Capitalizing on preschoolers' inherent enthusiasm and capacity for learning, the authors developed and implemented a dual-language program to enable young children to experience diversity and multiculturalism by learning two new languages: Spanish and American Sign Language. Details of the curriculum, findings, and strategies are shared.

Deaf epistemology constitutes the nature and extent of the knowledge that deaf individuals acquire growing up in a society that relies primarily on audition to navigate life. Deafness creates beings who are more visually oriented compared to their auditorily oriented peers. How hearing individuals interact with deaf individuals shapes how deaf…

Consequences of theory of mind (ToM) development for daily social lives of children are uncertain. Five to 13-year-olds (N = 195) with typical development, autism, or deafness (both native and late signers) took ToM tests and their teachers reported on their social skills for peer interaction (e.g., leadership, group entry). Groups differed in…

As the field of education of the d/Deaf and hard of hearing (d/Dhh) continues to diversify, postsecondary institutions must pay close attention not only to the changing needs of d/Dhh students but to the practitioners they are preparing to serve this population. Students who are d/Dhh and come from homes where a language other than English or…

Two studies addressed key theoretical debates in theory of mind (ToM) development by comparing (a) deaf native signers (n = 18), (b) deaf late signers (n = 59), and (c) age-matched hearing persons (n = 74) in childhood (Study 1: n = 81) and adulthood (Study 2: n = 70) on tests of first- and second-order false belief and conversational sarcasm.…

This article traces the development of the "Deaf President Now" (DPN) movement and its similarities to the black civil rights movement. Movements typically begin with a concrete, precipitating event but are usually the result of known or shared incidents on the part of the participants, and the "Deaf President Now" movement…

This article reflects on the author's experience supervising a public school program for students who are deaf or hard-of-hearing, specifically addressing national, regional, and local trends affecting it. These trends included teacher efficacy, changes in educational service delivery, advances in technology, the selection of the listening and…

The purpose of the maps was to show the density and distribution of students enrolled in foreign language courses in Austin Independent School District (AISD) high schools and middle schools and to show the distribution of student enrollment in Spanish-language courses, as well as the density of Spanish-speaking English language learners (ELLs) in…

"The Oxford Handbook of Deaf Studies in Literacy" brings together state-of-the-art research on literacy learning among deaf and hard of hearing learners (DHH). With contributions from experts in the field, this volume covers topics such as the importance of language and cognition, phonological or orthographic awareness, morphosyntactic…

This dissertation centers on the application of the mental space theory to expand our understanding of the role lexical discourse markers (LDMs) play in discourse. LDMs have been recognized by many researchers for their discourse connective function(s) (Levinson, 1983; Schiffrin, 1987; Blakemore, 1989, 2000, 2001, 2002; Fraser, 1996, 1999, 2006).…

This article begins by examining the historical and social factors that led to 1901 being the "deafest" year in major league baseball history with four deaf players. In particular, the author discusses the career of William Ellsworth "Dummy" Hoy, a deaf man from Ohio who became the most celebrated deaf player in history and…

Deaf people have long held the belief that American Sign Language (ASL) plays a significant role in the academic development of deaf children. Despite this, the education of deaf children has historically been exclusive of ASL and constructed as an English-only, deficit-based pedagogy. Newer research, however, finds a strong correlation between…

Previous studies have asked whether visual sensitivity and attentional processing in deaf signers are enhanced or altered as a result of their different sensory experiences during development, i.e., auditory deprivation and exposure to a visual language. In particular, deaf and hearing signers have been shown to exhibit a right visual field/left…

To address the paucity of current research on the development of creativity in deaf students, and to extend existing research to adolescents, the present study investigated divergent thinking, a method of assessing creativity, in both deaf and hearing adolescents. We assessed divergent thinking in two domains, figural and verbal, while also…

Children with autism spectrum disorder present with a variety of social communication deficits such as atypicalities in social gaze and verbal and non-verbal communication delays as well as perceptuo-motor deficits like motor incoordination and dyspraxia. In this study, we had the unique opportunity to study praxis performance in deaf children…