Fingerspelling as a Novel Gateway into Reading Fluency in Deaf Bilinguals

Stone, Adam; Kartheiser, Geo; Hauser, Peter C.; Petitto, Laura‐Ann; Allen, Thomas E.

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0139610

Cited by 62 publications

(53 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Imitation of lexical manual gestures may reveal the ability of sign language users to manipulate representations from the lexical system, and may thus involve processes of importance for reading development. Prior to the present work, however, no one had investigated how the ability to imitate different types of lexical manual gestures relates to developing reading in DHH signing children, although imitation of sign language has been connected to reading skills in earlier studies of deaf adults (e.g., Freel, Clark, Anderson, Gilbert, Musyoka, & Hauser, 2011;Stone, Kartheiser, Hauser, Petitto, & Allen, 2015).…”

Section: Efficient Language Processing and Imitationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Using these symbols to represent a written word in the manual modality is referred to as fingerspelling (Morere & Roberts, 2012). It has been suggested that fingerspelling can actually provide sign language users with a phonological code of written words in the manual modality that they can use as a bridge across language modalities (Crume, 2013;Haptonstall-Nykaza & Schick, 2007), and there is some empirical support for this (Hanson, Liberman, & Shankweiler, 1984;Haptonstall-Nykaza & Schick, 2007;Stone et al, 2015). In particular, it has been suggested that fingerspelling may support the development of precise and rapid word identification (Stone et al, 2015).…”

Section: Sign Language Skills and Learning To Read Wordsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It has been suggested that fingerspelling can actually provide sign language users with a phonological code of written words in the manual modality that they can use as a bridge across language modalities (Crume, 2013;Haptonstall-Nykaza & Schick, 2007), and there is some empirical support for this (Hanson, Liberman, & Shankweiler, 1984;Haptonstall-Nykaza & Schick, 2007;Stone et al, 2015). In particular, it has been suggested that fingerspelling may support the development of precise and rapid word identification (Stone et al, 2015). In Sweden, fingerspelling is commonly used (Roos, 2013) and some fingerspelled words are actually lexicalized in SSL (for further discussion, see Andin, Rönnberg, & Rudner, 2014).…”

Section: Sign Language Skills and Learning To Read Wordsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Further, a weakness in either of these skills could lead to difficulties in reading comprehension (Gough & Tunmer, 1986). The empirical support for the Simple View in typically developing children is extensive (Catts, Herrera, Nielsen, & Bridges, 2015;Hulme & Snowling, 2014;Language and Reading Research Consortium, 2015;Ripoll Salceda et al, 2014), and the model has also been suggested to be useful as a theoretical framework for reading in deaf children (Chamberlain & Mayberry, 2000;Stone et al, 2015). At the same time, it has been suggested that more detailed specification of the cognitive mechanisms involved in the two components of the Simple View would promote greater understanding of reading development (Hulme & Snowling, 2014;Kirby & Savage, 2008;Stuart, Stainthorp, & Snowling, 2008), and attempts have been made to achieve this (e.g., Byrne et al, 2013;Kim & Phillips, 2014;Kim, 2015aKim, , 2015bTunmer & Chapman, 2012;Vellutino, Tunmer, Jaccard, & Chen, 2007).…”

Section: Learning To Comprehend Texts As a Sign Language Usermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In particular, sign language PA has been reported to be correlated with word reading (McQuarrie & Abbott, 2013), and experimental evidence indicates that signs can become automatically associated with their orthographic counterparts (e.g., Morford et al, 2011;Ormel et al, 2012;Pan et al, 2015). In addition, fingerspelling ability, that is, proficiency in accessing representations of and producing the handshapes that correspond to written letters in a manual alphabet, may facilitate establishment of new written vocabulary (Haptonstall-Nykaza & Schick, 2007), and has been found to be related to reading skills (Stone et al, 2015). Further, exercising connections between signs and written words seems to facilitate word reading (Reitsma, 2009;Wauters et al, 2001).…”

Section: Sign Language and Word Readingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Signs for Developing Reading : Sign Language and Reading Development in Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children

