M.Ed. (Educational Linguistics) / The construct of this study consists of the perceptions and experiences of the teachers and students of initial reading at Sizwile School for the Deaf in urban South Africa. This investigation focuses on a Sub B class, in which Sign Language is the means of communication. The research design is exploratory and descriptive as it aims to explore, describe and clarify the children's apprehension of reading. This could yield new knowledge which is rooted in a specific and complex context. The process is conducted by means of a case study (monographic study) design which includes mostly qualitative methods for data collection. The rationale for this study is that respondents' personal (ernic) views, obtained from a "bottom-up" research mode could bring more light to the body of knowledge of deaf education in South Africa. Insufficient rigorous research, the lack of educational policy, lack of more input in South African curriculum for the deaf and limited cohesive instructional theory in South African deaf education motivated the researcher to initiate this investigation. The rationale of this stidy thus circulated from the theoretical and physical context of deaf education in South Africa, as well as the researcher's personal experiential knowledge as a teacher in the only school for the deaf around Soweto (a Black Township). The research question in this inquiry has been conceptualised in a maze of conflicting opinions and practices regarding the education of the deaf and the teaching of initial reading. The experiences, activities and perceptions of a single class within a school for the deaf was explored and described argumentatively in the light of contemporary theories on language, learning, reading and deaf education. Perspectives on learning to read are discussed in order to contextualise the individual's learning to read. Also included are theories of language and of learning, presented to provide a backdrop against which the practices in deaf education will be discussed. Language is subsequently discussed as medium of communication in the education process, with a closer focus on instruction in the first language (Sign Language) of the deaf child. The other part of the conceptual framework covers reading across the curriculum. The theoretical framework is presented as support structure for the research construct and also to problematise the research question (problem) from complementary angles.

This project was designed to integrate brain based learningprinciples and strategies into an existing curriculum being used in a science classroom for deaf students.

This study focuses on the life experiences of a rural, Deaf Appalachian woman, Jane Ann Shelton, a second generation Deaf child born to Deaf parents from the communities of Devil’s Fork (Flag Pond, Tennessee) and Shelton Laurel (Madison County, North Carolina). Over two hours of videotaped interviews were interpreted and transcribed, followed by various other communications to describe the life of a rural, Deaf Appalachian woman without a formal high school degree. As an advocate and a political lobbyist in Tennessee during the 1980s and 90s, she was unparalleled by her peers (deaf or hearing) in her efforts to “enhance the lives of ALL Deaf Tennesseans.” From these interactions and my firsthand knowledge, I crafted stories of her life experiences for the purpose of performing them for both Deaf and hearing audiences. Further studies should be done on rural Deaf Appalachia as precious little oral history has been collected.

No description available.

Children with disabilities are three to four times more likely to be abused than their non-disabled peers due to the impact of challenges related to behavior, cognition, language, social skills, and communication skills. In September of 2018, the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) specifically noted the need to establish maltreatment prevention and response curricula and promote research and advocacy surrounding maltreatment of children with disabilities. One common curriculum recommended is Kidpower®. While Kidpower® shows promise in increasing people safety skills and offers some basic accommodations for use with disabled populations, a complete accommodation plan for deaf or hard of hearing students has not been developed. The purpose of this study was to explore how Kidpower® curriculum could be accommodated to meet the unique needs of deaf and hard of hearing students from the perspective of the deaf education community, including deaf adults, deaf education teachers, deaf education teacher preparation faculty, and parents with deaf or hard of hearing children. A combination of focus groups and interviews were utilized to review lessons and homework from the Kidpower® curriculum. Participants gave feedback on obstacles and ideas for accommodations and modifications that would mediate the challenges. Data were inductively coded and analyzed for themes. Findings indicated the deaf education community believes the curriculum needs media components, language modifications and teaching strategies, enhanced visual information, and representation of people and situations related to the lives of deaf and hard of hearing children to be an effective curriculum for this population.

