This research aims to build upon existing literature and explore the experiences of d/Deaf and HoH people who grew up in Southern Ontario and were raised outside of the d/Deaf and Hard of Hearing community, and/or without access to sign language. / Throughout the literature, there is existing research on the experiences of people in the Deaf community from a culturally Deaf perspective and from a medicalized perspective of the condition of hearing loss; however, there is very literature on the experiences of people who do not fall within either of these binary views of what being d/Deaf and HoH is. This research aims to build upon existing literature and explore the experiences of d/Deaf and HoH people who grew up in Southern Ontario and were raised outside of the d/Deaf and Hard of Hearing community, and/or without access to signed language. This research is theoretically underpinned by critical disability theory and deaf critical theory—otherwise known as deaf crit—to broadly understand the nuances of how d/Deaf and HoH people are impacted by structural, systemic, and interpersonal experiences of audism, power, and oppression. This study relied on Photovoice as the research methodology to best center the perspectives of the participants through visual and textual analysis. Three participants participated in four virtual Photovoice workshops where they shared photographs in response to different prompts about their experiences as d/Deaf and HoH people. The ensuing discussion found the key themes: 1) the ability to explore their self-identity as d/Deaf and HoH people; 2) the importance of developing pathways to community early on in life; 3) the need for multiple supports when receiving care. This research contributes to the literature that centers the nuanced perspectives of those who are d/Deaf and HoH but raised without access to Deaf culture, community, and/or sign language and makes suggestions for future practice and policy that centers diverse needs and desires for support. / Thesis / Master of Social Work (MSW)

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act mandate all children be included in state and district assessments to measure their progress. IDEA, NCLB, and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) require students have access to accommodations necessary for their participation in mandated testing. Due to problems secondary to their disability, students who are deaf and hard-of-hearing (D/HH) may have difficulty participating in testing programs designed for the general population. In order to have equal access to standardized testing, D/HH students may need to use testing accommodations.The purposes of this study were to: a) document the use of testing accommodations by students who are D/HH, b) identify the types and frequency of testing accommodations required by D/HH students attending general education classes in Arizona public schools, and c) to analyze the relationships between type and degree of hearing loss and SAT-9 achievement for students who are D/HH in Arizona public schools.The participants included 62 students in the first year of the study, and 53 students in the second year. All participants had diagnosed hearing losses and attended general education classes with support from teachers of the D/HH and/or other support personnel.Extended Time was the most frequently required accommodation. Principal components analysis resulted in clustering of accommodations variables into three components in 2002: Time and Administration, Presentation, and Student Directed, and four components in 2003: Presentation and Administration, Time and Materials, Response, and Student Directed. The accommodations used and their clustering were similar to those reported in the literature. Type of hearing loss was found to significantly affect reading achievement even when controlling for testing accommodations. The interaction between type and degree of loss significantly affected language achievement. Results demonstrated the reading and language achievement performance of students with mild and high frequency hearing loss fell behind students having greater levels of hearing loss. The use of testing accommodations resulted in mixed effects on student reading and language achievement performance. Changes in language scores, but not in reading scores, were found.

abstract: Teachers of the deaf and hard of hearing have served Arizona since 1912 when the Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind opened in Tucson, Arizona. Several decades later the Phoenix Day School for the Deaf was established in the Phoenix metropolitan area. To reach deaf and visually impaired students in the rural areas of Arizona, itinerant teachers travel from school to school, providing instruction and consultation with families and school personnel. The purpose of the study was to examine the perceptions and attitudes of itinerant teachers of the deaf and hard of hearing as to job satisfaction. Four research questions addressed the roles and responsibilities of itinerant teachers: extent of teacher participation in professional development activities; the opinions and attitudes of teachers toward their work; and additional comments and concerns. To answer these questions, 43 participants from five cooperatives established by the Arizona State School for the Deaf and Blind responded to a modified version of the 2007-2008 Schools and Staffing Survey regarding itinerant teacher job satisfaction. Two open-ended questions made this survey a mixed methods study of both quantitative and qualitative data. It was found itinerant teachers worked with students with a variety of hearing losses and educational needs; worked with regular classroom teachers and other school personnel; planned, assessed, and kept records; coordinated and conducted consultation and IEP meetings; worked with parents; provided technical support; traveled to different schools to work with students; provided accommodations and modifications; and provided direct instruction to DHH students. As to professional development, participants found language strategies and content of subjects taught to be useful and most attended. Ninety-one percent of the cooperative teachers seemed satisfied as a teacher. They felt support from administration, were satisfied with how the cooperatives were managed, and agreed that they were recognized for their efforts. Some of the concerns from teachers were their salary, the paperwork involved with itinerant teaching, and the limited amount of resources available to them. Overall, the findings of this study provided a baseline of information that suggest more work needs to be done related to job satisfaction of itinerant teachers. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Educational Administration and Supervision 2016

