Deaf Culture Chapter 4: How Deaf Children Think, Learn, and Read

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering key terminology, prominent figures, cognitive development theories, and bilingual strategies from Chapter 4.

Junius Wilson

An African American deaf man (1908–2001) who was incarcerated for 76 years, including 6 years in prison, without ever receiving a trial or being declared legally insane.

McCay Vernon

A clinical psychologist, researcher, author, and advocate (1928–2013) who championed Deaf teachers, sign language in schools, and legal rights for Deaf people, receiving the APA Gold Medal Award in 2007.

Leroy Colombo

A Deaf lifeguard (1904–1974) who saved over 900 swimmers on Galveston beaches from 1918 to 1967 using his physical stamina, understanding of tides, visual attention, and motion detection skills.

Metacognition

The ability to reflect on and think about your own thoughts.

Theory of Mind (ToM)

The ability to understand other people's feelings, intentions, and emotions, and to empathize with them.

Child-Directed Signs

A signing technique used by Deaf parents and caregivers involving slower, bigger, exaggerated, and animated signs produced close to objects or the body to show language relationships.

Conversational Triangle

The positioning technique where caregivers sign close to an object or their body so infants can visually connect the sign with the corresponding physical object.

fNIRS

A brain imaging machine that detects neural activity, demonstrating that both signed and spoken language activate the exact same language area of the brain.

Dr. Laura-Ann Petitto

A cognitive neuroscientist who utilizes fNIRS technology to study brain activation during language processing for signed and spoken languages.

Literal Translation

An ASL/English strategy where a teacher reads a sentence or story and translates it into ASL following the exact ideas.

Free Translation

An ASL/English strategy where a teacher reads a sentence or story and translates it into ASL with expansions.

ASL Expansion

An ASL/English bilingual strategy using more than one sign to explain the meaning of a single sign or word.

Chaining

An instructional technique where a teacher uses a combination of sign, fingerspelling, writing, pictures, and gestures to introduce or emphasize a specific term or concept.

Sandwiching

A strategy similar to chaining that uses a purposeful sequence of equivalent meanings across mediums, such as sign, word, sign or sign, fingerspelling, sign.

Chunking / Bridging

A strategy where a teacher identifies words or groups of words representing one unit of meaning or one sign in ASL, followed by a discussion of the translation.

Preview-View-Review (PVR)

An instructional technique where a lesson summary is presented in ASL, followed by reading the lesson in English, and concluding with a discussion in ASL.

Codeswitching

A strategy where a teacher uses one language and then switches to another language, such as using the English word 'then' for the ASL sign 'FINISH'.

ASL Summary

A strategy in which a teacher signs a summary of a story before children read the print version and discuss it.

Translanguaging

A bilingual strategy where a teacher presents a lesson in ASL and a student responds in English, or vice versa.

DeafBlind Service Center (DBSC)

A Seattle-based center where DeafBlind individuals are trained to become mentors for sign language interpreters working with DeafBlind populations.

ASL/English Bilingual Strategies

Educational methods designed to make meaning-based connections between American Sign Language and English literacy.