1. Dr. Susan Easterbrooks Professor, GSU Dr. Nanci Scheetz Professor, VSU
10 Things You Should Know about Reading Vocabulary and Students with Hearing Loss
Dr. Susan Easterbrooks
Professor, GSU Dr. Nanci Scheetz
Professor, VSU

2. First, some startling statistics…
The median DHH student graduates high school reading somewhere around a 4th grade level.
After achieving a late 2nd/early 3rd grade level, DHH students gain approximately 3/10 of a grade level per year in reading ability.
Estimates on the percent of 18 year old DHH students who read on grade level upon graduation range between 3 and 10% .

3. I. Students who are deaf or hard of hearing typically come to school with an impoverished vocabulary when compared to children who can hear.
Hearing Children before kindergarten will have heard:
45,000,000 words – College Educated Families
26,000,000 words – Working Class Families
13,000,000 words – Lower Socio-Economic Families (Knoell, 2005).
Many children with hearing loss do have access to a rich vocabulary until a) someone starts signing with them, b) they get their first hearing aids, or c) they start school.

4. Exposure to Language: Hearing Children

5. Exposure to Language Deaf Children

6. grammar that represent the ideas
II. You need to determine where on the pyramid your student is experiencing problems.
Labels
This means that they
struggle with the bottom
two sections of the
pyramid. It is a
concept and
language problem
for most, rather
than a reading
problem,
per se.
Ability to read
the words and
make sense
Do you remember this
pyramid from a
previous
presentation?
Words and
grammar that represent the ideas
World Knowledge
Ideas about the world

7. Here’s an example. Read the following, define the words, explain what it means (OK, you math wizards…give the rest of us a chance to figure it out!)
“There are only 10 kinds of people in the world: those who understand binary and those who don’t.”

8. Phonological awareness and phonology
Hmmmmm…Let’s analyze this
Can you decode all these words?
Do you know what the following words mean? 10, People, Understand, Binary, Those?
Can you phrase this correctly? Can you read it at an appropriate words per minute?
* So you have all the “pieces,” but you still don’t have text comprehension! This is because you don’t have the two bottom pieces of the pyramid.
Phonological awareness and phonology
Vocabulary
Fluency

9. Activating prior knowledge: What does 10 represent in the binary system?
This will help you figure out the answer
For children with hearing loss, you cannot access a prior knowledge system if they do not have that information in their system.

10. III. Students with hearing loss have problems at all the layers of vocabulary knowledge.
“Listening” (basic) vocabulary
Grammar
You cannot read English that you do not understand.
Sight word recognition
Retention
Working memory is overtaxed when children read word for word.
Multiple Meanings
Idioms and other figures of speech
Can understand these but are 3-4 years delayed. The amount of figurative language in print material is overwhelming.
The language of testing

11. IV. Teach students with hearing loss a broader vocabulary.
5 year-old hearing children are able to speak about and understand words. Their sentences contain of 5-8 words. They also can almost tell a story with accuracy.
5 year-old children…
…who are severely to profoundly deaf may come to school with a vocabulary as limited as a few words. They may not use complete sentences.
…who are hard of hearing or have moderate losses may come to school with a vocabulary nearer to the average, but many have significant deficits.
Vocabulary tends to fall across a limited range of conceptual categories. Words having to do with objects, actions, and ideas outside a child’s realm of first-hand experience are limited.
food and drink
animals
basic action verbs
useful items
body parts
people
clothing
vehicles places

12. They know generic labels (bird, car, shoes) but not examples of the category (parakeet, SUV, sneakers)
Work with the SLP and TOD to help your student develop a broader vocabulary.
Why? Because children learn to decode known words more readily than unknown words.
Because vocabulary knowledge is the single best predictor of ease of learning to read.

13. Both depth and breadth are issues for students with hearing loss.
V. Students who are deaf or hard of hearing need a deeper vocabulary: Multiple meanings
Both depth and breadth are issues for students with hearing loss.
May know the primary definition, but often lack second and third definitions.
Run
He ran down the street.
The play had a long run.
His allergy to cats made his nose run.
He ran on and on.
He ran the meeting efficiently.

