It is widely acknowledged that many deaf children have difficulties in their
language and literacy development due to challenges accessing the spoken
language upon which reading is based. Since sign languages bypass the
impaired auditory channel, proficient deaf signers may have more extensive
language systems than those available to non-signing deaf individuals.
However, this does not in itself help the process of reading, since the written
script is based on a completely different language system to sign, i.e. speech.
Whereas hearing children (and indeed oral deaf children) first learn English as
a spoken language, then transfer skills and knowledge from spoken English to
its written form, BSL users must acquire a new orthographical code and also a
different language, since there is no written equivalent of BSL.
Although theories of bilingualism suggest that skills acquired in a first
(spoken) language transfer to the acquisition of a second (spoken) language
(Cummins 1989, 1991), there is no reason why transfer should occur when
the first language is sign and in a completely different modality to the second
language, i.e. written English (Mayer & Wells, 1996). Yet, there is some
evidence that deaf children with stronger sign language skills (Strong & Prinz,
2000), broader vocabularies (Kyle & Harris, 2010, 2011) and who are native
signers from birth achieve better reading outcomes (Stuckless & Birch, 1966;
Meadow, 1968; Kusche, Greenberg, & Garfield, 1983; Strong & Prinz, 1997,
2000). Most studies to date have been based exclusively on children in deaf
families and may not therefore fully represent all deaf signing children.
Nonetheless, such achievements suggest that, without the direct letter to
sound correspondences, deaf signers may access literacy in alternative ways
(Hermans et al., 2008; Haptonstall-Nykaza & Schick (2007).
In a recently completed UK study, we investigated reading in a large sample
of oral deaf children age 10-11 years based on scores obtained from
standardised measures of language, reading and phonological skills. Initial
findings suggest the key role of vocabulary in acquiring literacy. We are now
studying a sample of same-aged deaf signing children using the
same/comparable measures adapted for BSL users. This paper will report
preliminary findings for the deaf signing children in comparison with our oral
deaf group. In this paper we focus predominately on findings from the
language and reading measures and address the following questions:
•
•
•
Given that signing is more accessible to deaf children than spoken
language, do deaf children who sign have larger vocabularies than those
who speak?
Do signing children with larger vocabularies and better language levels in
BSL have better reading levels?
How does vocabulary relate to phonological skills in signing and oral deaf
children?
References
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