Purpose: Caregivers of deaf/hard of hearing infants are faced with challenging decisions regarding their child's communication method. The purpose of the current research note is to characterize the advice that caregivers receive and value as well as the factors that influence caregivers' decision making. Method: The current study enrolled 105…

Reiterative code-switching, when one lexical item from one language is produced immediately after a semantically equivalent lexical item in another language, is a frequent phenomenon in studies of language contact. Several spoken language studies suggest that reiteration functions as a form of accommodation, amplification (emphasis),…

Maritime Sign Language (MSL) is a Canadian, minority sign language that originally stems from British Sign Language (BSL). Currently used by elderly Deaf people in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland (and Labrador), it is a moribund language, having undergone language shift to American Sign Language (ASL). MSL is…

Sign languages use multiple articulators and iconicity in the visual modality which allow linguistic units to be organized not only linearly but also simultaneously. Recent research has shown that users of an established sign language such as LIS (Italian Sign Language) use simultaneous and iconic constructions as a modality-specific resource to…

The focus of this article is on deafblind people who are or have been involved with deaf signing communities and, when vision changes, transition to tactile reception of sign language. This brings about a disconnection with the signing community, exploration of (other) possibilities, and seeking or creating deaf blind spaces. In the United States,…

This article explores current creative practices involving the representation of sign languages, sign language interpreting, sign language translation (Napier and Leeson 2016; HBB4ALL 2017; CNLSE 2017; Tamayo 2022), and sign language live translation (Tamayo 2022) in audiovisual content. To that end, a review of the concept "creative sign…

Deaf education research and practice have not always lived up to the ideal of improving deaf students' lives. Consequently, we have constructed novel arguments supporting deaf pedagogy using pragmatic ethics, the aim of which is to increase benefit and decrease harm to individuals and society. The ideal of "harm reduction" asks the…

Communicating in languages other than one's mother language is a demanding task. Even when mastering basic skills in a foreign language, communication is challenging unless you are a frequent user. The vocabulary and grammar rules tend naturally to be forgotten over time. This is even more critical when distinct channels are used by one's mother…

We have written this article as performative co-autoethnography in which we focus on a crisis of communication we experienced as deaf/nondeaf collaborators. We bring together Deleuze's concept of 'becoming-other' with Guattari's concept of 'a-signifying semiotics' to demonstrate how a focus on the affective dynamics of a-signification allows us to…

Deaf students are no less likely than their hearing counterparts to obtain good grades and pass courses in higher education. Despite this, under half the number of deaf pupils, compared to hearing pupils, go straight from school to university, and when there, face an array of challenges that hinder their HE experience [Sachs, D. (2011). Inclusion…

Parent input during interaction with young children varies across languages and contexts with regard to the relative number of words from different lexical categories, particularly nouns and verbs. Previous work has focused on spoken language input. Little is known about the lexical composition of parent input in American Sign Language (ASL). We…

Only 15% of children with hearing loss who could receive a cochlear implant receive one leaving American Sign Language (ASL) as their access to communication. Spanish-speaking families face even greater challenges including learning different languages/cultures and lack of trained Hispanic professionals. This study identifies how Hispanic mothers…

The Center on Literacy and Deafness examined the language and reading progress of 336 young deaf and hard-of-hearing children in kindergarten, first and second grades on a series of tests of language, reading, and spoken and fingerspelled phonological awareness in the fall and spring of the school year. Children were divided into groups based on…

Educators have long argued about the best ways for Deaf children to communicate and how they should be educated. The two notions are inseparable for Deaf students who most often learn language at school. Since the passing of IDEA, most Deaf students have moved from segregated schools to their neighborhood schools where all students might benefit…

This article provides an ethnographic analysis of "deaf sociality" in Adamorobe, a village in Ghana, where the relatively high prevalence of hereditary deafness has led to dense social and spatial connections. Deaf people are part of their hearing environment particularly through family networks, and produce deaf sociality through many…