontine myelinolysis and pure word deafness are very uncommon disorders. Here, we report a case of a 19-year-old woman who suffered from osmotic demyelination syndrome with coincidence of typical pure word deafness. As a consequence of rapid correction of hyponatremia, the patient demonstrated an initial onset of cortical deafness, and then progressed to generalized auditory agnosia, which eventually developed into confined verbal auditory agnosia (pure word deafness). Bilateral extrapontine myelinolysis was confirmed using brain magnetic resonance imaging. This case suggests that verbal and nonverbal stimuli may involve separate thalamocortical pathways.