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Enriching Deaf Children's American Sign Language Phonological Awareness: A Quasi-Experimental Study

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Title: Enriching Deaf Children's American Sign Language Phonological Awareness: A Quasi-Experimental Study
Language: English
Authors: Holcomb, Leala, Golos, Debbie, Moses, Annie, Broadrick, Anna
Source: Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education. Jan 2022 27(1):26-36.
Availability: Oxford University Press. Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP, UK. Tel: +44-1865-353907; Fax: +44-1865-353485; e-mail: jnls.cust.serv@oxfordjournals.org; Web site: http://jdsde.oxfordjournals.org/
Peer Reviewed: Y
Page Count: 11
Publication Date: 2022
Document Type: Journal Articles
Reports - Research
Descriptors: Language Enrichment, Deafness, Hearing Impairments, American Sign Language, Phonological Awareness, Young Children, Intervention, Program Effectiveness
DOI: 10.1093/deafed/enab028
ISSN: 1081-4159
Abstract: With the knowledge that deaf children benefit from early exposure to signed language, questions are raised about the role of specific types of language input that are beneficial in early childhood classrooms. This quasi-experimental study explores the effects of ASL rhyme, rhythm, and handshape awareness activities on 4- to 6-year-old deaf children's ASL phonological awareness. Deaf children received three-week structured activities and four-week teacher-choice activities that targeted handshape awareness. Results yielded evidence that interventions as brief as 12 minutes daily for up to 2 months can produce positive effects on deaf children's phonological awareness. Furthermore, although the intervention focused only on handshape awareness, children's positive gains on the ASL Phonological Awareness Test suggests one targeted phonological awareness skill (e.g., handshape) may generalize to other phonological awareness skills (e.g., location and movement). Further investigation is needed on the relationship between ASL phonological awareness and overall language and literacy skills in both ASL and English.
Abstractor: As Provided
Entry Date: 2021
Accession Number: EJ1319668
Database: ERIC
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  Value: <anid>AN0154255346;big01jan.22;2021Dec23.07:25;v2.2.500</anid> <title id="AN0154255346-1">Enriching Deaf Children's American Sign Language Phonological Awareness: A Quasi-Experimental Study </title> <p>With the knowledge that deaf children benefit from early exposure to signed language, questions are raised about the role of specific types of language input that are beneficial in early childhood classrooms. This quasi-experimental study explores the effects of ASL rhyme, rhythm, and handshape awareness activities on 4- to 6-year-old deaf children's ASL phonological awareness. Deaf children received three-week structured activities and four-week teacher-choice activities that targeted handshape awareness. Results yielded evidence that interventions as brief as 12 minutes daily for up to 2 months can produce positive effects on deaf children's phonological awareness. Furthermore, although the intervention focused only on handshape awareness, children's positive gains on the ASL Phonological Awareness Test suggests one targeted phonological awareness skill (e.g. handshape) may generalize to other phonological awareness skills (e.g. location and movement). Further investigation is needed on the relationship between ASL phonological awareness and overall language and literacy skills in both ASL and English.</p> <p>Abstract</p> <hd id="AN0154255346-2">Enriching Deaf Children's American Sign Language Phonological Awareness through ASL Rhyme and...</hd> <p>A language-rich environment is crucial to children's development. High-quality early childhood education infuses language input through social interactions that include nursery rhymes, songs, poetry, and language games ([<reflink idref="bib25" id="ref1">25</reflink>]). There is a difference between simply using language to communicate, and observing, being aware, and manipulating the language you are using ([<reflink idref="bib27" id="ref2">27</reflink>]). The latter pertains to metalinguistics, an umbrella term that describes multiple kinds of language skills—such as syntactic awareness and phonological awareness; both important in early childhood. With syntactic awareness, children play with the semantics of the words or sentences. For example, while playing with LEGO products, a child humorously utilizes the dual meaning of the word "hard" (texture versus struggle) in this sentence, "This is hard, and that is hard!" With phonological awareness, children can manipulate the smallest units of a word during language play.</p> <p>[<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref3">11</reflink>] captured hearing children's fascination with language and their tendency to make up rhyming words. He shared a narrative of his four-year-old hearing child screaming, "I'm a big, big rider! You're smaller than a spider!" (p. 64). The general ability to think about, manipulate, and play with language fosters metalinguistic abilities that can be applied across concepts and languages ([<reflink idref="bib29" id="ref4">29</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib49" id="ref5">49</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib51" id="ref6">51</reflink>]). Bilingual classrooms that utilize signed language may apply these principles to the same positive effect. With the knowledge that deaf children benefit from early exposure to signed language ([<reflink idref="bib32" id="ref7">32</reflink>]), questions are raised about the role of specific types of language input that promotes metalinguistic skills such as ASL phonological awareness activities in early childhood classrooms. ASL rhyme, rhythm, and phonological awareness have nothing to do with sound and consist of the smallest linguistic units of signed language such as handshape, location, and movement on the hands ([<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref8">7</reflink>]), which will be detailed later.</p> <p>Universal Phonology</p> <p>[<reflink idref="bib42" id="ref9">42</reflink>] presented a theory called "universal phonology," which is the biological ability to process linguistic information based on its units, patterns, and structures (p. 7). The human brain segments the sequence of language, spoken or signed, into pieces of phonological units for the purpose of interpreting and connecting linguistic information to meaning. This process of segmentation during language acquisition occurs naturally in the brain if language input is early, accessible, and rich. Therefore, the early childhood period is critical because the development of phonological processing in the brain is in tandem with access to quality language input ([<reflink idref="bib26" id="ref10">26</reflink>]). Petitto's framework of universal phonology signifies that deaf children, just like hearing children, benefit from early language approaches such as child-directed language, nursery rhymes, songs, poetry, and language games, and that this can be achieved through signed language. As [<reflink idref="bib36" id="ref11">36</reflink>]) wrote, "For deaf children who use a natural sign language, it appears that the available evidence in the input signal does not need to be "spoken." Like all children, however, the available evidence may need to be phonological" (p.1).</p> <p>Phonology, the study of patterns of sounds or signs, has been documented in signed and spoken languages throughout the world. It has been established that all languages are made of multiple combinations of phonological patterns to generate words ([<reflink idref="bib45" id="ref12">45</reflink>]). These patterns are an essential component when engaging in language play and fostering children's appreciation of rhymes ([<reflink idref="bib21" id="ref13">21</reflink>]). One aspect of language play involving rhyme is at the phoneme level. For example, rhyming in spoken English occur in these two words with the same beginning sound—pecan pie, or in these two words with the same ending sound—not hot. Linguists of signed language have defined phonemes as the individual parameters found in a single signed word such as handshape, location, movement, palm orientation, and non-manual markers ([<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref14">7</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib50" id="ref15">50</reflink>]). To produce an ASL rhyme, there must be a phonological pattern in a single or multiple phonemes (e.g. handshape, location, and/or movement) across different signed words ([<reflink idref="bib37" id="ref16">37</reflink>]). For example, signed words that rhyme can share the same handshape and movement (e.g. the 5-handshape placed on the forehead and extending away from the face for "grandpa" and the 5-handshape placed on the chin and extending away from the face for "grandma"). Arguably, this kind of rhyme are paralleled to spoken words that have the same beginning sound (e.g. "big bear"). ASL rhymes are incorporated in ASL stories just like English rhymes are found in some books ([<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref17">8</reflink>]). When rhythm is added to ASL rhyme through the act of moving the body and the head in patterns, a visual beat is produced. To sum up, ASL rhyme and rhythm share similar linguistic principles as any other languages, and speech is not part of the equation.