Use of Picture Dictionaries to Promote Functional Communication in Students With Deafness and Intellectual Disabilities

A mismatch of communication modalities can occur between students who communicate using sign language and coworkers at community-based vocational sites who do not use sign language. This study investigated the use of picture dictionaries to facilitate note writing as a form of expressive communication for students who were deaf and had mild to moderate intellectual disabilities. Students were systematically taught to use their picture dictionaries to initiate requests using the system of least prompts and the environmental arrangement strategy. A multiple baseline probe design was used. All students were able to successfully use the picture dictionaries to promote communication initiations. Implications regarding using the picture dictionaries for communication and for improving spelling of target vocabulary are discussed.

from Neuropsychologia

Bilateral progressive hearing loss and vestibular dysfunction with inner ear antibodies

Autoimmune inner ear disease (AIED) is a clinical syndrome of uncertain etiology. We present the neuro-otological findings of 2 cases of bilateral hearing loss, dizziness and the antibody profiles of the inner ears. Case 1 had bilateral progressive hearing loss, vestibular dysfunction and abnormal eye movement as the disease progressed. She had inner ear antibodies against 42 and 58 kDa protein antigency on Western blot immune assay, and responded to glycocorticosteroid but not to immunosuppressant treatment. Intratympanic steroid injection temporally eliminated her symptoms. However, she developed idiopathic Cushing’s syndrome and underwent labyrinthectomy. Case 2 became deaf as a teenager and experienced dizziness 10 years after becoming deaf. He reacted strongly to 68 kDa protein and was a good responder to immunosuppressant with steroid. As we still lack a definitive diagnostic test for AIED, careful observation of the clinical course is critical for differential diagnosis regarding the bilateral progressive hearing loss.

from Auris Nasus Larynx

Demographics affecting parental expectations from early deaf intervention

This study investigated maternal reports on various characteristics of 50 Israeli deaf preschoolers, their parents, and families, and examined these characteristics’ links with mothers’ expectations from early intervention. Characteristics linked with maternal expectations from intervention included: mother’s pessimism, need for independence, ability to control her life, and receipt of practical assistance and formal and informal support; family’s degree of communication and interaction; children’s communication mode and age at onset of treatment; and additional deaf siblings in the family. A four-cluster model depicts the relations between mothers’, families’, and deaf children’s attributes and the mothers’ expectations, entailing recommendations for intervention planning. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

from Deafness and Education International

Demographics affecting parental expectations from early deaf intervention

Parent participation in rehabilitation programs for children with special needs requires program designers to accommodate each family’s particular needs and characteristics.
This study investigated maternal reports on various characteristics of 50 Israeli deaf preschoolers, their parents, and families, and examined these characteristics’ links with mothers’ expectations from early intervention. Characteristics linked with maternal expectations from intervention included: mother’s pessimism, need for independence, ability to control her life, and receipt of practical assistance and formal and informal support; family’s degree of communication and interaction; children’s communication mode and age at onset of treatment; and additional deaf siblings in the family. A four-cluster model depicts the relations between mothers’, families’, and deaf children’s attributes and the mothers’ expectations, entailing recommendations for intervention planning. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

from Deafness and Education International

Cochlear implantation in children with cerebral palsy. A preliminary report

Conclusions
Cochlear implantation allowed these patients to dramatically improve their quality of life, increasing their self-confidence, independence and social integration.

from the International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology

Metacognitive Performances of Hearing Students and of Students who are Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing on Two Types of Measures: Visual-voiced and visual-visual stimuli

A small sample of 20 hearing students and 20 students who are deaf and hard-of-hearing participated in this study, which compared their performances on two measures of metacognition. The first measure required participants to visually analyse real-life pictures and then to choose a response from four options (voiced or signed) indicating which was the best explanation of what was depicted. The second measure required participants to look at five pictures and then to point to the picture that was different. Results identified no significant differences between the performances of the two groups of students on either measure. Males in both groups performed at comparable levels on the two measures, whereas females who were hearing and those who were deaf or hard-of-hearing performed significantly better on the visual-voiced measure than on the visual-visual measure. Limitations of this study and recommendations for future research are discussed.