Thesis: Elec. E., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1978 / Bibliography: leaves 57-59. / by Mark Andrew Clements. / Elec. E. / Elec. E. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

This report is the outcome of a Field Study project. The aim of the study was to findout how the floating deaf-mute children of migrant workers experience psychologicalproblems in Guiyang, China. Bronfenbrenner’s ecological system theory was used asa theoretical frame. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 4 inner migrantcouples who have deaf-mute children receiving treatment in a Center for disabled inGuiyang. 12 professionals working with treating deaf-mute children are alsointerviewed as well as 5 deaf-mute children. In total together 21 informants areinterviewed. The result of this study shows that three main aspects influence thepsychological problems of floating deaf-mute children with migrant parents most:social welfare policy, family income conditions and the center of treatmentenvironment. This study explored the problems based on Brofenbreener’s ecologicalsystems approach, which for the author had a new perspective to research on thesituation of deaf-mute children of migrant workers in Guiyang, China.

The development of children’s language skills during the preschool years plays a crucial role in subsequent reading and school success. Some children may enter kindergarten with oral language skills that lag behind their peers’. Two such groups are children from low-socioeconomic status (SES) families and those who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH). Study 1 considered parents’ linguistic input during interactions with their Head Start pre-kindergarten children in two conversational contexts. The first, shared storybook reading, has featured prominently in early language interventions but proven less efficacious among low-SES samples. The second, shared reminiscing, offers a theoretically promising setting in which to promote child vocabulary skills but lacks empirical support. This study examined features of parental language known to relate to children’s vocabulary, including parents’ quantity of speech, lexical diversity, syntactic complexity, and intent to elicit child language. Parents’ and children’s expressive vocabulary knowledge was also considered. Forty parent-child dyads’ conversations during storybook reading and shared reminiscing were audiorecorded, transcribed, analyzed, and coded. Paired t-tests revealed that, while parents talked more during book reading, they used greater levels of syntactic complexity and language-eliciting talk during shared reminiscing. Parents’ own vocabulary knowledge was related to their children’s but not to linguistic input in either context. Study 2 considered the oral narrative skills of DHH preschoolers relative to language-matched hearing children. School-age DHH children often experience delays in the development of narrative skills compared to their hearing peers. Little is known about the narrative abilities of DHH children during the preschool years. This study examined 46 DHH and 58 vocabulary-matched hearing preschoolers’ overall language production, lexical diversity, syntactic complexity, and narrative comprehension skills. DHH children produced a similar number of words and demonstrated similar levels of narrative understanding compared to their hearing peers. However, DHH children’s narratives contained significantly less complex syntax. Gains in lexical diversity differed by group, with DHH children demonstrating less growth over the course of the school year despite making more gains on a standardized measure of vocabulary. Implications for instruction, assessment, and future research are discussed for both low-SES and DHH children.