</p> <p>The Use of ASL Rhyme and Rhythm in the Deaf Community</p> <p>In the United States of America and parts of Canada, American Sign Language (ASL) is used by members of the deaf community. Deaf people create rhyming and rhythmic performances and language games in ASL for artistic, entertainment, creative, cultural, and educational purposes. For example, at Gallaudet University, an academic institution for deaf college students, there is a longstanding tradition to sing fight songs in ASL to entertain and uplift the fans during sport games ([<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref18">4</reflink>]). Their fight songs consist of visual beats produced by clapping and jumping to the right and left while signed words move in ways that match the 2–3 rhythm. In Canada, the ASL Parent–Child Mother Goose Program has deaf parent mentors training hearing parents on using ASL rhyme and rhythm to bond with their children ([<reflink idref="bib41" id="ref19">41</reflink>]). An example of their ASL rhyme and rhythm includes the repeated use of the claw-handshape while swaying their heads in a patterned manner: "BEAR – EARS, CHEEKS, TUMMY". In the United States of America, Hands Land, a deaf-owned organization, produced over 30 videos of original ASL rhyme and rhythm to enrich children's language experience at home and in school ([<reflink idref="bib23" id="ref20">23</reflink>]). Their videos are packed with phonological patterns that target handshape, location, and movement. Looking at social media, deaf individuals from all walks of life regularly post videos of ASL poetry and songs tailored for audiences of varying ages. These cultural and linguistic artifacts illustrate how ASL rhyme and rhythm exist and are used in the deaf community, ranging from language acquisition in toddlers to language sophistication and creativity in adults.</p> <p>ASL Rhyme, Rhythm, and Phonological Awareness in Language Development</p> <p>ASL rhyme and rhythm are, by nature, musically visual, making language engaging for children. This is one reason it is used by deaf families to support their children's language development at home ([<reflink idref="bib23" id="ref21">23</reflink>]). Through the act of watching and signing along to ASL rhyme and rhythm, children participate in positive social interactions with family members. In fact, deaf babies are known to respond to ASL rhyme and rhythm in similar ways as hearing babies respond to spoken nursery rhymes with hand babbling and positive affectivity ([<reflink idref="bib48" id="ref22">48</reflink>]). Indeed, deaf preschoolers spontaneously imitate the signed words while viewing ASL rhyme and rhythm videos ([<reflink idref="bib24" id="ref23">24</reflink>]), which indicates their fascination and engagement with this language input. When children imitate or recite ASL rhyme and rhythm, they practice using different parts of language, such as phonemes, vocabulary, sentence structures, and prosody ([<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref24">2</reflink>]).</p> <p>There is emerging evidence that ASL rhyme, rhythm, and phonological awareness make positive contributions to deaf children's language development. Some teachers of the deaf expose preschoolers to ASL phonological awareness activities through rhyming and rhythmic handshape stories ([<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref25">15</reflink>]). As [<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref26">15</reflink>]) describes, "The teachers felt that as students became more familiar with recurring structures they increased their ability to manipulate and form connections with the structures and become more creative with it" (p. 473). Furthermore, when children are taught about the phonological structures of ASL, their ability to recite songs increases. In an experimental study, significant gains were found in the accuracy of four- to six-year-old deaf children's recitation of ASL rhyme and rhythm after receiving two 20-minute lessons on handshape rhyme recognition, which is a part of ASL phonological awareness ([<reflink idref="bib24" id="ref27">24</reflink>]). Their elevated ability to recite songs suggests that deaf children may take advantage of the phonological patterns in ASL to assist them with predicting and memorizing the words that come next. This skill ties back to the larger idea of metalinguistics where children are attending to language as an object of exploration and play ([<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref28">9</reflink>]). Emerging evidence indicates that ASL rhyme and rhythm can promote children's awareness of the phonological units of signed language such as handshape, location, and movement (Crume, 2013; [<reflink idref="bib24" id="ref29">24</reflink>]); however, little is known about its relationship in contributing to English literacy development.</p> <p>ASL Phonological Awareness and English Literacy</p> <p>Research on skilled deaf readers indicates that spoken phonological awareness has a small role in their English and literacy skills. In a large meta-analysis study, English phonological awareness accounted only for 11% of the variance in the proficiency of deaf readers ([<reflink idref="bib31" id="ref30">31</reflink>]). A recent study produced similar evidence that skilled deaf readers do not rely on sound-based phonological processing while reading ([<reflink idref="bib14" id="ref31">14</reflink>]).</p> <p>ASL phonological awareness tells a different story with its relationship to elevated English literacy, indicating cross linguistic transfers between ASL and English ([<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref32">13</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib20" id="ref33">20</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib34" id="ref34">34</reflink>]). For example, [<reflink idref="bib34" id="ref35">34</reflink>]) found elementary deaf students' knowledge of ASL phonological awareness was positively correlated to English word recognition and reading comprehension. Another correlational study done on deaf adults demonstrated similar evidence that those with early exposure to ASL had higher ASL phonological awareness, and that there was a significant relationship between their ASL phonological awareness and English phonological awareness ([<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref36">13</reflink>]). These findings suggest ASL phonological awareness might have some kind of influence on English literacy development.</p> <p>More recently, an experimental study examined the English vocabulary scores of four seven- to eight-year-old deaf children after showing English text alongside ASL stories in three different conditions: (<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref37">1</reflink>) no ASL handshape rhyme, (<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref38">2</reflink>) with ASL handshape rhyme, and (<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref39">3</reflink>) with English rhyme ([<reflink idref="bib20" id="ref40">20</reflink>]). Deaf children's English vocabulary scores were significantly higher in the ASL handshape rhyme condition, indicating ASL phonological awareness's positive role in English development. This study was replicated in Taiwan with significant improvements in Chinese vocabulary scores in both conditions: (a) signed stories with handshape rhyme and (b) signed stories without handshape rhyme ([<reflink idref="bib30" id="ref41">30</reflink>]). These accumulated findings support Cummins's Linguistic Interdependence Theory, which stresses the importance of having a strong foundation in a first language to assist with the development of a second language ([<reflink idref="bib16" id="ref42">16</reflink>]).