Deficiency in sign language and speech in deaf and hard of hearing preschool-age children

Abstract

First words, monosyllabic sentences and simple concepts are formed during the preschool period. Play is the basic modus used in working with preschool children. It has a cognitive role in deaf and hard of hearing children of preschool-age. A child plays whilst learning and learns while playing. Play refers to the correlation of program contents from all areas of educational work in preschool groups. Deaf and hard of hearing children of preschool age acquire concepts by directly observing objects and apparitions. Hearing impaired children learn to observe things, notice changes which occur, analyze, compare and find differences and likes, remember the properties and quality of objects and use them as part of their play. Through play, a hearing impaired child practices articulation and discrimination of voices, words, develops sentences and continually enriches his or her vocabulary. With preschool-age children, it is necessary to implement all independent, guided and combined activities thru play in which the child is active, moving and has an opportunity to activate all of his or her senses in observations which the child needs to verbalize. With each new word a deaf child learns, he or she also learns the equivalent gesture/sign, which is used to signify that concept, thus building its sign vocabulary. The aim of our study was to examine the characteristics of sign language and verbal expression in deaf and hard of hearing children of preschool-age. The sample consisted of 10 children, which attend preschool groups at 'Radivoj Popovic' and 'Stefan Decanski' Schools. The instruments used in this study are: Test for Evaluating Lexical Dexterity (Dimitrijevic, Djordjevic) and stimulative picture titled 'Spring'. The development of sign language in deaf and hard of hearing preschool-age children is accompanied by the development of verbal speech. A deficiency was observed in the sign language and verbal expression from the aspect of the scope of vocabulary, lexical dexterity and acquisition of sentences.

Na predškolskom uzrastu formiraju se prve reči, jednosložne rečenice i jednostavniji pojmovi. Osnovni oblik rada pa ovom uzrastu je igra. Ona, kod gluve i nagluve dece predškolskog uzrasta, ima saznajno značenje Dete se igra učeći a uči igrajući se. Igra upućuje na korelaciju programskih sadržaja iz svih oblasti vaspitno-obrazovnog rada u predškolskim grupama. Gluva i nagluva deca predškolskog uzrasta stiču pojmove neposrednim posmatranjem predmeta i pojava. Ona uče da posmatraju stvari, da opažaju promene koje se dešavaju, analiziraju, upoređuju, nalaze zajedničko i različito, pamte svojstva i kvalitete predmeta i koriste ih u igri. Slušno oštećeno dete, igrajući se, vežba artikulaciju i diskriminaciju glasova, reči, razvija rečenicu i stalno bogati svoj rečnik. Sa decom predškolskog uzrasta, neophodno je sve samostalne, usmerene i kombinovane aktivnosti, izvoditi u igrama u kojima je dete aktivno, kreće se i aktivira čula u opažanju koja treba da verbalizuje. Učeći svaku novu reč gluvo dete uči i njen gestovni znak, kojim označava taj pojam, čime bogati svoj znakovni rečnik. Cilj našeg istraživanja bio je ispitati specifičnosti znakovnog i govornog jezičkog izraza kod gluve i nagluve dece predškolskog uzrasta. Uzorak je činilo 10 dece koja pohađaju predškolske grupe u školama 'Radivoj Popović' i 'Stefan Dečanski'. Instrumenti korišćeni u ovom istraživanju su: Test za ispitivanje leksičke spremnosti (Dimitrijević, Đorđević) i stimulans slika pod nazivom Proleće. Razvoj znakovnog jezika kod gluve i nagluve dece predškolskog uzrasta je praćen razvojem usmenog govora. Uočena je deficitarnost znakovnom i govornom jezičkom izrazu u okviru obima rečnika, leksičke spremnosti i usvojenosti rečenice.