Literacy and the Hearing Impaired: Living, Moving, Dynamic Text

This paper compares the visual and auditory perceptual systems as bases for communication systems, reviews advances in computer technology, and considers implications for literacy among persons with hearing impairments. It is pointed out that the primary language skills of hearing individuals are developed through speech and language (auditory perception) and then transferred to the written form (visual perception), and that visual communication systems inherently contain some ambiguities (among them the irregularities of English spelling). Studies suggesting that the printed word is the most stable of the visual symbols used by hearing-impaired children are noted. Technology is seen as an important potential ally in the language development of children with hearing impairments, through providing new and different experiences that associate language symbols with prior experience. Specific computer programs and interactive video programs are described. It is stressed that the computer programs being developed for literacy training for the hearing impaired should involve increasing the amount of linguistic interaction available to the child. (DB)