</p> <p>Metalinguistic Awareness and Literacy Development</p> <p>If a child, hearing or deaf, develops strong metalinguistic skills and cognitive reasoning skills in their first language, their ability to tackle the complex process of learning how to read and write is enhanced ([<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref43">10</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib18" id="ref44">18</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib40" id="ref45">40</reflink>]). [<reflink idref="bib40" id="ref46">40</reflink>]) explored the role of metalinguistic awareness across spoken languages such as English, Spanish, Japanese, and Chinese for hearing children learning to read. In their review of literature, they reported hearing children benefitting from instructions that are designed to help them become aware of the linguistic structure of their native language along with the structures of the written system. Limited research suggests ASL metalinguistic awareness may serve a similar role for deaf children learning to read. [<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref47">5</reflink>]'s qualitative study found teachers at a deaf school engaged their K-3 students in activities that promoted ASL metalinguistic awareness and used this foundation to build their knowledge of English. Further evidence of a relationship between ASL metalinguistic awareness and English literacy exists in other studies. For example, evidence on signed metalinguistic awareness in deaf bilingual learners ([<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref48">3</reflink>]) parallels evidence on spoken metalinguistic awareness in hearing bilingual learners when it comes to cross linguistic transfers ([<reflink idref="bib43" id="ref49">43</reflink>]). Bilinguals, regardless if they are deaf or hearing, take advantage of their linguistic knowledge in both languages while reading. In a quantitative study that administered ASL and English tests to 140 deaf students between ages 5 and 21, ASL metalinguistic awareness was positively correlated to English reading skills ([<reflink idref="bib46" id="ref50">46</reflink>]).</p> <p>Literacy is, however, not limited to written languages, as documented by the existence of ASL literacy ([<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref51">8</reflink>]). [<reflink idref="bib19" id="ref52">19</reflink>]) defines ASL literacy as follows:</p> <p>"ASL literacy refers not just to a high level of proficiency in the language but to the knowledge of and ability to produce the 'oral literature' of the culture, in this case, signed literature, e.g. poetry, storytelling, etc. In fact, ASL, even though not a written form, can afford the user a high level of precision and beauty in the language" (p. 20).</p> <p>ASL literacy skills can be developed through viewing ASL videos and constructing ASL in a published format such as videos ([<reflink idref="bib47" id="ref53">47</reflink>]), which arguably can be considered as comparable to the development of English literacy through reading and writing. Some teachers of the deaf expose their students to different genres of ASL literature, including rhyme and rhythm ([<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref54">15</reflink>]) and provide them with support to develop proficiency through signing processes. To date, there is no research on the impact of ASL metalinguistic awareness on ASL literacy development. Existing studies mostly focus on whether ASL interventions, including the ones on metalinguistic awareness, support English literacy development ([<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref55">5</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib46" id="ref56">46</reflink>]). Thus, there is much to learn when drawing upon the literacy practices of teachers in bilingual settings where ASL and English are valued equally with the expectation that students will be engaged in the development of their ASL literacy skills along with their English literacy skills.</p> <p>Deaf Epistemology and Deaf Pedagogy</p> <p>Deaf epistemology is defined as the "Deaf Way, or ways of thinking, of viewing the world" ([<reflink idref="bib28" id="ref57">28</reflink>], p. 18). As such, it is important for deaf educators and researchers to be involved in the development of research on educational approaches that utilize signed language. To this point, the first author of this current study is a deaf, was exposed to ASL rhyme, rhythm, and ASL phonological awareness as a child through their deaf parents, and was an early childhood educator. Since ASL rhyme and rhythm have originated from within the deaf community and are among the early language approaches that some deaf families and teachers naturally use in their interactions with children, it may be myopic to make English literacy the primary focal point of this inquiry. Thus, we challenge the notion that approaches in ASL are justifiable only if they help them acquire English ([<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref58">6</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib44" id="ref59">44</reflink>]). This study is unique in that it is not contingent on English-speaking monolinguals' norms or measures of success.</p> <p>Exploring how signed language—as a stand-alone language—can positively impact children's ASL literacy is an initiative worthy of pursuing. The overarching goal of our inquiry was to investigate how different types of language input in ASL, including approaches that raise metalinguistic awareness, benefits children' ASL development. For this specific study, which was exploratory in nature given the relative novelty of this type of intervention in early childhood classrooms and the scarcity of research in this area ([<reflink idref="bib23" id="ref60">23</reflink>]), we were interested in learning more about the impact of activities that incorporate ASL rhyme, rhythm, and phonological awareness on deaf children's ASL phonological awareness.</p> <hd id="AN0154255346-3">This Study</hd> <p>To expand our empirical knowledge on the "Deaf Way" of learning, the mechanisms of our ASL phonological awareness intervention were developed with consideration of common language activities and games that prompt attention to similarities in the way specific words look (recognition), substituting a specific phoneme in a word to produce a different word (substitution), and creating new rhyming words (production). To examine the extent to which ASL phonological awareness intervention impacts the development of ASL phonological awareness, the current study utilized <emph>Hands Land</emph> rhyming and rhythmic videos and handshape awareness lessons with young deaf children in early childhood education settings. The research questions guiding this study were:</p> <p></p> <ulist> <item> To what extent do ASL rhyme and rhythm videos that are supplemented with handshape awareness activities impact young deaf children's ASL phonological awareness at the handshape phoneme level?</item> <p></p> <item> To what extent do ASL rhyme and rhythm videos that are supplemented with handshape awareness activities affect young deaf children's generalized knowledge of ASL phonological awareness?</item> </ulist> <hd id="AN0154255346-4">Method</hd> <p>To answer these questions, a quasi-experimental pretest-post-test design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of a seven-week intervention on young deaf children's ASL phonological awareness. Sixteen teachers and 38 deaf children between four and 6 years of age were recruited from four bilingual schools for the deaf across the United States. The inclusion criteria required teachers in the experimental group to sign an agreement that they would commit to the seven-week intervention program and not share information with other teachers until the intervention was completed.</p> <p>More broadly, experimental group teachers showed ASL rhyme and rhythm videos in class and engaged students in handshape awareness activities. Their lessons were video recorded on Tuesdays and Thursdays to evaluate procedural integrity. They filled out teacher logs on Fridays in which they reflected on the week's activities. Control group teachers were asked to proceed with their regular instruction with the understanding that they can have access to <emph>Hands Land</emph> materials after data collection was complete. ASL phonological awareness measures were administered at the beginning, during, and at the end of the intervention to evaluate the impact of the intervention.</p> <p>School, Child, and Teacher Participants</p> <p>As mentioned, four schools for the deaf participated in the study. Two schools with eight teachers and 26 children were assigned to the experimental group, and two schools with six teachers and 12 children were assigned to the control group. Based on self-reported surveys, all teachers in both groups were female and most were white. All except for one held Master's degrees. The majority of teachers in the experimental group were deaf and had fluent ASL skills while the majority of teachers in the control group were hearing and had intermediate ASL skills. See Table 1 for demographic data for teachers.