Finger Spelling Development as Alternative Gateway to Phonological Representations and Literacy in Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children

• In Event: Language and Literacy Learning of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children

Abstract

Objectives:

1. To validate a new test of fingerspelling skills in children.
2. To determine whether fingerspelling phonological awareness skills are distinct from the ability to fingerspell words.
3. To determine whether fingerspelling is a distinct construct from language/vocabulary skills.
4. To explore the relationship between fingerspelling and reading and language skills in DHH children

Perspective(s) or theoretical framework

Phonological awareness refers to the ability to manipulate these sounds at the word, syllable, and phoneme levels. Phonological awareness and letter-sound knowledge have been repeatedly been shown to be an important skill for learning to read among hearing children (see Rayner, et al., 2001).

DHH children with limited functional hearing frequently have either weak or non-existent spoken phonological representations of words and print does not correspond to the phonemes of their signs (Lederberg, Schick, & Spencer, 2013).

A visually-based system may help DHH children develop a representational structure that can mediate word reading. Fingerspelling may provide a non-auditory phonological representation of the internal structure of written words to aid decoding (Alvarado et al., 2008; Haptonstall-Nykaza & Schick, 2007; Hirsh-Pasek, 1987).

Correlations have been found between DHH children’s fingerspelling skills and English reading vocabulary (Alvarado et al., 2008; Haptonstall-Nykaza & Schick, 2007; Padden & Ramsey, 2000). However, these are typically studies with small samples, and do not measure fingerspelling phonological awareness.

Methods and Data Sources

Participants were a large group of DHH students (n = 168) who were in signing programs (see Table 1). Students ranged in hearing loss from moderate to profoundly deaf, and ranged in age from Kindergarten to 6th grade.

A new assessment, the Phonological Awareness in Fingerspelling Test (Schick & Schwartz, 2011), was used to assess fingerspelling skills and phonological awareness in fingerspelling. Stimuli were presented via a computer signed by a third generation Deaf signer.

All students were administered the Phonological Awareness in Fingerspelling, the Expressive One Word Picture Vocabulary Test, and a standardized reading comprehension test.

Results

1. The test demonstrated moderately high internal consistency estimates (Cronbach’s alpha) and item-scale correlations (item discrimination, see Table 2 & 3.
2. Exploratory Factor Analysis showed that the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling adequacy was .91, indicating a strong cohesiveness among the fingerspelling subtests and EOWPVT scores. Multiple criteria for factor retention indicated a one-factor solution, accounting for 66.96% of the common variance in the data (χ2 (9) = 14.15, p = .12). Fingerspelling skills are not a distinct construct from vocabulary skills.
3. Structural equation modeling (Figure 1) showed that the fit of the model to the observed data was excellent, χ2 (23) = 25.16, p = .34; RMSEA = .02 (90% C.I. .00 - .07), CFI = .99, TLI = .99. The children’s fingerspelling skills were significantly related to both reading and expressive vocabulary skills after controlling for age.


Scientific or scholarly significance of the study or work

Fingerspelling may provide a Fingerspelled Phonological Representation, that allows a DHH student access to word internal structure of written language, supporting vocabulary development, word identification and reading comprehension.

Authors

• Brenda Schick, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Mi-Young Lee Webb, Georgia State University

• Amy R. Lederberg, Georgia State University