Kimberly Wolbers

ABSTRACT Picture books can influence how children perceive those from backgrounds and cultures different from their own. Studies have been conducted examining how the text of children’s literature portrays multicultural characters or characters with disabilities. However, few have looked specifically at the portrayal of characters through illustrations, despite growing understanding of the importance that illustrations play in text comprehension. Fewer still have analyzed children’s literature for depictions of deaf characters and characteristics of Deaf culture. One recent study examined children’s picture books for portrayals of deaf individuals in the text; however, examining illustrations may provide additional information for both hearing and d/Deaf (For the purpose of this paper, capital “D” Deaf refers to people who are recognized part of the Deaf community; “d” deaf refers to the inability to hear or people unable to hear; d/D includes both populations.) readers about deafness and the Deaf population. In addition, while illustrations are important for all young readers, they may be particularly important for d/Deaf readers who are by nature visual learners. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to conduct a content analysis of illustrations in 20 picture books targeted to ages 4 to 8 years for messages linked to pathological and cultural models of deafness. In addition, results were compared to previous analyses of the text in the picture books. Results indicated that the illustrations do not represent deaf characters from a cultural perspective. Instead, similar to the text, illustrations present deaf characters more frequently as having a pathological condition or disability, that should be fixed through medical interventions in order to fit into a hearing world.

The study examined the extent to which a highly qualified interpreter remained parallel with or diverged from the original classroom discourse in her interpreting for a 3rd-grade deaf student in science, social studies, and resource room. The interpreter's signed and verbalized expressions were compared to the class participants' expressions for meaning equivalence. Parallel interpreting, occurring 33.2% of the time, closely matched the content of the speaker's message. Divergent interpreting, whereby the interpreter added or dropped elements of meaning, occurred 66.8% of the time. Qualitative analyses of classroom footage as well as interviews with the interpreter and the teachers revealed how, when, and why the interpreter diverged from the message. While the interpreter often made intentional reductions and additions to the discourse to achieve greater student understanding of language and course content, there was little awareness of these changes among individualized educational program team members.

Strategic and Interactive Writing Instruction (SIWI) has led to improved writing and language outcomes among deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) middle grades students. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of SIWI on the written expression of DHH elementary students across recount/personal narrative, information report, and persuasive genres. Five multiple-probe case studies demonstrate a relationship between implementation of SIWI and improvements in genre-related writing performance. The effect of instruction was most immediately demonstrated with information reports and persuasive writing, whereas several sessions of recount instruction were needed for students to satisfy performance criteria. Additionally, pre- and post-data from a larger group of students (N = 31) were compared. Wilcoxon signed-rank test statistics were statistically significant for each genre with medium to high effect sizes. Data suggest SIWI as a promising practice with elementary students, and co...