The Role of Fingerspelling in Early Communication, Language, and Literacy Acquisition of Deaf Childre

The purpose of this dissertation was to examine the development and importance of fingerspelling among young Deaf children of Deaf parents for communication, learning about language, and pre-literacy in their natural home environment. The rationale was to examine how Deaf parents use fingerspelling with their young Deaf children during communication, storybook reading, and a free writing activity. Important insights were gleaned in discovering how young Deaf children learn about early language and literacy using visual inputs and outputs. By seeking firsthand knowledge from the members of the Deaf community about effective pedagogical practices with Deaf children, this shared knowledge could promote the literacy levels and academic achievement for other Deaf children. This qualitative study based on grounded theory and the method of constant comparison analysis were used to investigate these two points of view related to pathways to early literacy. The first perspective focused on the traditional epistemological perspective of auditory phonological awareness. The second paradigm emphasized fingerspelling and visual sign phonology. Data was collected through observations, parent interviews, and the gathering of documents and artifacts. The conclusions from this study showed how essential the role of fingerspelling was in fostering early language acquisition and how it provided an important link between ASL and English in pre-literacy development among Deaf children. The resulting theoretical framework highlighted the Deaf epistemology as a foundation to better understand and to improve early literacy for Deaf children.