In this study, 19 college-educated deaf adults with experience using interpreters in educational settings provided insights into how successfully various elements of classroom discourse were preserved through interpretation. The deaf adults, fluent in American Sign Language (ASL) and experienced at using interpreters, watched educational…

During the summer of 2022, Ashley Greene, a professor at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas, and a co-author of this article, began a discussion on American Sign Language (ASL) literature with her doctoral students. The students, most of whom had backgrounds in K-12 deaf education or ASL education, explored what ASL literature means, how such…

While deaf children learning American Sign Language (ASL) from deaf caregivers generally develop along typical trajectories, some have been skeptical that deaf children who have hearing caregivers--the majority of deaf children--can similarly benefit from ASL exposure. This study tracked ASL fluency and academic achievement among a large sample of…

Language development is an important facet of early life. Deaf children may have exposure to various languages and communication modalities, including spoken and visual. Previous research has documented the rate of growth of English skills among young deaf children, but no studies have investigated the rate of ASL acquisition. The current paper…

d/Deaf or hard of hearing (d/Dhh) students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may require specific approaches to promote social inclusion. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of reading social stories with American Sign Language vocabulary to students who are d/Dhh with ASD (d/Dhh-ASD) and their peers in inclusive settings,…

Martha's Vineyard Sign Language (MVSL) is an extinct village sign language hypothesized to be a sister of British Sign Language (BSL) and a significant contributor to early American Sign Language (ASL) (Groce 1985). After the last deaf MVSL signer died, signs were elicited from five hearing signers. This study analyzes that data through a series…

Productions can be made more accessible for Deaf and hard of hearing (DHoH) dancers, performers, and audiences. This article provides ideas and guidelines on how to include and accommodate them. Reflecting on our experiences developing the dance theatrical production of "Within Dreams," we describe the need for making space for DHoH…

All parents of deaf or hard of hearing children face challenges as they strive to provide an environment rich in language for their child. For parents on active duty in the military, however, perhaps this challenge is most acute. Faced with decisions about their child's medical or educational needs, military families must act despite geographic…

This article presents the results of a microanalysis of sequences when two or more deaf signers overlap. This contribution focuses on "cooperative overlap" - which consists of extended moments of turn-exchanges that move along the unfolding discourse while cohering interlocutors in relation to each other. This aspect of signed…

The present study used an observational learning framework to investigate changes in non-native signing deaf children's narrative renditions before (Time 1) and after (Time 2) a single viewing of a signing adult's rendition of the same story. The deaf adult model rendered the picture book "Goodnight Gorilla" in American Sign Language…

This case study describes the use of a syntax intervention with two deaf children who did not acquire a complete first language (L1) from birth. It looks specifically at their ability to produce subject-verb-object (SVO) sentence structure in American Sign Language (ASL) after receiving intervention. This was an exploratory case study in which…

Researchers have focused on how deaf signing children acquire and use American Sign Language (ASL). One sub-skill of ASL proficiency is ASL phonology. This includes the ability to isolate and manipulate parameters within signs (i.e., handshape, location, and movement). Expressively, signed language phonological fluency tasks have investigated…

Some studies have concluded that sign language hinders spoken language development for deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children even though sign language exposure could protect DHH children from experiencing language deprivation. Furthermore, this research has rarely considered the bilingualism of children learning a signed and a spoken language.…

The purpose of this study is to examine the experience and perspectives of ASL teachers of American Sign Language (ASL) instruction to deaf/hard of hearing high school students. Historically, while ASL is the language of instruction in schools for the deaf, formal ASL has not been taught with the same rigor and attention that has been given to…

Most deaf children have hearing parents who do not know a sign language at birth and are at risk of limited language input during early childhood. Studying these children as they learn a sign language has revealed that timing of first-language exposure critically shapes language outcomes. But the input deaf children receive in their first language…