</p> <p>Table 1 Teacher demographic data</p> <p> <ephtml> <table><thead><tr><th>Demographics. </th><th>. </th><th>Experimental (<italic>n</italic> = 8). </th><th>Control (<italic>n</italic> = 6). </th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Gender </td><td>Female </td><td>100% </td><td>100% </td></tr><tr><td>Identity </td><td>Deaf </td><td>75% </td><td>16.7% </td></tr><tr><td /><td>Hard of hearing </td><td>12.5% </td><td>0% </td></tr><tr><td /><td>Hearing </td><td>12.5% </td><td>83.3% </td></tr><tr><td>Race </td><td>White </td><td>75% </td><td>83.3% </td></tr><tr><td /><td>Hispanic </td><td>12.5% </td><td>0% </td></tr><tr><td /><td>Undisclosed </td><td>12.5% </td><td>16.7% </td></tr><tr><td>Highest education level </td><td>Master's </td><td>100% </td><td>83.3% </td></tr><tr><td /><td>Bachelor's </td><td>0% </td><td>27.7% </td></tr><tr><td>ASL </td><td>Fluent </td><td>62.5% </td><td>0% </td></tr><tr><td /><td>Advanced </td><td>37.5% </td><td>33.3% </td></tr><tr><td /><td>Intermediate </td><td>0% </td><td>66.7% </td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <p>The caregivers filled out surveys about their own signing skills and their children's backgrounds. The mean ages for participating children in the experimental group (<emph>M</emph> = 5.20) and the control group (<emph>M</emph> = 5.18) were almost identical, and most children were white. Most children in both groups were profoundly deaf. The majority of children in the experimental group did not wear hearing aids (HA) or cochlear implants (CI) while the control group had a higher number of HA/CI users. Both the experimental group (<emph>N</emph> = 9, 35%) and the control group (<emph>N</emph> = 2, 17%) had children with additional disabilities. The majority of caregivers in both groups reported having advanced signing skills. More information about children's gender, race, hearing technology, hearing levels, sign language use, and disabilities can be found in Table 2.</p> <p>Table 2 Student demographic data</p> <p> <ephtml> <table><thead><tr><th colspan="2">Demographics. </th><th>Experimental (<italic>n</italic> = 26). </th><th>Control (<italic>n</italic> = 12). </th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Gender </td><td>Female </td><td>60% </td><td>58% </td></tr><tr><td /><td>Male </td><td>36% </td><td>42% </td></tr><tr><td /><td>Undisclosed </td><td>4% </td><td>0% </td></tr><tr><td>Age </td><td>Mean age </td><td><italic>M</italic> = 5.20 (SD =.68) </td><td><italic>M</italic> = 5.18 (SD =.69) </td></tr><tr><td>Race </td><td>White </td><td>58% </td><td>83% </td></tr><tr><td /><td>Black/African Americans </td><td>0% </td><td>0% </td></tr><tr><td /><td>Latinx </td><td>4% </td><td>0% </td></tr><tr><td /><td>Asians </td><td>0% </td><td>0% </td></tr><tr><td /><td>Native Americans </td><td>0% </td><td>0% </td></tr><tr><td /><td>Bi- or multi-racial </td><td>4% </td><td>0% </td></tr><tr><td /><td>Undisclosed </td><td>35% </td><td>17% </td></tr><tr><td>Hearing technology </td><td>Hearing aids </td><td>35% </td><td>50% </td></tr><tr><td /><td>Cochlear implants </td><td>0% </td><td>50% </td></tr><tr><td /><td>None </td><td>65% </td><td>0% </td></tr><tr><td>Hearing Level </td><td>Mild </td><td>11.5% </td><td>0% </td></tr><tr><td /><td>Moderate </td><td>11.5% </td><td>16.7% </td></tr><tr><td /><td>Severe </td><td>11.5% </td><td>16.7% </td></tr><tr><td /><td>Profound </td><td>54% </td><td>66.7% </td></tr><tr><td /><td>Undisclosed </td><td>11.5% </td><td>0% </td></tr><tr><td>Number of ASL vocabulary the child is Able to produce </td><td>0–10 </td><td>4% </td><td>0% </td></tr><tr><td /><td>10–50 </td><td>12% </td><td>0% </td></tr><tr><td /><td>50–100 </td><td>16% </td><td>0% </td></tr><tr><td /><td>100–500 </td><td>32.8% </td><td>58.3% </td></tr><tr><td /><td>More than 500 </td><td>32% </td><td>41.7% </td></tr><tr><td /><td>Do not know </td><td>4% </td><td>0% </td></tr><tr><td>Additional disabilities </td><td>Yes </td><td>35% </td><td>17% </td></tr><tr><td /><td>No </td><td>58% </td><td>75% </td></tr><tr><td /><td>Undisclosed </td><td>7% </td><td>8% </td></tr><tr><td>Parents' sign language skills </td><td>Beginner </td><td>8% </td><td>0% </td></tr><tr><td /><td>Intermediate </td><td>8% </td><td>41.7% </td></tr><tr><td /><td>Advanced or fluent </td><td>84% </td><td>58.3% </td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <p>Materials</p> <p>The intervention included <emph>Hands Land</emph> videos and supplemental handshape awareness activities. <emph>Hands Land</emph> videos were composed of ASL rhyme and rhythm developed and produced by an all-deaf team, targeting different aspects of ASL phonology. For this study, three ASL rhyme and rhythm videos with handshape rhymes were selected. The three videos used were <emph>Colorful Animals</emph>, <emph>Animal Personalities</emph>, and <emph>Daily Walk</emph>, respectively. <emph>Colorful Animals</emph> has eight pairs of signed words that rhyme in ASL, making a total of 16 signed words (e.g. "red worm" using the x-handshape, "orange bison" using the c-handshape, and "yellow whale" using the y-handshape). <emph>Animal Personalities</emph> has seven pairs of signed words that rhyme in ASL, making a total of 14 words (e.g. "funny horse" using the closed 3-handshape, "blunt shark" using the b-handshape, and "smelly donkey" using the closed 5-handshape). <emph>Daily Walk</emph> has seven pairings of three words that rhyme in ASL, making a total of 21 words in the song (e.g. "one mouse crossing" using the 1-handshape, "two raccoons crossing" using the 2-handshape, and "three roosters crossing" using the 3-handshape). Each video has colorful backgrounds with illustrations of animals that are animated, matching the signed words. Each ASL rhyme and rhythm song is repeated three times in succession within one video for a total viewing of approximately 2 minutes.</p> <p>Four handshape awareness lessons were developed to align with each ASL rhyme and rhythm video. The lessons focus on the following skills: recognizing rhymes, producing rhymes, discriminating and substituting rhymes, and creating new rhymes. The first lesson had children identify what rhymed in the ASL rhyme and rhythm video. The teacher was instructed to say, "Look at these words – red worm – what is the same?" The correct response would be the x-handshape that is used in both signed words. If children struggled to recognize rhymes, then the teacher provided modeling in identifying the rhyming handshape by thinking aloud, ''Look at how these signed words use the same x-handshape!'' The teacher repeated the process with other rhyming words in the ASL rhyme and rhythm video. The second lesson asked children to come up with signed words that used the same handshape. The teacher said, "What other signed words use the x-handshape?" If children had a hard time coming up with signed words independently, then the teacher provided hints by pointing to objects in the environment. The third lesson involved teachers providing the same signed words in the ASL rhyme and rhythm video but using incorrect handshapes. For example, the teacher signed "red worm" with b-handshape instead of x-handshape. Children were asked to notice what is wrong with the signed words and replace the incorrect handshapes with the correct ones. If children did not capture the mistake, the teacher repeated the signed word in a slow and exaggerated manner. The final lesson asked children to co-create new ASL rhyme and rhythm using the same rhyming structure in the video. The teacher told children that "worm" would be omitted and replaced with a different rhyming word and had children vote on a new signed word (e.g. "doll"). The whole class signed out aloud the new version of the ASL rhyme and rhythm together (e.g. "red doll" instead of "red worm"). In total, there were three ASL rhyme and rhythm videos and 12 handshape awareness lessons.</p> <p>Measures</p> <p>A family survey of child background and a teacher survey were collected prior to the implementation. For the family survey, a caregiver was asked to answer questions about their child's age of identification, their child's age of exposure to ASL, their family's socio-economic level, their own signing skills, and their own hearing status. Participating teachers also completed a background survey for demographic information including their own hearing levels, ASL skills and educational level.