from the International Journal of Disability, Development and Education

Dual language use in sign-speech bimodal bilinguals: fNIRS brain-imaging evidence

The brain basis of bilinguals’ ability to use two languages at the same time has been a hotly debated topic. On the one hand, behavioral research has suggested that bilingual dual language use involves complex and highly principled linguistic processes. On the other hand, brain-imaging research has revealed that bilingual language switching involves neural activations in brain areas dedicated to general executive functions not specific to language processing, such as general task maintenance. Here we address the involvement of language-specific versus cognitive-general brain mechanisms for bilingual language processing. We study a unique population, bimodal bilinguals proficient in signed and spoken languages, and we use an innovative brain-imaging technology, functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS; Hitachi ETG-4000). Like fMRI, the fNIRS technology measures hemodynamic change, but it is also advanced in permitting movement for unconstrained speech and sign production. Participant groups included (i) hearing ASL–English bilinguals, (ii) ASL monolinguals, and (iii) English monolinguals. Imaging tasks included picture naming in “Monolingual mode” (using one language at a time) and in “Bilingual mode” (using both languages either simultaneously or in rapid alternation). Behavioral results revealed that accuracy was similar among groups and conditions. By contrast, neuroimaging results revealed that bilinguals in Bilingual mode showed greater signal intensity within posterior temporal regions (“Wernicke’s area”) than in Monolingual mode. Significance: Bilinguals’ ability to use two languages effortlessly and without confusion involves the use of language-specific posterior temporal brain regions. This research with both fNIRS and bimodal bilinguals sheds new light on the extent and variability of brain tissue that underlies language processing, and addresses the tantalizing questions of how language modality, sign and speech, impact language representation in the 7brain.

from Brain and Language

Speech production in deaf implanted children with additional disabilities and comparison with age-equivalent implanted children without such disorders

from the International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology

cochlear implant, deaf, speech, intelligibility, children, multiple, additional, disorder, handicap, Conclusion
The majority of deaf children with additional disorders develop connected intelligible speech 5 years following implantation; however, a significant proportion do not develop any speech at all. Thus a third of this group did not realise one of the most important objectives for parents of implantation. Benefit from implantation should not be restricted to speech production alone in this specific population.

Evaluative expression in deaf children’s written narratives

from the International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders

Background: Deaf children vary in the use of and proficiency in signed language. The majority of studies on writing skills of children who are deaf did not assess deaf children’s proficiency in signed language and/or grouped together deaf children with varying sign language skills.

Aims: Adopting a bimodal bilingual perspective, we examined evaluative expression, an important narrative tool in both oral/written languages and signed languages, in narratives written in Dutch by deaf children who are proficient in Sign Language of the Netherlands (SLN) and deaf children who are low-proficient in SLN, and hearing monolingual and bilingual children. We hypothesized that deaf children who are proficient in signed language use their knowledge of evaluative expression in signed language to enrich their narratives in written Dutch, and more so than deaf children who are low-proficient in signed language and hearing monolingual and bilingual children.

Methods & Procedures: We examined the use of eight different evaluative devices in narratives written by deaf proficiently and low-proficiently signing children, and hearing monolingual and bilingual children. Narratives were also examined for morpho-syntactic errors and use of complex sentences.

Outcomes & Results: The results show that proficiently signing deaf children’s narratives contain more evaluative devices that enrich the referential structure of the narrative than narratives of low-proficiently signing deaf children, and hearing bilingual and monolingual children.

Conclusions & Implications: We propose that proficiently signing deaf children use their knowledge of SLN to convey evaluation in their written narratives, and thus have an advantage in enriching their narratives. This study also shows that in order to gain insight into deaf people’s writing, it is important to take variations in sign language proficiency into account.

