CURRENT PROJECTS
MILD - Mentalizing, Intention and Learning in Deaf Children with Deaf Parents
Researchers in the project
Ongoing project funded by The Swedish Research Council. Project title: Mentalizing, Intention and Learning in Young Deaf Children with Deaf Parents (MILD)
Research topic/aim: The aim of the project is to study social and communicative interaction
between young deaf children and their deaf parents (Dd children). Focus is on factors assumed to be prerequisites for later mentalizing abilities and learning, in particular the development of strategies for expressing and understanding intentions.
Participants: 11 Dd children, aged 0-2 years. This is to the best of our knowledge more or less the total population of Dd children born 2008-2010 in Sweden.
Theoretical framework: Mentalizing ability refers to the child's understanding that all people have thoughts, beliefs and feelings, that these might differ from the child's own and that they also govern people's behaviour. Typically developing children acquire this understanding at a mental age of about 4 years. Earlier research has shown that deaf children of hearing parents are severely delayed in their development of mentalizing ability. One possible explanation is the lack of a common language for very early interaction between parents and children. Previous studies show that deaf children of deaf parents, however, do not show a similar delay in their ability to mentalize. Despite this very little has been described in the research literature regarding early communicative strategies used by deaf children of deaf parents. The focus of the present research project is on early communicative strategies used by this group and the impact these may have on children’s learning and later mentalizing abilities.
Research design: The study will be carried out using video observations of
spontaneous, as well as structured, interactive situations between parents and children. The structured situations will be based on the Early Social Communication Scale (ESCS) (Mundy, et.al., 2003).
Expected implications: The results of the study are presumed to have implications for the understanding of learning and mentalizing development in deaf children of deaf parents,but also on early intervention programs for deaf children of hearing parents. This line of research will also hopefully help shed new light on development of mentalizing and learning more generally.
Funding: The Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet, nr 2008-4962)
Nordic Project
Teacher Experience During Paradigm-shift - in Deaf Education
Lärares upplevelse av paradigmskiften- i undervisning av elever med dövhet
The aim of this ongoing study is to describe teachers' experiences of paradigm shifts within the special education area, education for children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing, in three Nordic countries (Sweden, Finland, Norway). Special attention is paid to the choice of language in education and teachers' experience of how it has affected their work, both linguistically and in other respects. The focus is on teachers' own stories of their lived experience of 20 years as teachers. Research on the experience of public change and it's impact on a specific area such as Sign Language in education is very limited (SOU 2006:29). No study has previously investigated the teacher's experience over time. The paradigm shifts that may have occurred in line with governmental policy decisions will be visualized in this project. Comparisons can be made over time between the three Nordic countries and the project can involve clarification of the impact these decisions may have had and how or if the various countries have developed in the same way. Such knowledge may be relevant not only for the understanding of teachers' work in Deaf Education over time, but also for other educational venues in the various Nordic countries.
Forskare i projektet
Carin Roos, Department of Education, Karlstad University
Marjatta Takala, Special Education, Helsingfors University
Arnfinn Muruvk Vonen, Special Education, Oslo University
Visual and Auditive Literacy Learning, VIA
Carin Roos has been the scientific leader of the project at The Department of Special Education at Stockholm University. The name of the project is Visual and Auditive Literacy Learning (VIA). The project is nation wide and is done in cooperation with students and their tutors. The aim of the project is to challenge och develop current bilingual education at schools for The Deaf and Hard-of.Hearing.
Competence to Teach Literacy in a Bilingual Setting, KULT
Carin Roos has been the scientific leader of the project at The Swedish Institute of Special Education. The project deals with questions regarding the development of teaching literacy based both on visual and auditive perception. The emphasis is on strategies in teaching when working with children having difficulties learning to read using phonological strategies. The project is focusing succesful strategies based on visual perception. The aim of the project is to produce a research overview and to prepare for extension courses for teachers working at special schools for the Deaf, units for Hard-of-Hearing- students and for teachers working with mainstreamed children. About the project in Swedish:
Communicating on-line using Texttelephone
At present Carin Roos and Åsa Wengelin are writing the report and articles. The project has been conducted at the University of Lund. Their project seeks answers to questions regarding the creativity of deaf people using phone text messaging. Deaf people have had the longest experience of writing on-line, starting well before people with hearing began to "chat on the net".
Scientific leader
Ph.D. Åsa Wengelin (Gothenburg University)
