[Xmca-l] deaf thinking

[Peter Smagorinsky]

I’m working with some colleagues in a small study group that is concerned with what we’re calling post-disability studies, i.e., research that eschews deficit labeling of people of difference (for me, mental health variation; for others, ADHD overclassification and deaf education). I was reading something that led me to pose the following question. Although LSV was in part motivated to take on defectological studies in response to the education of the deaf, I don’t think he ever gets into deaf cognition, especially in terms of how, in the absence of language/speech, thinking is mediated and represented. My question:
Joe, one of the hallmarks of a Vygotskian approach is that thinking is tool mediated, principally by language/speech but through other means as well—images, sounds, etc. I’m wondering about people who have never heard speech. Has anyone ever documented what deaf thinking is comprised of/mediated by? Thx,p

The answer from Joe Tobin:
This is a hot topic in deaf studies. A group at Gallaudet called VL2 has a NSF grant to do a series of studies on deaf linguistics/thinking/brain development. http://vl2.gallaudet.edu/initiatives_and_projects.php

Here is an example:
 http://vl2.gallaudet.edu/assets/section7/document163.pdf

One paper also attached.

Although I’m hardly a deaf education expert, I find this to be a fascinating question. Am I alone, or are others out there interested as well? Just don’t expect any definitive answers from me. Thx,Peter



-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Singleton.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 325237 bytes
Desc: Singleton.pdf
Url : https://mailman.ucsd.edu/mailman/private/xmca-l/attachments/20130808/04752aad/attachment.pdf