As of 2007, approximately 2 to 3 million children and adolescents in the United States had been identified as deaf or hard of hearing. These children are affected by all of the same health issues as hearing children, but are presented with an added challenge of communication with hearing nurses who are not always prepared with ways to understand and communicate with them. As a result, deaf and hard of hearing children are at a greater risk for misguided treatment of health disorders, especially the undertreatment of pain. It is imperative that nurses understand ways to best interpret nonverbal communication from these children and to effectively respond to these children nonverbally. Current research has neglected discovering and discussing ways to improve communication with deaf, hard of hearing and nonverbal children, focusing instead on improving verbal communication between nurses and parents, thereby leaving children as passive participants in their own health care. The results of this integrated literature review present simple and effective strategies nurses can implement into daily practice to facilitate communication nonverbally with deaf and hard of hearing children. The use of appropriate technology and assessment tools, better understanding and enhanced use of facial expressions, eye gaze, touch, presence, and personal space were examined. The writing of this review is an effort to encourage nurses and nursing educators to integrate culturally competent care of deaf and hard of hearing children into everyday nursing practice and into a nursing educational curriculum.

Η παρούσα μελέτη εξετάζει τη σχολική και κοινωνική ενσωμάτωση 5 κωφών & βαρήκοων μαθητών που φοιτούν σε περιβάλλον ενσωμάτωσης σε ένα γενικό δημοτικό σχολείο μιας τοπικής περιοχής. Από τους μαθητές που μελετήθηκαν οι 2 παρακολουθούσαν το περιβάλλον της γενικής τάξης με παράλληλη στήριξη ορισμένες ώρες του σχολικού ωραρίου από ειδική δασκάλα. Οι υπόλοιποι 3 μαθητές του σχολείου παρακολουθούσαν κάποιες ώρες του σχολικού ωραρίου τμήμα ένταξης και τις υπόλοιπες συνεκπαιδεύονταν στη γενική τάξη με τους ακούοντες συμμαθητές τους. Για τη μελέτη της σχολικής και κοινωνικής ενσωμάτωσης των κωφών & βαρήκοων μαθητών χρησιμοποιήθηκαν οι ποιοτικές μέθοδοι της παρατήρησης και των ημιδομημένων συνεντεύξεων από τους δασκάλους των μαθητών και το διευθυντή του σχολείου. Συνολικά, έλαβαν χώρα 5 παρατηρήσεις, μία σχολική ημέρα για κάθε παιδί. Τα αποτελέσματα της μελέτης έδειξαν πως η επιτυχία ή η βελτίωση της ήδη υπάρχουσας σχολικής και κοινωνικής ενσωμάτωσης των κωφών & βαρήκοων παιδιών επηρεάζεται από πολλούς διαφορετικούς παράγοντες όπως είναι: (α) το επίπεδο της απώλειας της ακοής, (β) η ενίσχυση του παιδιού με φροντιστηριακά μαθήματα στο σπίτι, (γ) η πρόβλεψη για στήριξη από ειδικό προσωπικό (όπως λογοθεραπευτή) εντός και εκτός του σχολείου, (δ) η καλύτερη και μεγαλύτερη υλικοτεχνική υποδομή, (ε) η στάση των δασκάλων απέναντι στους κωφούς & βαρήκοους μαθητές & η σχετική γνώση και ενσυναίσθησή τους και (στ) η στάση των μαθητών χωρίς προβλήματα ακοής απέναντι στους κωφούς & βαρήκοους συμμαθητές τους. / The present study examines school (academic progress included) and social integration of 5 deaf and hard of hearing students who are educated in mainstreaming in a general elementary school of a local area. Two students attended general class where special teacher offered her parallel support for some hours of the school day. The rest of the students (that means: 3) were educated for some hours of the school day in the special class for deaf and hard of hearing students and for the rest of the school day the latters were educated parallel with their classmates without hearing disabilities in the general class. We examined school and social integration of deaf and hard of hearing students using the qualitative methods of observation and interviews with the teachers of the students and the head of the school. Five observations took place (observation of a whole school day for each student). Results showed that the success or the improvement of school and social integration of deaf and hard of hearing students depends on different parameters like: (a) the level of hearing loss, (b) additional educational support of the child at home, (c) additional support by special staff (like speech therapist) in and out of the school, (d) better and bigger infrastructure of the general school, (e) the attitudes of the teachers at their students with hearing loss as well as their relative knowledge and self-consciousness and (f) the attitudes of the rest of the schoolmates without hearing disabilities at their deaf and hard of hearing peers.

