Development Research

Language and literacy projects

We currently have three exciting projects that investigate language and literacy development in deaf children at DCAL. Some aspects of the projects overlap. However, the specific aims of each project are different.

On this page, you'll find a brief explanation of for each project, including their aims and which deaf children they seek to recruit. Follow the links to each project to find out more.

A list of projects by key contact

Key contact: Dr. Kate Rowley & Dr. Patrick Rosenburg

• Language Comprehension in Deaf Children

This project focuses on developing a new tool that assesses deaf children's comprehension of text in British Sign Language (BSL) and standardising BSL Sentence Reproduction Test (BSL-SRT). These two assessment tools will enable us to examine the constellation of language comprehension skills in BSL and their effects on English, and vice versa.

Key contacts: Prof. Mairéad MacSweeney & Dr. Tyron Woolfe

• Visual Communication and Reading

Reading research has focused on mappings between auditory representations of spoken language and written words. However, this is a limited view of language. Visual spoken language input (visual speech/ lipreading) is increasingly being recognized as important to language development and reading development not only in deaf children, but also in hearing children.

Key contact: Dr. Fiona Kyle & Dr. Kathryn Mason

• Preschool language and literacy longitudinal study

The main aim of this project is to understand how preschool language and emerging literacy skills are related to later reading ability. Some hearing children and many deaf children find learning to read challenging. This means it is important to identify children who may struggle with reading BEFORE they start learning to read.