</p> <p>Baseline assessments were collected on all participating children's ASL skills through two measures: the <emph>ASL Phonological Awareness Test</emph> (ASL-PAT) ([<reflink idref="bib35" id="ref61">35</reflink>]) and the <emph>Hands Land Handshape Awareness Test</emph> (HL-HAT). The ASL-PAT is an unpublished computer-delivered assessment undergoing a standardizing process. The successes of this measure were evidenced in previous work conducted on deaf children and adults by McQuarrie and colleagues ([<reflink idref="bib33" id="ref62">33</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib36" id="ref63">36</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib34" id="ref64">34</reflink>]). The first part of the ASL-PAT assessment measures a child's ability to identify two signed words that have one shared phoneme (e.g. handshape, location, or movement). The second part of the assessment examines a child's ability to identify two signed words that have two shared phonemes. The ASL-PAT was administered at the beginning and the end of the intervention period.</p> <p>The HL-HAT is a program-specific phonological awareness assessment focusing on handshapes only (i.e. knowledge of the handshapes featured in <emph>Hands Land</emph> videos). It follows a similar format as the ASL-PAT with a receptive subsection and an expressive subsection. This assessment was developed by the researchers and went through a piloting process with five deaf children prior to this study. The HL-HAT was administered before, during (immediate post-test), and after the treatment period (delayed post-test).</p> <p>Lastly, a teacher implementation log was collected. For the first 3 weeks of the structured intervention, teachers were asked to document how long each activity lasted, who participated in the activity, and their experiences with the activity. For the remaining 4 weeks when teachers were free to choose any videos or activities, they were asked to write down which videos they viewed, which activities they used, and which children participated. If a participating child was absent, teachers were asked to document this as well along with the number of <emph>Hands Land</emph> viewings and activities they missed.</p> <p>Procedures</p> <p>This study was implemented after obtaining IRB approval. Upon getting teachers' signed consent forms, we provided an all-day training to teachers in the experimental group at each school on: (<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref65">1</reflink>) the background and purpose of the project, (<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref66">2</reflink>) administering HL-HAT, (<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref67">3</reflink>) showing <emph>Hands Land</emph> videos on the Smartboard, (<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref68">4</reflink>) facilitating handshape awareness activities, and (<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref69">5</reflink>) completing weekly logs. All teachers completed the teacher background survey and distributed the family survey to participating students' caregivers through their regular home-school communication. Control teachers received training only on administering the HL-HAT and proceeded with their "business-as-usual" instruction. All teachers volunteered their participation without any compensation except for the Hands Land materials they received.</p> <p>A week prior to intervention implementation, research team members administered the ASL-PAT individually to all participating children in experimental and control groups. Participating teachers in experimental and control groups were responsible for giving the HL-HAT pretest to all children. The HL-HAT sessions administered by teachers were recorded to ensure impartiality on the teachers' part. The procedures that treatment teachers followed are described in detail below.</p> <p>Following pretesting, treatment teachers showed one ASL rhyme and rhythm video each week and conducted four handshape awareness activities from Monday through Thursday to reinforce targeted skills. Children were seated either on the floor or in chairs in a semicircle around the teacher, who used a Smartboard or a similar technology to show the ASL rhyme and rhythm video. After showing the video, different targeted handshape awareness skills were taught through a daily interactive activity in this sequential order: identifying signed words with handshape rhyme (Day 1), producing signed words with handshape rhyme (Day 2), discriminating and substituting handshape phonemes (Day 3), and creating new songs with handshape rhyme (Day 4). Treatment teachers had scripts that they were instructed to follow that provided explanations, examples, and questions about each targeted skill. Each activity was generally brief, lasting approximately 12 minutes. By the end of Week 3, children had watched three different ASL rhyme and rhythm videos and completed 12 different handshape awareness activities. Attendance of 75% (9 of 12) or more sessions for this portion of the intervention served as the minimum criterion for children's inclusion in this study. The HL-HAT was administered again by the participating teachers to collect immediate post-test data on handshape awareness.</p> <p>During weeks 4 to 7, treatment teachers were asked to re-use the materials at least twice per week and continue to complete weekly logs. In the weekly logs, teachers were asked to explain their reasoning for choosing to use certain <emph>Hands Land</emph> videos or activities. Finally, the HL-HAT and the ASL-PAT were administered for the delayed post-test data on handshape awareness and overall ASL phonological awareness, respectively. See Figure 1 for treatment schedule.</p> <p>Graph: Figure 1 class="chapter-para">Treatment schedule.</p> <p>Procedural Integrity and Inter-Rater Reliability</p> <p>To ensure that treatment teachers were faithful to the intervention, a primary rater observed and scored their lessons that were video-recorded on Tuesdays and Thursdays using a researcher-developed instructional fidelity checklist. The checklist included the following items: (<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref70">1</reflink>) ASL rhyme and rhythm video was shown to the whole class, (<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref71">2</reflink>) The teacher engaged students in the handshape awareness activity focusing on the targeted skill, and (<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref72">3</reflink>) The teacher provided additional guidance and support through modeling if a student struggled. The score was marked as 1 (yes) or 0 (no). In 33 sessions, 95 teacher behaviors out of 99 of the total amount of planned teacher behaviors were successfully executed for a total of 96% procedural integrity. In addition to the check for fidelity, 30% of the recorded data were scored by two raters, and the interrater reliability was 95% overall.</p> <p>Data Analysis</p> <p>Along with checking assumptions for running the mixed-design ANOVA test, a split-plot ANOVA was conducted to examine any differences between the treatment and control groups, from pretest to post-test on the HL-HAT (program-specific measure) as well as the ASL-PAT (generalized measure). The following variables, as reported in the family survey, were controlled for: child's ASL expressive vocabulary, child's ASL receptive vocabulary, language used at home, and parental ASL fluency. The ANOVA test examined the main effect as well as interactions of time points from pretest to post-test to delayed post-test for HL-HAT and pretest to delayed post-test for ASL-PAT.</p> <hd id="AN0154255346-5">Results</hd> <p>Results from a 2 × 2 split-plot ANOVA examining ASL-PAT scores indicated that the main effect was not significant for either Part 1 or Part 2 of the test, <emph>P</emph> <.05. That is, holding all else constant, there was no significant difference between the groups on their ASL-PAT scores. However, the interaction of time point (from pre-test to delayed post-test) and the interaction of group were significant for ASL-PAT Part 1: The scores significantly differed by group from pretest to the delayed post-test, F(<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref73">1</reflink>,<reflink idref="bib30" id="ref74">30</reflink>) = 6.57, <emph>P</emph> <.02, <emph>r</emph> =.42. The marginal mean score for the experimental group increased from 6.04 (SD =.59) to 9.17 (SD =.51), whereas the control group's mean score slightly decreased from 7.26 (SD =.95) to 6.75(SD =.82). There was not a significant interaction for ASL-PAT Part 2, <emph>P</emph> >.05.</p> <p>Similarly, for the program-specific measure (HL-HAT), a 3 × 2 split-plot ANOVA found no significant main effect, <emph>P</emph> >.05, but there was a significant interaction between time point and group, F(<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref75">1</reflink>,<reflink idref="bib66" id="ref76">66</reflink>) = 3.80, <emph>P</emph> <.03, <emph>r</emph> =.400. For the experimental group, the marginal mean score increased from 18.67 (SD = 2.39) to 28.92 (SD = 2.35) and then to 31.00 (SD = 2.06) over the three timepoints. In contrast, the control group's marginal mean score slightly increased from 25.51 (SD = 3.76) to 27.77 (SD = 3.70) and then decreased to 24.60 (SD = 3.25) over that time.