The impact of new technologies on the reading and phonological skills of deaf primary school children

该项目的目的是确定预测小学聋儿阅读和拼写进步的因素。这个项目是及时的，因为在过去十年中，无论是在识别出生时听力损失方面，还是在提供尖端助听器方面都发生了相当大的变化--人工耳蜗和数字共享助听器--这些助听器为聋儿提供了更多接触口语的机会。这些积极的变化预计将对扫盲的发展产生重大影响，无论是在进步速度方面，还是在基础发展机制方面，如在阅读和拼写中使用语音技能。为了了解这些变化的影响，儿童在一系列阅读和拼写任务中的表现将与十年前接受评估的儿童的表现进行比较。我们还将在课堂上进行观察，以了解聋童在学习阅读和拼写时使用的策略。该项目将重点关注6-8岁儿童获得核心识字技能的发展。需要解决的具体研究问题是：聋童的阅读、拼写和语音技能与听力同龄人相比如何？这项拟议研究中的儿童的阅读、拼写和语音技能与2003-2005年间评估的可比样本相比如何？在6岁时，哪些技能可以预测7岁和8岁时阅读和拼写的进步？这些预测因素是否与2003-5岁的同龄人相同？阅读和拼写的发展如何得到阅读教学方法的支持？这些问题的答案将表明，哪些因素支持聋童的识字发展，而在这一领域，许多聋童传统上远远落后于听力正常的同龄人。

The aim of this project is to identify the factors that predict progress in reading and spelling among deaf children in primary school. This project is timely because there have been considerable changes over the last decade both in the identification of hearing loss at birth and in the provision of sophisticated hearing aids - cochlear implants and digital sharing aids - that offer the possibility for deaf children to have greater access to spoken language. These positive changes would be expected to have a significant impact on the development of literacy, both in terms of rates of progress and on the underpinning developmental mechanisms such as use of phonological skills in reading and spelling. In order to understand the impact of these changes, children's performance in a range of reading and spelling tasks will be compared with the performance of children who were assessed ten years ago. We will also carry out observations in the classroom to see the kind of strategies that deaf children are using as they learn to read and spell.The project will focus on development from 6 - 8 years, a period in which children acquire core literacy skills.The specific research questions to be addressed are:How do the reading, spelling and phonological skills of deaf children compare with those of their hearing peers? How do reading, spelling and phonological skills of children in the proposed study compare with those of a comparable sample assessed from 2003-2005? What skills at age 6 predict reading and spelling progress at age 7 and age 8?Are the predictors the same as in the 2003-5 cohort?How are the development of reading and spelling supported by methods used to teach reading?The answers to these questions will show what factors support the development of literacy for deaf children, an area in which many deaf children have traditionally lagged well behind hearing peers.