Fingerspelling as a pathway to deaf children's reading: a scoping review

The role of fingerspelling or manual alphabet for reading among deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals has been of great interest in research. What can decades of research on fingerspelling and reading among deaf individuals tell us about how fingerspelling aids deaf children's reading development? This scoping review was, therefore, undertaken to explore: (a) What is the relationship between fingerspelling and reading?, (b) In what ways do fingerspelling abilities promote reading skills?, and (c) What is known about using fingerspelling to teach reading? We identified 26 studies that were screened and summarized according to publication characteristics. The content and methods of these studies were briefly described. The results revealed a larger proportion of quantitative methods and ASL/English settings. A discussion and implications for future research are provided.