</p> <p>Teacher Logs</p> <p>Teachers filled out a weekly log sharing their thoughts on the usability of <emph>Hands Land</emph> videos and handshape awareness activities for their students. They also shared their observations of student behaviors during the intervention and throughout the day. Their responses were categorized into four themes: <emph>Hands Land</emph> videos, handshape awareness activities, general feedback, and observed benefits.</p> <p>Hands Land videos</p> <p>Teachers generally wrote positive comments about <emph>Hands Land</emph> videos. A teacher said, "I liked how the background and pictures in the video were used because they definitely draw my students' attention." Another teacher agreed, "I liked the presentation of the videos - colorful, attractive, and diverse signers." Several teachers made similar remarks as this, "I liked the emphasis on animals in the background moving along with the beats." A teacher commented on the bilingual nature of the videos, "I liked how it was in ASL, then English was shown next."</p> <p>Handshape awareness activities</p> <p>Some teachers found certain activities either too challenging or too easy for their students. For example, the discriminating and substituting activity, which we call "the wrong handshape activity," was favored by some teachers because of its humor and accessibility to students with emerging signing skills. A teacher said, "We liked the wrong handshape activity the best because they [language delayed students] could understand it well." Two other teachers emphasized on how this activity was fun, "We liked the wrong handshape activity because it made us laugh," and, "The kids loved the wrong handshape activity because it was funny!" However, other teachers felt this activity was too easy for their students and ended up skipping it for teacher-choice activities during weeks 4–7. As one teacher mentioned, "I used this activity the least because it was too easy for my students. Maybe consider replacing it with a different activity for grade-level students."</p> <p>Creating a new song was found to be the most difficult activity for students. Several teachers made statements like this, "I used the create a song activity the least because it was challenging for my students." Yet, one teacher said their students enjoyed the challenge, "They liked creating a new song because it made them think." One teacher expressed frustrations about all activities, including the creation of a new song, being too hard for her students. She explained, "It is not the <emph>Hands Land</emph> videos or ASL phonological awareness activities specifically, but it is hard to work with language delayed students because they struggle to do any activities."</p> <p>General feedback</p> <p>Teachers provided some general feedback about potential areas for improvement. A teacher shared that adding drums would have enhanced the experience, "I would have loved to have a drum to help children follow the rhythm of the song. It would have been a lot of fun." Another teacher commented on wanting to have more visual support, "I would like to have pictures for the B-handshape with ASL signs like door, brown, and blue to give children more visual examples." Several teachers felt their students would have benefitted from <emph>Hands Land</emph> videos more if the loops were done twice rather than thrice and if the signing was a bit slower.</p> <p>Observed benefits</p> <p>Teachers shared the benefits they observed during and outside the intervention period. A teacher remarked, "I often see them signing those songs to themselves during the day!" Another teacher made a similar observation, "I feel students gained the ASL phonological awareness skills from this experience as they did songs on their own at the ASL center without me there." A teacher added, "They understand the patterns in the song very well."</p> <p>Students struggling with expressive language also appeared to gain confidence as evidenced by this anecdote, "One student recited the <emph>Daily Walk</emph> song at home and told her mom about the song (all words in the lines). Her language was blooming after being exposed to ASL rhyme, rhythm, and phonological awareness activities." Another similar anecdote was shared, "A student has had a hard time expressing words in ASL. She started playing with ASL rhyme and rhythm nonstop and talking more at home and at school. The repetitive nature of ASL rhyme and rhythm seemed to help her."</p> <p>Teachers shared more upsides to these activities by writing in their teacher logs that their students, "would imitate the songs without me telling them to," "loved the videos and memorized the whole songs," "gained knowledge and creativity with handshapes," and "gave me a lot more words in our word bank for the handshape of the week." A teacher concluded her teacher log with this statement, "Their language did develop, amazing!"</p> <hd id="AN0154255346-6">Discussion</hd> <p>Providing a language-rich environment in early childhood education is tantamount to a child's development in cognition, language, and literacy. Highly stimulating social interactions using rhyme, rhythm, phonological awareness activities, and language play are commonly found in early childhood classrooms designed for hearing children. ASL rhyme, rhythm, phonological awareness, and language play can serve similar purposes for deaf children.</p> <p>This quasi-experimental study explored the effects of language activities that incorporate ASL rhyme, rhythm, and handshape awareness on deaf children's phonological awareness and the implications of this approach. The ASL phonological awareness of deaf children between four and 6 years old was evaluated before and after receiving a seven-week intervention including three-weeks of structured intervention and a four-week teacher-choice interventions that targeted handshape awareness.</p> <p>Results from two different measures yielded evidence that interventions as brief as 12 minutes daily for up to 2 months can produce positive effects on deaf children's ASL phonological awareness. Effect sizes for the significant interaction effects were promising; they were within the range of a medium or intermediate effect size ([<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref77">12</reflink>]). Knowing the magnitude of these effects points to the positive impact of the <emph>Hands Land</emph> materials and supplemental activities on a more targeted and a more generalized outcome, while also acknowledging the limitations related to the design and sample size (see Limitations). Furthermore, although the interventions in this study focused only on handshape awareness, children's positive gains on one part of the ASL Phonological Awareness Test raises the possibility of one targeted phonological awareness skill (e.g. handshape) influencing the development of other phonological awareness skills (e.g. location and movement). This area of research has not been explored in the past, making this finding a novel contribution to the field.</p> <p>ASL Phonological Awareness and English Literacy Development</p> <p>Deaf children's ASL phonological awareness can be improved with engaging, developmentally appropriate exposure and practice. The long-term implications of this approach need to be explored to determine whether and to what extent stronger ASL phonological awareness in young deaf children can support language and literacy development. What we know from hearing children is that spoken phonological awareness is one predictor of language and literacy outcomes ([<reflink idref="bib22" id="ref78">22</reflink>]). Yet, research on skilled deaf readers indicates that spoken phonological awareness has a much smaller role in their English and literacy skills ([<reflink idref="bib14" id="ref79">14</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib31" id="ref80">31</reflink>]). It is still unknown whether the relationship between ASL phonological awareness and English literacy skills is a causative one. If the relationship is indeed causative, then there is much to learn about ASL/English bilingual interventions that effectively facilitate metalinguistic and linguistic transfers.</p> <p>This study producing evidence that deaf children can have elevated ASL phonological awareness through explicit instruction is a step towards understanding the big picture of this possibility. Besides, there are more to these early language approaches than their potential association to English literacy outcomes. The fact that deaf children actively and voluntarily participate in and were visibly having fun with these language activities warrants a discussion on what positive language experiences in ASL entail and their subsequent impact in areas other than English such as language and literacy development in ASL.