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Fingerspelling 'READ'
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For over a century educators and researchers have been trying to
determine how profoundly deaf children learn to read. Deaf children
are in the unique position of learning to read and write a language
that they do not speak and cannot hear. Unlike people who can hear,
deaf people experience English orthography in two forms: as printed
text and as fingerspelling, in which each alphabetic letter is
represented by a distinct hand configuration.
This new project investigates one possible route that deaf readers
may utilize to develop mappings between letters and sounds: the
fingerspelling system of American Sign Language (ASL). By identifying
the similarities and differences between reading print and "reading"
fingerspelling, we can identify how fingerspelling might be most
effectively used in reading instruction. Another aim of the project
is to use functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to investigate
the brain areas that support the reading of print and fingerspelling
by deaf readers. Of particular interest is whether the so-called
"Visual Word Form Area" is activated for fingerspelling and whether
deaf readers use the same neural circuits for reading as people who
can hear.
Funding:
This project is funded by the Linguistics Program of the National
Science Foundation (BCS 0823576).
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