Fingerspelling as a Novel Gateway into Reading Fluency in Deaf Bilinguals

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 10; no. 10; p. e0139610
• Main Authors: Stone, Adam, Kartheiser, Geo, Hauser, Peter C., Petitto, Laura-Ann, Allen, Thomas E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 01.10.2015; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Accuracy; Adult; American Sign Language; Analysis; Automation; Bilingualism; Care and treatment; Children; Cognitive ability; Deaf persons; Deafness; Decoding; Dyslexia; English proficiency; Female; Fingers; Fingerspelling; Fluency; Hearing loss; Humans; Intelligence tests; Language; Linguistics; Literacy; Male; Memory; Multilingualism; Multiple regression analysis; Neurosciences; Orthography; Pattern recognition; Persons With Hearing Impairments - rehabilitation; Phonics; Phonology; Predictive control; Reading; Reading comprehension; Reading instruction; Regression analysis; Science; Sign Language; Studies; Study and teaching; Teaching methods; Verbal Behavior - physiology; Word recognition; Young Adult; United States; New York; United States > US

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, wh...