[Xmca-l] Re: deaf thinking

[Natalia Gajdamaschko <nataliag@sfu.ca>]

Hi Peter,
I use video "Butterflies of Zagorsk" (BBC production) and  Awakening to Life by  A.Meshcheryakov (1974) in my Vygotsky seminar to illustrate those different ways of mediation for deaf and blind children. 
Cheers,
Natalia.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter Smagorinsky" <smago@uga.edu>
To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
Sent: Thursday, August 8, 2013 12:16:57 PM
Subject: [Xmca-l]  deaf thinking

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