A qualitative study of emergent literacy of preschool hearing-impaired children was conducted to discover how the children learned about literacy within a school setting. Seven preschool hearing-impaired children participated in the study. Descriptive and interpretive field notes from ongoing observations of the children constituted a primary data source. Additional data sources included drawing and writing samples from the children and interviews with the teacher and parents. Grounded theory principles were used to analyze the data. The major finding was that the children, through literacy, found a way to learn about the hearing world and, more importantly, to be a part of it.
References
1.
BaghbanM. (1984). Our daughter learns to read and write. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
2.
BrannonL.LivingstonS. (1986). An alternative view of education for deaf children: Part II. American Annals of the Deaf, 131, 229–231.
3.
ConwayD. (1985). Children (re)creating writing: A preliminary look at the purposes of free-choice writing of hearing-impaired kindergarteners. The Volta Review, 87, 91–107.
4.
EricksonF. (1986). Qualitative methods in research on teaching. In WittrockM. C. (Ed.), Handbook of research on teaching (pp. 119–161). New York: Macmillan.
5.
EwoldtC. (1981). A psycholinguistic description of selected deaf children reading in sign language. Reading Research Quarterly, 17, 58–88.
6.
EwoldtC. (1985). A descriptive study of the developing literacy of young hearing-impaired children. The Volta Review, 87, 109–125.
7.
EwoldtC. (1987). Emerging literacy in three to seven year old deaf children. In 1987 National Lehman College Conference Proceedings: Removing the writing barrier: A dream? (pp. 5–17). New York: Lehman College.
8.
EwoldtC. (1991). The early literacy development of young deaf children. In MooresD.Meadow-OrlansK. (Eds.), Research in educational and developmental aspects of deafness. Washington, DC: Gallaudet Press.
9.
Goldin-MeadowS. (1985). Language development under atypical learning conditions: Replication and implications of a study of deaf children of hearing parents. In NelsonK. E. (Ed.), Children's languageVol. 5, (pp. 197–245). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
10.
Goldin-MeadowS.MorfordM. (1985). Gesture in early child language: Studies of deaf and hearing children. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 31, 145–176.
11.
GoodmanY. M. (1986). Children coming to know literacy. In TealeW. H.SulzbyE. (Eds.), Emergent literacy: Writing and reading (pp. 1–14). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
12.
HarsteJ. C.WoodwardV. A.BurkeC. L. (1984). Language stories and literacy lessons. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
13.
MaxwellM. M. (1983). Language acquisition in a deaf child of deaf parents: Speech, sign variations, and print variations. In NelsonK. E. (Ed.), Children's language (Vol. 4, pp. 283–313). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
14.
MaxwellM. (1984). A deaf child's natural development of literacy. Sign Language Studies, 44, 191–224.
15.
MaxwellM. (1985). Some functions and uses of literacy in the deaf community. Language in Society, 14, 205–221.
16.
RobinsonS. S. (1990, April). A survey of literacy programs among preschools. Paper presented at the meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Boston, MA.
17.
SmithF. (1986). Understanding reading: A psycholinguistic analysis of reading and learning to read (3rd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
18.
SoderberghR. (1976). Learning to read between two and five: Some observations on normal hearing and deaf children. In RamehC. (Ed.), Semantics: Theory and application (pp. 257–279). Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
19.
SoderberghR. (1985). Early reading with deaf children. Prospects, 15(1), 77–85.
20.
SulzbyE. (1986). Writing and reading: Signs of oral and written language organization in the young child. In TealeW. H.SulzbyE. (Eds.), Emergent literacy: Writing and reading (pp. 50–89). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
WilliamsC. L. (1991). The verbal language worlds and early childhood literacy development of three profoundly deaf preschool children. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, Columbus.
23.
WisemanD.RobeckC. P. (1983). The written language behavior of two socio-economic groups of preschool children. Reading Psychology, 4, 349–363.
