Poster #84 - Social, Educational, and Linguistic Factors Predicting Disparities in English Literacy Outcomes in Deaf Children

• In Event: 3-053 - Poster Session 10
  In Poster Session: PS 10 Section - Education, Schooling

Integrative Statement

Many deaf children struggle to achieve age-appropriate literacy in English (Marschark & Harris, 1996). It has been argued that the acquisition of natural language during a sensitive window in development is crucial for the development of reading and writing skills, and that this early language exposure can be to either a spoken or signed language (Goldin-Meadow & Mayberry, 2001). Indeed, previous research on the development of written literacy skills in deaf and hard-of-hearing children supports the correlation between American Sign Language (ASL) proficiency and literacy outcomes (Hoffmeister, et al, 1997). Deaf children of deaf parents (DCDP) acquire ASL as an L1 with typical developmental milestones, and tend to be more successful readers and writers than deaf children of hearing families [DCHP] (Lederberg, 2006). For DCHP, the home language is usually a spoken language and not fully accessible to the child. And in many instances, the home spoken language may not correspond to the written language of instruction in the school.
Of particular interest here, Hispanics/Latinos now comprise the largest ethnic/cultural minority group in the United States. The U.S. Census in 2000 counted 35.3 million Hispanics/Latinos representing 12.5% of the general population. For a large number of these children, the home language is Spanish and it has been documented that DHH Hispanic students have poorer academic outcomes compared to both hearing and deaf peers (Bennett, 1988).
In the current study, we use archival longitudinal data from a deaf bilingual-bicultural residential school in the southwestern United States to ask whether the trajectories for English literacy differ between deaf students whose hearing parents use English in the home compared to those who use Spanish. Furthermore, using multilevel models we seek to determine which social (SES, educational level, etc.), educational (school placement, year of entry to residential school, etc.) and linguistic (ASL production and comprehension, age of deafness onset, etc,) factors best explain variability in components of literacy growth trajectories.
Figure 1 shows the mean growth trajectories on the Measures of Academic Performance (MAP) literacy measure for a preliminary sample of Hispanic (N=9) and White (N=4) children compared to established nationwide norms. Figure 2 shows (linear) growth trajectories for each child, evidencing significant variation in performance. While rate of growth in literacy scores for Hispanic and White children is similar (95%CI for difference in slopes = [-2.3, 3.8]), the Hispanic children are significantly delayed (95%CI for difference in intercepts = [-61, -13]). Interestingly, the two best-performing Hispanic children came from homes which used English or ASL.
The data here is derived from an initial preliminary sample of 34 children with surnames starting with A or B who had sufficient MAP literacy data for reliable curve fitting. The analysis of the full dataset is due to be completed in October 2018, yielding an expected 100-200 children for this study. This longitudinal dataset will provide insight into malleable factors responsible for literacy outcome disparities in DHH children.

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Authors

• Sarah Elizabeth Kimbley, Rochester Institute of Technology
  Presenting Author

• Brennan Terhune-Cotter, Rochester Institute of Technology
  Non-Presenting Author

• Natasha Kordus, California School for the Deaf in Riverside
  Non-Presenting Author

• Peter Hauser, Rochester Institute of Technology
  Non-Presenting Author

• Matthew Dye, RIT/NTID
  Non-Presenting Author