Deafness

Deafness: Current Perspectives and Research Developments presents the theoretical foundations for miscue analysis, its utilization with diverse and bilingual students, and prior research conducted with deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals. The authors focus on a significant challenge to improving the reading achievement of deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals: finding non-biased assessments and compiling test pools of sufficient size in order to identify meaningful patterns. The viability of vibrotactile stimulation as an alternative to complement and foster linguistic development in the profoundly deaf, particularly those with a prelingual age of onset, is examined. The challenges, opportunities, and goals of researchers and clinicians working in the field of deafness and autism spectrum disorder are explored, emphasizing the need for training more culturally and linguistically competent deaf and hearing adults to conduct research and intervention with deaf children. In an effort to improve validity, the authors re-design a previous cross-sectional study to measure resilience when deaf/hard of hearing or blind/low vision students entered high school as well as when they exited, usually four years later, and compare the two data points. The first known project conducted within the United States to evaluate the use of assistive technology for healthcare interactions between student pharmacists and simulated deaf/hard of hearing patients is also discussed.