Holmer¹

2016

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Reading development is supported by strong language skills, not least in deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children. Regional Special Needs Schools (RSNS) in Sweden have a bilingual curriculum, that is, DHH pupils at these schools learn Swedish Sign Language and written and/or spoken Swedish. The work in the present thesis investigates reading development in DHH children who attend these schools and who are learning to read. The primary aim of the present work was to investigate whether the reading skills of DHH signing children can be improved via computerized sign language based literacy training aimed at strengthening the connections between sign language and written language. Another aim was to investigate concurrent and longitudinal associations between skills in reading, sign language, and cognition in this population. The results indicate that sign language skills support developing reading skills in RSNS pupils (Paper I and Paper IV). In particular, sign language based literacy training appears to support development of word reading (Paper IV). In addition, awareness of the sublexical structure of sign language seems to assist word reading (Paper I). Interestingly, the ability to imitate manual gestures was related to reading skills. More specifically, precision of imitation of unfamiliar signs was associated with development of word reading (Paper IV) and precision of imitation of familiar signs, i.e., vocabulary, seemed to be associated with developing reading comprehension (Paper IV). Results also suggest that working memory and Theory of Mind (ToM) are related to reading comprehension in RSNS pupils (Paper III). In addition to these findings relating to reading development, results also suggest that sign language experience enhance the establishment of representations of manual gestures (Paper II), and that progression in ToM seem to be typical, although delayed, in RSNS pupils who are learning to read (Paper III). Taken together, the associations revealed between sign language skills and reading development support the notion that sign language skills may provide a foundation for promotion of reading skills in DHH signing children. Thus, interventions that support development of sign-based representations and their manipulation and use in written language processing, may improve reading skills in this population. To account for the present findings, a model of written language processing is proposed. Working memory has a central role in integrating environmental stimuli and language-mediated representations, and thereby provides a platform for cross-modal language processing and multimodal language development. SammanfattningEn god språklig förmåga bidrar till god läsutveckling, inte minst hos döva och hörselskadade barn. Specialpedagogiska skolmyndighetens specialskolor för döva och hörselskadade (D/H) barn har en tvåspråkig läroplan som innebär att elever på dessa skolor lär sig både svenskt teckenspråk och skriven och/eller talad svenska. De fyra arbeten som ingår i avhandlingen undersöker l...

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Section: Efficient Language Processing and Imitationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Sign Language Skills and Learning To Read Wordsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Sign Language Skills and Learning To Read Wordsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Learning To Comprehend Texts As a Sign Language Usermentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Sign Language and Word Readingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Signs for Developing Reading : Sign Language and Reading Development in Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children

Holmer¹

2016

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Literacy and Phonological Skills in Oral Deaf Children and Hearing Children With a History of Dyslexia

Herman

Kyle

Roy

2019

Reading Research Quarterly

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Oral deaf children and hearing children with dyslexia both experience literacy challenges, although their reasons differ. The authors explored the problems underlying poor literacy in each group and drew implications for reading interventions. Data were collected using standardized literacy and phonological measures from 69 severe‐to‐profoundly prelingually deaf children ages 10 and 11 years, all communicating with spoken language, and compared with equivalent data from 20 hearing children with a history of dyslexia matched on reading ability. Children were given a large battery of tasks assessing word and nonword reading, spelling, vocabulary, and reading‐related skills, including letter sound knowledge, phonological awareness, rapid automated naming, and verbal short‐term memory. Striking similarities were observed for word reading, nonword reading, and spelling across groups, and associations between the measures and reading‐related skills were similar. However, differences between the two groups emerged in the strength of association between literacy and vocabulary. Regression analyses confirmed vocabulary as a key predictor of literacy in the oral deaf group. These results suggest that not only children with a history of dyslexia but also oral deaf children who struggle with reading should receive specialist literacy support. Reading interventions for oral deaf children should target phonological and language skills within a fully integrated approach.

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Visual sign phonology: insights into human reading and language from a natural soundless phonology

Petitto

Langdon

Stone

et al. 2016

WIRES Cognitive Science

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Among the most prevailing assumptions in science and society about the human reading process is that sound and sound-based phonology are critical to young readers. The child's sound-to-letter decoding is viewed as universal and vital to deriving meaning from print. We offer a different view. The crucial link for early reading success is not between segmental sounds and print. Instead the human brain's capacity to segment, categorize, and discern linguistic patterning makes possible the capacity to segment all languages. This biological process includes the segmentation of languages on the hands in signed languages. Exposure to natural sign language in early life equally affords the child's discovery of silent segmental units in visual sign phonology (VSP) that can also facilitate segmental decoding of print. We consider powerful biological evidence about the brain, how it builds sound and sign phonology, and why sound and sign phonology are equally important in language learning and reading. We offer a testable theoretical account, reading model, and predictions about how VSP can facilitate segmentation and mapping between print and meaning. We explain how VSP can be a powerful facilitator of all children's reading success (deaf and hearing)-an account with profound transformative impact on learning to read in deaf children with different language backgrounds. The existence of VSP has important implications for understanding core properties of all human language and reading, challenges assumptions about language and reading as being tied to sound, and provides novel insight into a remarkable biological equivalence in signed and spoken languages. WIREs Cogn Sci 2016, 7:366-381. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1404 For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website.

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Fingerspelling as a Novel Gateway into Reading Fluency in Deaf Bilinguals

Cited by 62 publications

References 37 publications

Signs for Developing Reading : Sign Language and Reading Development in Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children

Signs for Developing Reading : Sign Language and Reading Development in Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children

Literacy and Phonological Skills in Oral Deaf Children and Hearing Children With a History of Dyslexia

Visual sign phonology: insights into human reading and language from a natural soundless phonology

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