2024 Volume 61 Issue 4 Pages 191-202
The purpose of the present study was to identify characteristics associated with preschool teachers’ use of fingerspelling (Japanese manual syllabary) with preschool children who are deaf or hard of hearing. The participants included 4 teachers, with 2 teachers assigned to the younger children (3-4 years old) and 2 teachers assigned to the older children (5-6 years old). The teachers used sign language and fingerspelling, along with spoken language, for communication. Conversations between the teachers and the children were recorded to investigate how the teachers employed fingerspelling. Also, during the recorded conversations, each teacher was asked about their method of using fingerspelling and their intention behind using that method. The results revealed that the teachers of the older children used fingerspelling slightly more frequently, and for more types of vocabulary, than the teachers of the younger children did. When the teachers presented a Japanese word using fingerspelling, it was observed that they used techniques that combined other visual stimuli, such as presenting a word in sign language that has the same meaning (all of the teachers), showing the actual object or a picture card related to that word (the teachers of the younger children), or writing the word or a sentence containing the word (the teachers of the older children). This suggests that these preschool teachers intended to lay the groundwork for the younger children’s use of fingerspelling and expand the older children’s Japanese vocabulary through the use of fingerspelling.