The present research aims to evaluate the extent of deaf children’s delay in mathematics, identifying the moderators of this delay and determine the longitudinal predictors of their mathematical achievement. For five decades, studies have reported that deaf children lag behind their hearing peers in mathematics (Gottardis, Nunes and Lunt, 2011). Background factors such as age, degree of hearing loss, presence of cochlear implant and types of educational provision were previously hypothesised to be moderators of the extent of this delay but, up to now, they have not been tested. Pagliaro (2010) argued that number knowledge, working memory and degree of hearing loss could be possible causes of deaf children’s difficulties in mathematics but no clear conclusions were reached. The present investigation aims to provide insight into the causes of deaf children’s delay in mathematics. The survey study addressed the first aim of the present study. The maths test of the Performance Indicators for Primary School (PIPS) was used as outcome measure. Factors related to deaf children (degree of hearing loss, age, years in education, presence of cochlear implant, gender, causes of deafness) and background factors (highest maternal education, language used at home, type of educational provision) were assessed as possible predictors and moderators of the extent of deaf children’s delay in mathematics. The overall extent of deaf children’s delay in mathematics was of -1.76 SDs. The older the children get and the more years they spend in special schools for the deaf or in units for hearing impaired, the wider is their gap in mathematics achievement compared with their hearing peers. It is, therefore, necessary to intervene in their mathematical learning in the early years of schooling in order to create pathways for improvement. The second aim of the present study was addressed through a longitudinal design. Logical-mathematical reasoning, working memory and counting ability were chosen as predictors of deaf children’s mathematical attainment on the basis of theoretical framework, evidence from longitudinal studies and from the analysis of the difficulties that deaf children have in these factors compared with hearing peers. Hierarchical regression analyses were used to assess the independence of the contributions of logical-mathematical reasoning, working memory and counting ability to the prediction of deaf children’s mathematical achievement measured through the PIPS. Age, years in education, type of educational provision and non-verbal intelligence were used as controls. Counting ability and working memory did make independent contributions to the prediction of deaf children’s mathematical success but logical mathematical reasoning was by far the strongest predictor. When the predictors were entered in the model, none of the control variables predicted significantly deaf children’s mathematical achievement. This study makes several empirical contributions. First, it established age, years in education and types of educational provision as moderators of the extent of deaf children’s delay in mathematics. Second, it determined the plausibility of a causal link between logical-mathematical reasoning, counting ability, working memory and deaf children’s mathematical achievement. The implication is that schools must explicitly plan to improve deaf children’s mathematical reasoning, counting ability and working memory when they are in kindergarten and in the first years of school in order to help the children’s mathematical development.

ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis sets out to examine Moodle use to assist Deaf and Hard of Hearing Grade 9 learners with understanding mathematics problem-solving. The methodology used in this research project is that of formative evaluation. In this qualitative data analysis I worked as a participant-observer with three Deaf and H/H Grade 9 learners from a local school for the Deaf and H/H. These learners engaged in a course constructed in Moodle based on ratio and rate. The course was designed along the lines of a constructivist pedagogical model, different levels of learning as well as including multi representational features. Through the qualitative analysis of the interviews conducted with learners who participated in the research project and observation done by the teacher researcher, three categories emerged i.e. Weaknesses, Potential strengths and Learner suggestions. Although the findings indicate that different factors negatively impact Deaf and H/H learners’ ability to solve mathematics problems, it also highlights the representational features of mathematics content via Moodle, and how it can assist Deaf and H/H learners with the struggle with mathematics problem-solving. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die doel van hierdie navorsingsprojek is om te evaluereer of Moodle gebruik deur Dowe en Hardhorende graad 9 leerders hulle kan help met moeilikhede wat hulle ondervind met wiskunde probleem oplossing. Die navorsing is ‘n formatiewe evaluering. Binne hierdie kwalitatiewe data ontleding werk ek as ‘n deelnemer-navorser met 3 Dowe en Hardhorende graad 9 leerders by ‘n plaaslike skool vir Doof en Hardhorende leerders. Hierdie leerders het deelgeneem in leeraktiwiteite wat ontwerp is in Moodle en wat gebasseer is op verhouding en koers. Die leeraktiwiteite is ontwerp inlyn met ‘n konstruktivistiese pedagogiese model, verskillende vlakke van leer en multi voorstellings formate. Drie kategorieë o.a Tekortkominge, Moontlike Sterkpunte en Leerder voorstelle, het onstaan tydens die kwalitatiewe data ontleding waar onderhoude met die deelnemers gevoer asook observasie wat gedoen is deur die deelnemer-navorser. Alhoewel die bevindinge daarop dui dat verskillende faktore negatief inwerk op Dowe en Hardhorende leerders se vermoë om wiskunde problem op te los, wys dit ook uit die vermoë van Moodle om wiskunde probleme voor te stel en hoe hierdie voorstellings Dowe en Hardhorende leerders kan help met wiskunde probleem oplossing.