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哑儿童阅读和拼写进步的因素。该项目是及时的，因为在过去十年中，无论是在出生时听力损失的识别方面，还是在提供复杂的助听器-耳蜗植入和数字共享辅助器-方面，都发生了相当大的变化，这为失聪儿童提供了更多的口语机会。预计这些积极变化将对扫盲的发展产生重大影响，无论是在进展速度方面，还是在阅读和拼写中使用语音技能等基础发展机制方面。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，以了解聋儿在学习阅读和拼写时使用的策略。该项目将侧重于6 - 8岁儿童的发展，这是儿童获得核心识字技能的时期。要解决的具体研究问题是：聋儿的阅读，拼写和语音技能与听力正常的同龄人相比如何？在拟议的研究中，儿童的阅读、拼写和语音技能与2003-2005年评估的可比样本相比如何？6岁时的哪些技能可以预测7岁和8岁时的阅读和拼写进步？预测因素与2003- 2005年的队列相同吗？阅读教学方法如何支持阅读和拼写的发展？这些问题的答案将显示哪些因素支持聋儿识字的发展，在这一领域，许多聋儿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.