Literacy Learning of Deaf and Hearing Preschoolers in a Sign Bilingual, Coenrollment Setting in Hong Kong

The study investigated the literacy-learning conditions of a group of deaf and hard of hearing (d/Dhh) and hearing preschoolers in a mainstream kindergarten sign bilingualism and coenrollment (SLCO) program. The data came from the children's scores on tests of Chinese vocabulary and written Chinese grammar, and questionnaire responses on literacy-learning conditions at home (from parents) and in school (from teachers). The d/Dhh children's performance on the two tests, when compared with that of their hearing peers, suggested that adding sign language and Deaf teachers to the SLCO classroom did not adversely affect the d/Dhh children's literacy learning. Responses to the two questionnaires indicated that parents' and teachers' efforts to organize literacy resources and activities interacted with the children's vocabulary development. These preliminary results encourage more research to elucidate further the relationship between environmental factors and d/Dhh children's literacy development.