</p> <p>ASL Phonological Awareness and ASL Literacy Development</p> <p>Through a critical lens, we expanded our thinking by looking at how early language approaches in ASL can support deaf children's ASL phonological awareness within the framework of ASL metalinguistic awareness. By focusing on how interventions in ASL can enrich ASL phonological awareness, we have avoided using the English-centric, monolingual standards to justify the legitimacy of using ASL with deaf children. Our findings indicate that deaf children are capable of quickly learning about the phonological patterns in ASL and having a greater awareness of the language. According to teacher reports, deaf children's elevated awareness seemed to have increased their confidence and motivation to independently engage in language play outside of the intervention. Still, little is known about the impact of this type of intervention on deaf children's ASL literacy development. For example, when deaf children are called to attend to ASL videos and produce their own published signing for various genres, purposes, and audiences, it is possible that early language approaches like the interventions in this study reinforce their ability to successfully tackle this cognitively demanding task.</p> <p>Metalinguistic Awareness and Language Play</p> <p>It may be argued that the implications of instilling in children the confidence and freedom to play with language are important enough ([<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref81">9</reflink>]). Instead of emphasizing on the teachings of the content or grammar, perhaps children should be encouraged to play with language simply for the sheer joy and fun that it provides them. Metalinguistic awareness provides tools for language play to take its course not only in the classroom with teachers' guidance but also on the playground without the involvement of adults ([<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref82">11</reflink>]).</p> <p>With metalinguistic awareness, children are empowered to look at language as an object of exploration and play. Children can reflect on the structures of language and be aware of its functions and how it can be purposely manipulated for humor and delight. For example, children randomly sing out aloud on the playground using the phonological patterns of spoken language such as dee, dee, bee, bee, tee, tee, rub, rub, dub and dub ([<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref83">9</reflink>]). In signed language, they sing using the same "5" handshape phoneme: LION—CHOMP—ALLIGATOR—CHOMP—TIGER—CHOMP ([<reflink idref="bib23" id="ref84">23</reflink>]). It may be that the implications of elevated ASL phonological awareness are not necessarily about finding out whether it turns deaf children into successful readers, but rather, whether it turns them into individuals who can observe, be aware, appreciate, and manipulate the language they are using. Since metalinguistic awareness is known to have multiple benefits for language and cognition development across languages ([<reflink idref="bib29" id="ref85">29</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib49" id="ref86">49</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib51" id="ref87">51</reflink>]), ASL phonological awareness could fall under this scope of impact.</p> <p>Along these lines, teachers' comments in their weekly logs paint a clear picture of how deaf children take advantage of the fun that ASL rhyme and rhythm provide, and how ASL phonological awareness increases their appreciation of, knowledge of, and confidence in using signed language. In this study, deaf children continued to use ASL rhyme and rhythm and applied their ASL phonological awareness in other contexts outside of the intervention. Not to mention, teachers shared deaf children experiencing language deprivation had increased confidence and skills in using ASL not just at school but also at home. This form of language play steers the focus towards social interactions that are natural and fun, which can be intentionally and/or spontaneously integrated throughout the day. This, in itself, may be a sufficient justification for the inclusion of ASL rhyme, rhythm, and phonological awareness activities in early childhood classrooms.</p> <p>Strategies found to be effective for deaf children should not be reserved for this population only. Exploring their usability in meeting hearing children's needs may produce novel findings about the diversity of development in language and literacy. Based on what we know about metalinguistic awareness and cross linguistic transfers across languages and populations, it is plausible to assume that hearing children learning ASL as a first or second language could also benefit from ASL rhyme, rhythm, and phonological awareness. Similar to the experimental study that found hearing preschoolers' successes in acquiring ASL vocabulary through educational media with native deaf signers ([<reflink idref="bib38" id="ref88">38</reflink>]), this study's intervention could also be practical for hearing children's learning, especially those who are bilinguals or benefit from varied pathways to language and literacy development.</p> <p>Limitations and Future Directions</p> <p>There are challenges with conducting group research on low incidence and highly heterogeneous populations such as with deaf children, let alone through a randomized control trial ([<reflink idref="bib52" id="ref89">52</reflink>]). Choosing to use a quasi-experimental design made it possible to find early childhood programs interested in participating in the study in which they were assigned to the experimental or control groups. After collecting baseline data, it was noted the control group had, on average, higher baseline scores across all measures. Even still, the results indicate significant interactions between time point and the experimental group in their ASL phonological awareness.</p> <p>Other limitations that may have threatened the internal validity include: family reported information, testing effects, missing teacher data, and teachers' signing skills. First, the variables that were controlled for statistical analysis were based on surveys filled out by caregivers, which may or may not be completely accurate. We did not have adequate resources to directly assess the variables that they reported on. For example, the intervention was applied to children in the experimental group, and we have learned through teacher logs that some activities were too challenging for some children due to language deprivation, which is often categorized as additional disabilities. Therefore, when caregivers reported their children having additional disabilities, it is unclear whether they meant language deprivation syndrome or other kinds of disabilities. If this study were replicated, it would be helpful to gather information on the kinds of additional disabilities that children have and measure their overall language skills at the baseline and after the intervention. Second, since children took the HL-HAT test three times within a two-month period, the testing effect rather than the intervention itself may have affected their scores. It may explain why the control group's scores had improved over time without receiving any intervention. Still, the experimental group's even higher gains demonstrate the impact of the intervention. Third, some teachers did not successfully video-record all sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so the procedural integrity checks could only be conducted on the data that were obtained. Finally, we did not formally document whether teachers had previously exposed children to phonological awareness activities. However, some teachers from the experimental group and the control group informally shared with us that they engaged in some handshape games before, but that they were unalike Hands Land's ASL rhyme and rhythm videos and handshape awareness activities. Further, Hands Land videos were not made available to the public at that time, which means teachers did not have many resources or support to implement this practice. Based on a recent survey of early childhood educators of deaf children ([<reflink idref="bib39" id="ref90">39</reflink>]), most teachers reported not including ASL rhyme and rhythm in their classroom experience. Because there were a larger number of deaf teachers with higher signing skills in the experimental group, there is a possibility of their students having more exposure to ASL phonological awareness activities in the classroom prior to this study. Yet, the experimental group performed more poorly than the control group on the baseline data of ASL phonological awareness across all measures and then demonstrated the most improvement over time. Future studies would benefit from replicating this study to strengthen the evidence.