14. VI. Students with hearing loss need to know figures of speech
Examples found in 1st grade books
Verb idioms The jet will run out of gas.
I washed them off.
He worked to help the cars get by.
Idiomatic expressions Time was running low.
Personification Triceratops was a skateboard champ.
Hyperbole “Nobody ever helps me”, said the mouse.
Litotes I wanted to blow up my sea horse…
Grandma helped a little.
Alliteration The Great Gray Goose gathered her goslings.

15. Examples found in 3rd grade books
Verb idioms Mirette worked up the courage to speak.
…but it did not wake up!
Idiomatic expressions That man had the nerves of an iceberg.
Personification Please teach me. My feet are already unhappy on the ground.
Hyperbole They tried everything under the sun, but nothing seemed to work.
Litotes She jumped up on the wire, but in a moment she was back on the ground.

16. E.g., You’re pulling my leg.
When teaching figurative expressions, especially idioms, teach the accurate semantic meaning. Do not spend time on drawings or pictures of the false meaning.
E.g., You’re pulling my leg.
Deaf children are visually oriented and will want to retain the amusing figure rather than the actual meaning.
“You’re pulling my leg” means “you’re teasing me.”
Here’s a good book to use to talk about the concept of teasing.

17. VII. Deaf students benefit from semantic approaches to vocabulary development.
Semantic mapping
Context-based approaches
Concept-based approaches
Fairview Program
THE least effective approach for teaching vocabulary to deaf children is to have them look up a book in the dictionary, copy the definition, and write a sentence.

18. Semantic Mapping
The teacher writes a word that represents the key concept.
The student think of words that relate to the key word.
These words are grouped around the key word in categories.
The teacher presents new words and encourages a discussion about where these words might fit into the map.
(Duffelmeyer & Banwart, 1993; Heimlich & Pittelman, 1986; Johnson, Pittelman, &Heimlich, 1986)
Excellent for D/HH
1.) provides a visual display of the relationships between concepts in a key word.
2.) It involves intense discussion, which in turn encourages active thinking.

19. Here is an example of a semantic map for the solar system

20. Context-Based Approach
Youngsters ultimately need to encounter a word in context to develop a full sense of its meaning (Gipe, 1980; Gipe & Arnold, 1979).
Guessing vocabulary from context is the most frequent way to discover the meaning of new words.
Go to these websites to search for specific vocabulary in different children’s books. The more examples the student reads, the more rich his contextual base.

21. Steps for exploring context (Blachowicz & Fisher,1996)
1st - Look before, at, and after the word.
2nd- Connect what they know to what the author has written.
3rd- Predict a possible meaning.
4th- Resolve or re-do.
Decide if they know enough, should try again, or consult an expert or reference.

22. Concept-Based Approach
Concept-based approaches are grounded on the assumption that new knowledge is gained from finding new relationships in old knowledge and from relating new information to old knowledge. (Schirmer, 2000)
Approaches
Expansion maps
Distancing
Expanded Frayer Model

23. Expansion maps Develop a semantic map, then have students brainstorm other connections. The basic map designed by students (old relationships) is blue. Expansions by the teacher (new relationships) are yellow.
Horse of a different color
Horse around
IHOP short stack
cows
Pigs in blankets
pigs
farm
barn
car
expressions
ride
horse
carriage
Cinderella
Amish
saddle
Sounds like “hoarse”
expressions
sore throat
To be saddled (burdened) with…
Get back in the saddle (try again after a failure)

24. Distancing
Distancing is a conversational approach to expanding concepts into the student’s real world.
Ask questions about a concept in the book.
Relate to the student’s person life.
Relate to your life.
Example conversation

25. Look on this page. It says, “Her fear was
like a cloud casting it’s shadow on all she
had done.” We talked about what that means
yesterday. Have you ever felt that way?
Yes. I try try very hard. Study Prepare for academic bowl Nervous.
That’s a great example. Once when I was
entering a contest with my dog, we practiced
and practices, but I was so nervous and afraid
that I just knew we were going to mess up. It
made me feel dark. Like a shadow was over me.
The doctor tell my Mom, you have bad xray.
Come back. Mom was shadow over her. But
now Mom OK.
Whew! I’m glad.

