ORCID
https://orcid.org/0009-0007-8223-9670
Date of Award
2024
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Philosophy (Ph.D)
Department
Education Specialties
First Advisor
Ekaterina Midgette
Second Advisor
Michael Sampson
Third Advisor
Audrey Murphy
Abstract
Despite advances in hearing technology, legislative changes, and instructional strategies, Deaf/Hard of Hearing (D/HH) students continue to demonstrate language delays on standard assessments. Although there are assessments that evaluate a child’s American Sign Language (ASL) proficiency, research thus far has assessed the language structure of D/HH students through their use of English not ASL. Through a convergent mixed methods study, the Narrative Scoring Scheme (NSS) was used to compare the scores of D/HH fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-grade students with their hearing peers to compare their story structure with original stories and retells. Using t tests and multiple linear regression analyses, scores were compared by utilizing their primary language in its original form. Grounded in second language acquisition and emancipatory/critical disability theory, D/HH children were investigated from a bilingual perspective and, by eliminating bias, were assessed in their primary language. In addition to the scores gathered, the D/HH students answered open-ended questions which allowed them to elaborate on their stories and the choices they made. The findings showed there were no significant differences between the NSS scores for the original stories and the retells for the D/HH students. In addition, no significant differences were found between the D/HH students and the hearing students for the NSS scores on either the original or retell stories. Most of the eight classifier categories found in ASL were apparent in the stories of the D/HH students. In integrating the quantitative and the qualitative findings, it was shown that the more frequently the students used these classifiers, the higher the NSS scores. This served to demonstrate that the stronger the ASL skills of the D/HH students, the stronger their skills in story structure.
Recommended Citation
Milliren, Cathy, "NARRATIVE LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT IN DEAF CHILDREN AS ASSESSED THROUGH AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS UTILIZING RETELLS AND ORIGINAL STORIES" (2024). Theses and Dissertations. 807.
https://scholar.stjohns.edu/theses_dissertations/807