Fingerspelling and Print: Understanding the Word Reading of Deaf Children

Fingerspelling and its relationship with literacy skills among deaf and hard of hearing children who use American Sign Language is an increasingly popular research topic. However, there is limited research on whether reading interventions that systematically include fingerspelling are more effective for improving literacy skills than reading interventions that do not. In an adapted alternating-treatment single-case study, the authors contrasted the number of words learned under three conditions: a productive fingerspelling condition, in which word reading was taught through activities that emphasized productive fingerspelling; a chaining condition, in which teachers chained written words with receptive fingerspelling; and a sign-to-print condition, in which fingerspelling was not used. Five of the 6 participants learned most of the words taught with no differentiation by condition. Participants could recognize and fingerspell taught words, even if those words were not taught via fingerspelling.