</p> <p>Despite these threats to internal validity, this study contributes to the field by producing new findings about the potential efficacy of ASL phonological awareness interventions. There was also strong evidence of external validity; teachers and students wanted to continue using the intervention materials and activities in their authentic classroom environments. Teachers shared that they found some activities too easy or too challenging for their students, indicating that these skills fall on a spectrum of hierarchical difficulty, which is well documented in the literature on spoken phonological awareness activities ([<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref91">1</reflink>]). Future research can further develop insights by investigating and categorizing language activities that scaffold children's metalinguistic skills with special considerations of those who experience language delays or deprivation.</p> <hd id="AN0154255346-7">Conclusion</hd> <p>When deaf children are exposed to ASL rhyme, rhythm, and phonological awareness activities in school and/or at home, this type of language input may serve some purpose in fostering metalinguistic skills such as manipulating the phonological structures of signed words. Elevated metalinguistic awareness may contribute to ASL literacy development and overall ASL proficiency, which in turn, according to the Linguistic Interdependence Theory ([<reflink idref="bib16" id="ref92">16</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref93">17</reflink>]), facilitates English literacy development. This study was a step towards identifying whether deaf children can develop ASL phonological awareness after seven weeks of handshape awareness activities that included ASL rhyme and rhythm.</p> <p>With evidence that deaf children's ASL phonological awareness is enriched through exposure and practice, there needs to be further investigation on the relationship between ASL phonological awareness and overall language and literacy skills in ASL and English. It may be that deaf children benefit in multiple ways from language experiences that are fun, exciting, and positive, making the process of attending to language and expressing language motivating and enjoyable. The more we know about ASL rhyme, rhythm, and phonological awareness, the more we can do to develop resources, pedagogical tools, and curriculum that cultivate deaf children's language experiences. By divorcing from hearing, English-speaking children's norms, this study contributes to the expansion of scientific knowledge on deaf epistemology and deaf pedagogy by exploring "Deaf Ways" of learning through ASL.</p> <p>Conflicts of Interest</p> <p>Holcomb co-directs a non-profit organization called Hands Land, which was established for the purposing of sharing resources and information about ASL rhyme and rhythm with families, teachers and the deaf community.</p> <ref id="AN0154255346-8"> <title> REFERENCES </title> <blist> <bibl id="bib1" idref="ref37" type="bt">1</bibl> <bibtext> Adams, M. J. (1990). Beginning to read: Thinking and learning about print. The MIT Press. 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Items – Name: Title
  Label: Title
  Group: Ti
  Data: Enriching Deaf Children's American Sign Language Phonological Awareness: A Quasi-Experimental Study
– Name: Language
  Label: Language
  Group: Lang
  Data: English
– Name: Author
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  Group: Au
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Holcomb%2C+Leala%22">Holcomb, Leala</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Golos%2C+Debbie%22">Golos, Debbie</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Moses%2C+Annie%22">Moses, Annie</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Broadrick%2C+Anna%22">Broadrick, Anna</searchLink>
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  Label: Source
  Group: Src
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="SO" term="%22Journal+of+Deaf+Studies+and+Deaf+Education%22"><i>Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education</i></searchLink>. Jan 2022 27(1):26-36.
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  Label: Availability
  Group: Avail
  Data: Oxford University Press. Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP, UK. Tel: +44-1865-353907; Fax: +44-1865-353485; e-mail: jnls.cust.serv@oxfordjournals.org; Web site: http://jdsde.oxfordjournals.org/
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– Name: Pages
  Label: Page Count
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  Data: 11
– Name: DatePubCY
  Label: Publication Date
  Group: Date
  Data: 2022
– Name: TypeDocument
  Label: Document Type
  Group: TypDoc
  Data: Journal Articles<br />Reports - Research
– Name: Subject
  Label: Descriptors
  Group: Su
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Language+Enrichment%22">Language Enrichment</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Deafness%22">Deafness</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Hearing+Impairments%22">Hearing Impairments</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22American+Sign+Language%22">American Sign Language</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Phonological+Awareness%22">Phonological Awareness</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Young+Children%22">Young Children</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Intervention%22">Intervention</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Program+Effectiveness%22">Program Effectiveness</searchLink>
– Name: DOI
  Label: DOI
  Group: ID
  Data: 10.1093/deafed/enab028
– Name: ISSN
  Label: ISSN
  Group: ISSN
  Data: 1081-4159
– Name: Abstract
  Label: Abstract
  Group: Ab
  Data: With the knowledge that deaf children benefit from early exposure to signed language, questions are raised about the role of specific types of language input that are beneficial in early childhood classrooms. This quasi-experimental study explores the effects of ASL rhyme, rhythm, and handshape awareness activities on 4- to 6-year-old deaf children's ASL phonological awareness. Deaf children received three-week structured activities and four-week teacher-choice activities that targeted handshape awareness. Results yielded evidence that interventions as brief as 12 minutes daily for up to 2 months can produce positive effects on deaf children's phonological awareness. Furthermore, although the intervention focused only on handshape awareness, children's positive gains on the ASL Phonological Awareness Test suggests one targeted phonological awareness skill (e.g., handshape) may generalize to other phonological awareness skills (e.g., location and movement). Further investigation is needed on the relationship between ASL phonological awareness and overall language and literacy skills in both ASL and English.
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  Label: Entry Date
  Group: Date
  Data: 2021
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  Label: Accession Number
  Group: ID
  Data: EJ1319668
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RecordInfo BibRecord:
  BibEntity:
    Identifiers:
      – Type: doi
        Value: 10.1093/deafed/enab028
    Languages:
      – Text: English
    PhysicalDescription:
      Pagination:
        PageCount: 11
        StartPage: 26
    Subjects:
      – SubjectFull: Language Enrichment
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Deafness
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Hearing Impairments
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: American Sign Language
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Phonological Awareness
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Young Children
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Intervention
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Program Effectiveness
        Type: general
    Titles:
      – TitleFull: Enriching Deaf Children's American Sign Language Phonological Awareness: A Quasi-Experimental Study
        Type: main
  BibRelationships:
    HasContributorRelationships:
      – PersonEntity:
          Name:
            NameFull: Holcomb, Leala
      – PersonEntity:
          Name:
            NameFull: Golos, Debbie
      – PersonEntity:
          Name:
            NameFull: Moses, Annie
      – PersonEntity:
          Name:
            NameFull: Broadrick, Anna
    IsPartOfRelationships:
      – BibEntity:
          Dates:
            – D: 01
              M: 01
              Type: published
              Y: 2022
          Identifiers:
            – Type: issn-print
              Value: 1081-4159
          Numbering:
            – Type: volume
              Value: 27
            – Type: issue
              Value: 1
          Titles:
            – TitleFull: Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education
              Type: main
ResultId 1