Gaze Patterns of Deaf and Hard-of-hearing Children Reading Fingerspelling

Abstract

This study investigated the gaze patterns of deaf and hard-of-hearing children during a fingerspelling word-reading task that involved lipreading. Specifically, the study examined how gaze patterns varied based on the proximity of the fingerspelled words to the mouth and the words’ semantic content. The results indicated that when the fingerspelled words were presented at a distance from the mouth, the children focused their gaze on the fingers. However, the children tended to show similar gaze time to the fingers and face when the fingerspelled words were presented close to the mouth. This finding suggests that children shifted their gaze and integrated visual information from the fingers and the face when reading fingerspelling. Furthermore, children with higher hearing thresholds tended to gaze at the face longer than those with lower thresholds. These findings imply that such children use their acute peripheral vision to read fingerspelling while simultaneously capturing lip movements with their central vision.