26. Begins with the Frayer Model but expand words out three levels:
Expanded Frayer Model Frayer, D., Frederick, W. C., and Klausmeier, H. J. (1969). A Schema for Testing the Level of Cognitive Mastery. Madison, WI: Wisconsin Center for Education Research.
Begins with the Frayer Model but expand words out three levels:
Multiple meanings
Free association
Figurative language
                                                                                        

27. Jostled and jolted jolt Jolt out of the blue Jolt of java
Sudden emotion
Jostled and jolted
accident
To jar with a quick, hard blow.
unexpected
shocking
quick
Crowds of people
Sudden jerky motion
A small, potent
portion
jolt
The car started with a jolt.
Stop “The policeman jolt the car.”
Shake “I jolt the mixture.”
A sudden feeling of shock, surprise, or disappointment.
Jolt out of the blue
Jolt of java

28. The Fairview Learning Program: A semantically-based
The Fairview Learning Program: A semantically-based program developed for students with hearing loss.
Provides direct access to ASL and opens a window for hearing and deaf people to begin to think and sign bilingually. (Fairview Learning Network)
Currently used in 42 states

29. Fairview Continued… The Bridge Lists & The Bridging Process
The bridge lists are English phrases requiring ASL translation for understanding.
Example: “Down the street” requires multiple sign concepts, depending on the context.
“A ball was hit down the street”
“A man walked down the street.”

30. Example: How would you teach the multiple meaning of the word “of”
Example: How would you teach the multiple meaning of the word “of”? Through context!!!!
A measure of something
a lb. of (what) ………
cheese, chocolate, nails
a bag of (what) …….
peanuts, clothespins
a box of (what) …….
dishes, cereal, rice
a book of (what) …..
matches, addresses
years of (what) ……
deprivation, growth
Talking about something Location
a story of (about) survival North of (where) the lake.
A book of (about) names In the middle of (where)
the forest
A tale of (about) two cities From
The case of (about) the The Duchess of York.
missing pen.
Cause Before
Died of a heart attack Quarter of three

31. VIII. Deaf students benefit from morphographemic vocabulary instruction.
What is a morphograph?
Based on morphemes (word parts):
Root words- dog, car, at, on, just
Bound morphemes (affixes)
Prefixes (un, re, dis)
Suffixes (ly, ment, s, ness)
Students learn word meanings by first writing parts of words (graphemes) and then by analyzing their meaning.

32. Morphographic analysis is effective with deaf students because:
The patterns of letters are visually mediated and are thus available to the deaf student. You see and sign them, not necessarily say them.
Morphographic correspondence in English is more stable and therefore more reliable than graphophonemic correspondence.
Ability to apply syntactic knowledge to decoding text is highly correlated with comprehension performance of good readers who are deaf (Kelly, 1995).
Skilled readers who are deaf pay attention to form features of English text more so than poor readers.
Strong evidence exists for the role of a large vocabulary in reading proficiency, and manipulation of morphological forms is critical to development of more advanced vocabulary.
Spellings derived from morphographic analysis are more stable than spelling from phonic analysis.

34. http://www.strugglingreaders.com/html/GA122.ht m

35. IX. One of the best ways to improve reading vocabulary is to read to and read with a student.
Read to and read with children with hearing losses as often as possible.
This mimics the reading exposure that hearing children receive from their parents.
Use standard children’s literature.

36. Allow the student to view text to ASL renderings of stories
-Use materials developed specifically for children who are deaf and hard of hearing.
Allow the student to view text to ASL renderings of stories
Sundance/Newbridge accessible texts
Gallaudet’s Shared Reading stories

37. X. Interpreters need to use conceptually accurate signs.
Made
I made my bed.
I made money.
My brother made me do that.
The rain made the grass green.
I made a present for you.
Each of these uses is represented by a different sign. If you sign the generic sign for “make”, this will not support concept development.

38. I. Students who are deaf or hard of hearing typically come to school with an impoverished vocabulary when compared to children who can hear.
II. You need to determine where on the reading pyramid your student is experiencing problems.
III. Students with hearing loss have problems at all the layers of vocabulary knowledge.
IV. Teach students with hearing loss a broader vocabulary.
V. Students who are deaf or hard of hearing need a deeper vocabulary: Multiple meanings
VI. Students with hearing loss need to know figures of speech
VII. Deaf students benefit from semantic approaches to vocabulary instruction.
VIII. Deaf students benefit from morphographemic vocabulary instruction.
IX. One of the best ways to improve reading vocabulary is to read to and read with a student.
X. Interpreters need to use conceptually accurate signs.

39. Resources and Materials