Poor performance in language comprehension, vocabulary, and spelling among deaf and heard of hearing studies results in severe problems not only in reading, but also in academic areas such as science and history. The poor performance is largely attributable to ineffective and incomplete instructional programs, ineffective utilization of both manually coded English and ASL, and insufficient teacher training and support. This project will incorporate advances in computer and CD-ROM technology with proven instructional programs to teach deaf and hard of hearing students basic language/comprehension and spelling skills while simultaneously providing an effective teacher training mechanism. Phase I developed a multi-media lesson and two spelling lessons. These lessons were field tested and evaluated with four teachers and 18 students. In Phase II, the system will be completed to a) present major portions of the first 30 lessons of both the language/comprehension and the spelling program to students, and b) gradually train teachers over a 60-lesson span to effectively present print versions of up to 280 additional lessons of the programs. The effectiveness of the teacher training and the lesson presentation will be tested.
Potential commercial application not available.