Analizuojant kochlearinio implanto reikšmę žymiai neprigirdinčių ir kurčių vaikų santykių su aplinka pokyčiams, nors kochlearinė implantacija yra labai efektyvus klausos protezavimo metodas, integruojant ir reabilituojant žymiai neprigirdinčius ir kurčius vaikus visuomenėje, tačiau tai palyginti nauja sritis ir mes neaptikom kitų mokslinių tyrimų, nagrinėjančių šią temą Lietuvoje. Klausa žmogui yra vienas iš pagrindinių komunikacijos būdų tarp aplinkinių ir pasaulio, kuriame jis gyvena. Statistikos duomenimis, per metus maždaug 35 vaikams nustatomas įgimtas kurtumas. Vienas iš būdų padėti klausos negalią turintiems asmenims reabilituotis ir integruotis į visuomenę - tai kochlearinės implantacijos. Pirmoji kochlearinė implantacija ne tik Lietuvoje, bet ir Baltijos šalyse atlikta 1999 metais. Šiuo metu Lietuvoje yra operuoti, 75 vaikai. Mūsų darbo naujumą sudaro tai, kad šis darbas vienas pirmųjų tokio pobūdžio darbų Lietuvoje. Darbo tikslas – išanalizuoti kochlearinio implanto reikšmę žymiai neprigirdinčių ir kurčių vaikų santykių su aplinka pokyčiams. Tyrimo tikslui įgyvendinti sprendžiami šie pagrindiniai uždaviniai: 1. Išsiaiškinti ar tiriami vaikai naudojosi individualiais klausos aparatais iki implantacijos. 2. Išanalizuoti ugdymo įstaigos pasirinkimą priklausomai nuo to, kada buvo atlikta implantacija, iki šešerių metų ir jau sulaukus šešerių metų amžiaus. 3. Ištirti vaikų santykių su aplinkiniais ir bendraamžiais pokyčius iki ir po kochlearinės... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Though the Cochlear implantation is an extremely effective prosthetic appliance for the treatment of hard of hearing people, the analysis of the impact of Cochlear implant to the changes of considerably hard of hearing and deaf children relationship with environment required lots of efforts, because this kind of children integration to society is rather new in Lithuania and there is a lack of investigations. Hearing is among the main people communication means which they use for acquiring the world they live in. According to statistics, approximately 35 children are born per annum with the diagnosis of deafness. Thus, Cochlear implantation is one of the ways to help people with hearing disability to rehabilitate and integrate into society. In 1999 the first Cochlear implantation has been performed not only in Lithuania but also in Baltic states. Up till now 75 children have been operated. The novelty of our work is composed since it is one of the first works of this kind in Lithuania. The objective of this paper is to analyze the significance of Cochlear implant to the changes of considerably hard of hearing and deaf children relationship with environment. For the implementation of the objective, the paper has been solving the following exercises: 1. To discover whether the inquiring children have been using their individual hearing-aids till implantation. 2. To analyze the choice of educational institution without reference to the time the implantation has been... [to full text]

