Deaf children and experiences with the written word

Abstract

This article presents part of an investigation into the process of appropriation of the written Portuguese language by deaf children, signers of Brazilian Sign Language (Língua Brasileira de Sinais [Libras]). It seeks to describe their sayings and analyze the induced productions during the research. Six collaborators participated who attended Kindergarten and early elementary school years in a deaf school. This is qualitative, descriptive and exploratory research. Interviews and activities based on telling a story in Libras were used. In these activities, the children wrote words and texts, completed stories, developed characters, and drew pictures. The interviews, conducted in Libras, were videotaped, translated and textualized in written Portuguese. Data analysis found no initial distinction between the Portuguese language appropriation process of deaf children and those who are hearing, as reported in the literature. However, there is a difference when hearing children relate sound to spelling, characterizing the “turning point” for understanding the writing mechanism. We question what can be taken as the “turning point” for deaf children in the apprehension of writing functioning. It has been found that they use visual clues and make conjectures for writing, which may be related to visual awareness. This “turning point” can be favored by a bilingual literacy that involves signwriting, deferred writing and bilingual writing from different bases than those used with hearing children.