2026 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference
March 15-17, 2026 • Jacksonville, FL
3/09/2025 | 1:30 PM - 3:30 PM | Bimodal bilingual videobooks: Shared reading activities for deaf children and hearing adults | 304/305
Bimodal bilingual videobooks: Shared reading activities for deaf children and hearing adults
Deaf children lag behind their hearing peers academically, regardless of whether they have a cochlear implant. A major negative factor is lack of or weak first language. Another factor is that the writing system of a spoken language is always opaque to the deaf child. A third factor is that shared reading activities are rarely part of the deaf child's home life -- even though shared reading activities have the strongest correlation to academic success. ASL needs to be introduced as early as possible -- to protect the child's access to language, and to those cognitive activities that rely on a firm first language foundation, including mathematics and memory, and to protect the child's psycho-social as well as physical health. If the child turns out to have success with speech, the child will be bimodal-bilingual -- which has many advantages. If the child has little to no success with speech, the child will still have language -- that most crucial of cognitive abilities. ASL, then, is a cognitive seatbelt. It supports the child's right to fully partake of their humanity, to achieve at school, to lead an independent life as an adult. Families cannot afford to hold off on introducing ASL -- that is, they cannot "wait to see if the child fails" at speech -- because, more often than not, this becomes "watch the child fail". Bimodal-bilingual videobooks promote signing among all family members, build the child's knowledge of the world, grow vocabulary, introduce the child to story form, allow family members to bond, and teach the joy of books, which is so important to the child's willingness to persevere in doing the hard work of learning text literacy.
- To understand the basics of first language acquisition and the value of signing to cognition in general
- To understand the sources of the difficulties of the deaf child in acquiring text literacy and achieving academically
- to understand the value of shared reading for developing preliteracy skills, language skills, and family bonding
Presentation:
3545975_18060Donna JoNapoli.pdf
Handouts:
Handout is not Available
Transcripts:
CART transcripts are NOT YET available, but will be posted shortly after the conference
Presenters/Authors
Donna Jo Napoli
(Primary Presenter,Co-Author), Swarthmore College, donnajonapoli@gmail.com;
Donna Jo Napoli is Prof. of Linguistics and Social Justice at Swarthmore College. She and Prof. Gene Mirus at Gallaudet University co-direct the RISE project -- which makes and distributes for free bimodal-bilingual videobooks for adults (hearing or deaf) to share with deaf children at home, in early intervention programs, and at school. These books promote first language learning and emergent literacy skills.
https://riseebooks.wixstudio.io/access
She has published 19 books in linguistics, and well over 100 articles in academic journals, including journals in education. She is part of a team that has published widely about deaf children’s language needs in top medical journals, including Pediatrics, Harm Reduction Journal, Medical Research Archives, Children, Maternal and Child Health Journal, International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology, Journal of Medical Ethics, Clinical Pediatrics, Medical Science Educator, Journal of Medical Speech-Language Pathology, Law Medicine & Ethics, Cochlear Implant Research Updates, Journal of Clinical Ethics.
Her academic website is here:
https://www.swarthmore.edu/donna-jo-napoli
She is also a well-published children’s author. Her author website is here:
https://www.donnajonapoli.com/
Her undergraduate and Ph.D. degrees are from Harvard University. She did a postdoctoral year at MIT.
ASHA DISCLOSURE:
Financial -
No relevant financial relationship exists.
Nonfinancial -
No relevant nonfinancial relationship exists.
AAA DISCLOSURE:
Financial -
No relevant financial relationship exists.
Nonfinancial -
No relevant nonfinancial relationship exists.
Gene Mirus
(Co-Author), Gallaudet University, gene.mirus@gallaudet.edu;
Gene Mirus got his Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Texas at Austin and is now Prof. of Deaf Studies at Gallaudet University. He is co-director of the RISE project. His areas of publication include theoretical linguistics (phonology and paralinguistics) with a focus on the effects of new technologies on signing. He has published on matters in deaf education and the value of shared reading activities. And once upon a time he worked in the National Theater of the Deaf, with a special interest in theater for children.
ASHA DISCLOSURE:
Financial -
No relevant financial relationship exists.
Nonfinancial -
No relevant nonfinancial relationship exists.
AAA DISCLOSURE:
Financial -
No relevant financial relationship exists.
Nonfinancial -
No relevant nonfinancial relationship exists.