For generations, classroom English teachers have exploited knowledge of English phonemes to teach hearing children. In this article, the author explains how to exploit the strategy of using American Sign Language (ASL) graphemes to teach deaf and hard of hearing children. The goal is a fully evolved bilingual environment in which the children…

This article describes how teaching deaf students to read has been challenging and contentious, yet, one crucial attribute to developing reading skills is early exposure to American Sign Language (ASL). ASL seemed to serve as a bridge to achieving English literacy and academic success partly because early use of ASL enables deaf students to…

Recently, the authors' district reconfigured the program for deaf and hard of hearing students, combining the Total Communication (TC) and Listening and Spoken Language (LSL) programs for elementary students and relocating students and staff into a single school. This prompted staff to reflect on and discuss the pedagogy unique to each program.…

Helping young deaf and hard of hearing children explore ASL and English is one of the important jobs with which the preschool teachers who work with those children are tasked. Learning ASL and English, the children will become bilingual, fluent in the two languages they will use throughout their lives. Working with two languages requires planning.…

Cued Speech is a visual mode of communication in which mouth movements of speech combine with "cues" to make the sounds (phonemes) of traditional spoken languages look different. Cueing allows users who are deaf, hard of hearing, or who have language/communication disorders, to access the basic, fundamental properties of spoken languages…

In February 2019, a counselor, a project manager, and a teacher from the Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center were chosen as inclusive excellence ambassadors to the Gallaudet University Division of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. As inclusive excellence ambassadors, Lisa Montalvo, Taiyabah Naeem, and Lia Bengtson believe the division's…

Among the fields that particularly lack images of diverse participants are those of science, technology, engineering, and math, fields captured under the acronym STEM. Often in STEM fields, images and experiences of deaf and hard of hearing children, children of color, and young women are rare or absent altogether, with the result that these…

Brain imaging studies suggest that children can simultaneously develop, learn, and use two languages. A visual language, such as American Sign Language (ASL), facilitates development at the earliest possible moments in a child's life. Spoken language development can be delayed due to diagnostic evaluations, device fittings, and auditory skill…

This article describes and evaluates one residential school for the deaf and hard of hearing, Eastern North Carolina School for the Deaf (ENCSD), and their experience in implementing the Fairview Learning program. The program consists of five components (Schimmel & Edwards, 2003). Two of the components--phonemic awareness and literature-based…

Deaf students are visual learners, and technology should be part of every bilingual classroom. However, deaf students need to learn to manipulate the hardware and software that allows them to express themselves and to advance their knowledge. Students need to understand what is meant when they are referred to "ASL text" or…

In this article Megan Mathisen, a teacher of deaf and hard of hearing children at St. Anne Grade School in St. Anne, Illinois, describes her work with two boys in second grade and one boy in fifth grade who at the beginning of the school year had reading and language delays. After working with them, her second grade boys are now on grade level and…

When working as a teacher of deaf students, Melissa Herzig's school was a magnet high school just five minutes from the border of Mexico, where 95 percent of the students were Latinos. The deaf students' experiences with languages may involve using American Sign Language (ASL), a sign language they may have learned in their home country, English,…

Every day, teachers face the time-consuming task of adapting materials from curricula that do not meet their students' needs or match their learning styles. This article discusses ready-made literacy units specifically designed for teachers of deaf and hard of hearing students. The units were part of the Cornerstones Project, an activity of the…

One of the greatest challenges teachers of deaf students face is how to teach students to write effectively. Teachers want them to plan, organize, and relay meaning in a coherent way, but teachers also expect them to develop a sense of control over English writing conventions and mechanics. It is probably no surprise that teachers are constantly…