title: Fingerspelling as a Novel Gateway into Reading Fluency in Deaf Bilinguals.
abstract: Studies have shown that American Sign Language (ASL) fluency has a positive impact on deaf individuals' English reading, but the cognitive and cross-linguistic mechanisms permitting the mapping of a visual-manual language onto a sound-based language have yet to be elucidated. Fingerspelling, which represents English orthography with 26 distinct hand configurations, is an integral part of ASL and has been suggested to provide deaf bilinguals with important cross-linguistic links between sign language and orthography. Using a hierarchical multiple regression analysis, this study examined the relationship of age of ASL exposure, ASL fluency, and fingerspelling skill on reading fluency in deaf college-age bilinguals. After controlling for ASL fluency, fingerspelling skill significantly predicted reading fluency, revealing for the first-time that fingerspelling, above and beyond ASL skills, contributes to reading fluency in deaf bilinguals. We suggest that both fingerspelling--in the visual-manual modality--and reading--in the visual-orthographic modality--are mutually facilitating because they share common underlying cognitive capacities of word decoding accuracy and automaticity of word recognition. The findings provide support for the hypothesis that the development of English reading proficiency may be facilitated through strengthening of the relationship among fingerspelling, sign language, and orthographic decoding en route to reading mastery, and may also reveal optimal approaches for reading instruction for deaf and hard of hearing children.
authors.affiliation: Educational Neuroscience (PEN) Program, Gallaudet University, Washington, DC, United States of America; NSF Science of Learning Center on Visual Language and Visual Learning (VL2), Gallaudet University, Washington, DC, United States of America.
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Stone
authors.affiliation: Educational Neuroscience (PEN) Program, Gallaudet University, Washington, DC, United States of America; NSF Science of Learning Center on Visual Language and Visual Learning (VL2), Gallaudet University, Washington, DC, United States of America.
authors.forename: Geo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kartheiser
authors.affiliation: NSF Science of Learning Center on Visual Language and Visual Learning (VL2), Gallaudet University, Washington, DC, United States of America; Deaf Studies Laboratory, National Technical Institute for the Deaf, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York, United States of America.
authors.forename: Peter C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Hauser
authors.affiliation: Educational Neuroscience (PEN) Program, Gallaudet University, Washington, DC, United States of America; NSF Science of Learning Center on Visual Language and Visual Learning (VL2), Gallaudet University, Washington, DC, United States of America; Department of Psychology, Gallaudet University, Washington, DC, United States of America.
authors.forename: Laura-Ann
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Petitto
authors.affiliation: Educational Neuroscience (PEN) Program, Gallaudet University, Washington, DC, United States of America; NSF Science of Learning Center on Visual Language and Visual Learning (VL2), Gallaudet University, Washington, DC, United States of America; Department of Education, Gallaudet University, Washington, DC, United States of America.
authors.forename: Thomas E
authors.initials: TE
authors.lastname: Allen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D005385:Fingers; D006801:Humans; D008037:Linguistics; D008297:Male; D019303:Multilingualism; D019986:Persons with Hearing Disabilities / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D011932:Reading; D012813:Sign Language; D014705:Verbal Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult