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Universal Screening for Prevention of Reading, Writing, and Math Disabilities in Spanish

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Processing orthographic structure: associations between print and fingerspelling.

Karen Emmorey¹, Jennifer A F Petrich

¹Laboratory for Language and Cognitive Neuroscience, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92120, USA. kemmorey@mail.sdsu.edu

Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education

|December 16, 2011

Summary

Deaf and hearing readers use different strategies for reading printed and fingerspelled words. Fingerspelling ability correlates with reading skills, suggesting strong English representations benefit both.

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Linguistics
Deaf Studies

Background:

Understanding word segmentation is key to reading acquisition.
Exploring shared processing strategies between written English and American Sign Language (ASL) fingerspelling is crucial for deaf literacy.
Previous research suggests potential links between fingerspelling and print processing.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate if identical segmentation strategies are employed for reading printed English words and ASL fingerspelled words.
To determine the relationship between segmentation strategies, reading proficiency, and fingerspelling ability in deaf and hearing individuals.
To explore the cognitive underpinnings of the association between fingerspelling and print literacy.

Main Methods:

Two lexical decision experiments were conducted with deaf and hearing participants.
Experiment 1 involved judging printed English words segmented orthographically (Basic Orthographic Syllable Structure [BOSS]) versus phonologically.
Experiment 2 examined fingerspelled words segmented phonologically versus orthographically.

Main Results:

Both deaf and hearing readers performed better with orthographically segmented printed words (BOSS).
Better deaf readers showed sensitivity to orthographic segmentation, unlike better hearing readers.
Deaf participants performed better with phonologically segmented fingerspelled words, potentially due to accompanying English mouthings.
Fingerspelling ability correlated significantly with reading comprehension and vocabulary.

Conclusions:

The association between fingerspelling and print for deaf readers is not based on shared segmentation strategies.
Both proficient readers and fingerspellers possess robust English representations.
Fingerspelling may contribute to the development and maintenance of English vocabulary in deaf individuals.