Representation of Three-Dimensional Objects by Children Who Are Deaf : Sign Language and Drawing

Abstract

The purpose of the present article is to clarify the relation between the representation of 3-dimensional objects by sign language and drawing, and the conception of space, in preschool children who are deaf. Four deaf children were instructed to represent 3-dimensional objects in sign language and by drawings. The objects used were a hemisphere, a cylinder, a pole, the lower part of a cone, and a triangular pole. The sign language used by adults who are deaf can represent 3-dimensional objects in 3 dimensions. In sign language representation by children in the present study, however, it was observed that their sign language changed 3-dimensional objects to 2-dimensional representations, rather like drawings. Two of the children represented the upper face and the side of a cylinder separately. This type of 2-dimensional representation is not observed in the case of adults who are deaf. The reasons that children who are deaf could not represent 3-dimensional relationships in sign language seem to be not only that it is difficult for them to make the hand shapes and motions necessary for explaining the size and shape of the objects, but also that preschool children have a unique spatial conception that influences these representations.