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 purpose of this intervention study was to test the use of a reading comprehension strategy with students who are deaf/hard of hearing (D/HH) in monitoring and resolving problems with comprehension. The strategy, named Comprehension Check and Repair (CC&R), was designed for D/HH students who struggle with comprehension, despite at least average grade level fluency skills. Sufficient research exists in mainstream reading instruction literature to suggest that instruction in metacognitive strategies might positively influence reading comprehension for D/HH students. The CC&R strategy incorporated the use of question-answer relationships and text connections; the instructional method incorporated the use of direct instruction, various levels of supported practice, and think-alouds. The effect of the intervention on the number of details D/HH students retold following oral reading was examined using a multiple baseline design. Frequency data were collected for behaviors that detracted from (i.e., non-strategic) and promoted (i.e., strategic) comprehension during and immediately following oral reading. Results showed (a) increases in strategic reading behavior for Students A, B, and C; (b) decreases in non-strategic reading behavior for Students A and B; and (c) increases in reading comprehension for Student A, and possibly for Student B. The study adds to the limited reading intervention research in education of D/HH students. Instruction in metacognitive strategies to increase strategy use during reading may be an effective means by which to increase reading comprehension for D/HH students. Teachers not only maintained use of the strategy with the students who participated in the study, but also introduced it to other students with whom they worked. Social validity data provided by the teachers and the students indicated high acceptability of the intervention. Limitations and implications for future research and practice are discussed.

This study was an investigation of the relationship between rapid automatized naming (RAN) and reading in a sample of deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) students who use American Sign Language (ASL). Thirty DHH students, 10 to 18 years old, were given a series of assessments including measures of RAN, reading decoding, reading fluency, reading comprehension, expressive vocabulary, receptive vocabulary, and visual-motor integration. Significant correlations were found between RAN colors and reading decoding; RAN colors and reading comprehension; and RAN colors, numbers, and letters and reading fluency. A significant difference was found between symbolic (letters, numbers) and non-symbolic (objects, colors) RAN in this sample, with better performance noted on tasks of symbolic RAN. Hierarchical regression models were created for each type of RAN. Each model as a whole was significant. The proposed model for RAN objects accounted for 26.6% of the variance in RAN performance. The model for RAN colors accounted for 54.1% of the variance in RAN performance. The proposed model for RAN numbers accounted for 53% of the variance in RAN. The model for RAN letters accounted for 32.6% of the variance in RAN. Across all models, reading fluency and vocabulary were unique and statistically significant contributors in the model predicting RAN. Visual-motor integration performance was not a unique contributor to the model.

This study explores Saudi educators’ (teachers’ and administrators’) perceptions of and attitudes to Deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) inclusion in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in two phases. Data were collected in sequential quantitative and qualitative phases. A questionnaire was first administered to 120 teachers and administrators in direct contact with DHH students, giving a broad picture of the themes under investigation in phase 1. Attitudes were examined in terms of three components: their beliefs, emotions and behaviour. This phase investigated the influence on educators’ beliefs and attitudes of these factors: type of D/deafness, length of experience, teachers’ qualifications, stage/grade of education, type of school and in-service training. In phase 2, understanding of educators’ attitudes was deepened by conducting semi-structured interviews with a purposeful sample of five teachers and six administrators of diverse experience, covering five themes: the DHH concept, the inclusion concept, the inclusion process and requirements, barriers to DHH inclusion and changes needed to promote it. The first phase revealed positive attitudes towards hard of hearing inclusion but not with regard to Deaf students, a distinction confirmed by the qualitative findings. The Al-Amal Institute for the Deaf was considered the best educational alternative for Deaf students. Relatively negative attitudes towards Deaf inclusion were related to various factors, especially lack of professional training and expertise in cued sign language, inadequate resources in mainstream schools and poor preparation for receiving DHH students. Participants considered integration to be a matter of equal (part-time) access to the nearest possible local school, but not inclusion as an issue of school restructuring, full participation and active social and academic engagement. Regarding barriers and change, participants were more concerned about the lack of professional training, overreliance on individual donations rather than the local authority to fund and support teaching aids, the absence of strict procedures regarding student referral and teacher transfer from general to DHH education. It was felt that there should be more rigorous diagnosis and differentiation of the national curriculum in order for mainstream schools to be more DHH-friendly. I have discussed the contributions, implications, strengths and limitations of the study. It was concluded that the progressive perspective of inclusion in terms of school restructuring, respect, welcoming, participation and belonging is a far-reaching objective in the Saudi context.