Recognition of Affective Speech Prosody and Facial Affect in Deaf Children with Unilateral Right Cochlear Implants

from Child Neuropsychology

Cochlear implant (CI) devices provide the opportunity for children who are deaf to perceive sound by electrical stimulation of the auditory nerve, with the goal of optimizing oral communication. One part of oral communication concerns meaning, while another part concerns emotion: affective speech prosody, in the auditory domain, and facial affect, in the visual domain. It is not known whether childhood CI users can identify emotion in speech and faces, so we investigated speech prosody and facial affect in children who had been deaf from infancy and experienced CI users. METHOD: Study participants were 18 CI users (ages 7-13 years) who received right unilateral CIs and 18 age- and gender-matched controls. Emotion recognition in speech prosody and faces was measured by the Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accuracy. RESULTS: Compared to controls, children with right CIs could identify facial affect but not affective speech prosody. Age at test and time since CI activation were uncorrelated with overall outcome measures. CONCLUSION: Children with right CIs recognize emotion in faces but have limited perception of affective speech prosody.

Deaf Patients Confront Difficulties In Obtaining Basic Health Care

from Medical News Today.com

Inadequate healthcare is received by thousands of the United Kingdom’s Deaf patients because they are struggling to communicate with their healthcare providers, according to an article released on October 1, 2008 in BMJ.

Ear Breakthrough Gives Hope To Millions Of Deaf And Hard Of Hearing People

from Medical News Today.com

The latest research, conducted by Dr Jörg T. Albert, a Deafness Research UK research fellow at the UCL Ear Institute, together with scientists at the University of Cologne, shows that fruit flies have ears which mechanically amplify sound signals in a remarkably similar way to the sensory cells found in the inner ear of vertebrates including humans. The finding means that the wealth of genetic techniques already available to study the fruit fly can now be used to target how the ear works.

Coenrollment for students who are deaf or hard of hearing: friendship patterns and social interactions

from the American Annals of the Deaf

Third- and fourth-grade students in two separate classrooms–one a classroom with only hearing students and the other a coenrolled classroom with hearing, hard of hearing, and deaf students–were assessed to determine friendship patterns, attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions about sign language and deafness. Sociograms, interviews, and videotape analysis of the students’ responses were done. Results suggest that hearing students in the coenrolled classroom had better sign language skills, a more positive attitude toward deafness, and an improved awareness of certain aspects of hearing loss (such as speech and amplification). Deaf and hard of hearing students’ social acceptance was similar to that of their hearing peers.

Engagement during reading instruction for students who are deaf or hard of hearing in public schools

from the American Annals of the Deaf

An observational study of reading instruction was conducted in general education, resource, and self-contained classrooms, grades 1-4, in public schools. Participants included students who were deaf or hard of hearing and their reading teachers. Results indicated that time engaged in reading and/or academically responding varied significantly by grade level enrolled, reading curriculum grade level, and instructional setting, but not level of hearing loss or presence or absence of concomitant conditions. Students working with reading curriculum one grade level below spent significantly less time in reading instruction and reading than students working on grade level or two levels below. Students in general education settings spent significantly more time in reading instruction and reading silently than students in self-contained settings. The probability that students would engage in reading was significantly increased by several teacher and ecological conditions more likely to be observed in general education settings.

Providing online course opportunities for learners who are deaf, hard of hearing, or hearing

from the American Annals of the Deaf

For more than 20 years, two courses, History, Education, and Guidance of the Deaf/Hard of Hearing and Introduction to Instructional Methods for the Deaf/Hard of Hearing, have been taught at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania using a traditional lecture format. A state grant provided funding to explore the use of technology to teach online courses to college-age learners who are deaf, hard of hearing, or hearing. Saba Centra software was used as the online tool for the synchronous presentation of course content, which included PowerPoint lecture material, text chat opportunities, sign language-interpreted video, and other forms of class participation (e.g., signaling for questions raised, responding in a “yes/no” format). The present article covers recent successes and challenges in offering online courses in a “virtual classroom” format to deaf and hard of hearing learners, as well as hearing learners, from a qualitative research perspective.