Reading, Special Education, and Deaf Children
Supalla & Byrne
NOW…………...VV5bb
RABBIT………..IIde5
The written signs listed above are made possible through the creation of the ASL-phabet
at the Arizona charter school. This system has a total of 32 graphemes accounting for the three
phonological parameters of signs: Handshape, Location, and Movement. The ASL-phabet
graphemes function similar to letters in spoken language alphabets. The ASL-phabet was designed
for writing words in ASL only. Deaf children are required to read the glossed text for sentences,
which leads to their exposure to English vocabulary all while reading in ASL. The significance of
the glossed text being a hybrid of English and ASL must not be overlooked. For the most part,
spelling and orthography between the glossed and English texts are the same. Deaf children find
regular books more readable when they read glossed books on a regular basis. For example, after
reading the glossed sentence example and knowing the meaning of CHASE, DOG, NOW, and
RABBIT (via the RB), deaf children will be able to read the same words in any regular text. Deaf
children at the charter school were taught word decoding skills in the signed language and
proceeded with reading the ASL equivalents to the English words successfully.
To complete the transition from ASL to written English, deaf children at the Arizona
charter school engaged in the third and last component of ASL gloss: Comparative Analysis of the
texts. The children learned English structures through the comparison of glossed and conventional
English texts. The teacher explicitly taught those English structures that differ from what the
children knew in ASL. The earlier sentence examples of English and glossed text (i.e., The dog is
chasing the rabbit. vs. DOG NOW CHASE>IX=3 RABBIT.) would be a sample lesson in
comparative analysis. Over time, the glossed and English sentence materials present grade-level
information from less to more complex comparisons. These comparisons create a time-based
distribution of English structures to be learned that were comparable to ASL, along with those that
were independent of ASL structures.
By the fourth grade, ASL gloss ceased, which was confirmed through assessment. Deaf
children moved from the stage of learning to read to that of reading to learn. This outcome was
tied to the carefully executed integration of the three components of ASL gloss: Glossed books,
RB, and Comparative Analysis. The process of learning to read for deaf children is unique as it
involves the use of one language to decode another language. ASL gloss allowed these children to
use their signed language knowledge for the purpose of transitioning to written English as their
second language.
A Critical Review of Traditional Approaches for Teaching English Literacy
to Deaf Children
Within the context of special education, ASL gloss is seen as unnecessary. However,
educational supports are expected to ensure that deaf children will achieve reading skills
(regardless of the limitations associated with the English text). It is important to note that some
educators who work with deaf children believe that Bilingual/Bicultural Education (BiBi) stands
alone and is not part of the special education framework. Yet the BiBi approach has ties to special
education and thus termed as an ASL support for this paper. On the opposite end of the spectrum,
the English support will be addressed. These two approaches are marked by language emphasis,
English or ASL.
SASLJ, Vol. 2, No.1 – Spring/Summer 2018
39