Imaginative writing of deaf children

Terlektsi, Maria Emmanouela (2010). Imaginative writing of deaf children. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

This thesis explores the issue of imaginative writing of deaf children. Thirty deaf children aged 9-11 years were recruited form Hearing Impaired Units and mainstream schools. Thirty hearing children were matched on academic performance (according to teachers) and chronological age and recruited from the same classes as the deaf children. Three sets of imaginative stories were collected from the above groups at three points during one academic year. A mixed methodology was employed in order to investigate imaginative writing of deaf children. For the evaluation of children’s stories an “Imagination Story Scale” was developed based both on the literature review and on the in-depth analyses of four children’s imaginative stories. The scale consists of four categorised divisions (story structure, story plot, linguistic imagination, originality) and one additional division (overall assessment). Assessments of both deaf and hearing children’s stories using the scale revealed little variation between deaf and hearing children’s scores in the scale, indicating that deaf children do have imagination and are able to express it in writing. However, differences were observed between the scores for the different topics (for both groups of children) suggesting that the topic of the stories influenced their scores. Imaginative writing of deaf children was not predicted by: age, gender, degree of hearing loss, type of communication used at home, or use of activities to promote children’s imagination either in the classroom or at home. Teachers’ opinions of deaf children’s imagination were explored through interviews. The Teachers of the Deaf tended to under-estimate deaf children’s ability to demonstrate imagination in their writing by comparison with the stories that the deaf children produced.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

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