Some writing characteristics of deaf and hard of hearing elementary school children

Abstract

The value of written speech in the life of a modern man is priceless. Due to the communication barrier that deaf and hard of hearing people encounter, writing get even more significant role in their everyday life, because it makes it possible for the deaf to express themselves and convey a massage. This way written speech becomes a method of communication, a way of learning, but also an important element that contributes a great deal to their speech and language development. However, the potential of the written way of communication isn't often fully exploited. The poorly developed speech and the poor language experience reflect badly on the quality of writing as well. The aim of this research was to look into the writing characteristics of deaf and hard of hearing children. We have studied the quality of writing a composition on a given topic by determining the level of speech expression and the number of used words and sentences. We were interested in finding out whether and to what extent the quality of writing may depend on the age, the level of hearing loss, the grade in Serbian language and the sex. The research was carried out in December, 2010 in the classes of hearing impaired children in two elementary schools in Novi Sad and Belgrade. A total of 30 deaf and hard of hearing children were examined, together with two girls attending regular schools. The results of study show the low quality of writing by deaf and hard of hearing children. The research has indicated that the age, the grade and sex have partial influence on some elements of writing. No connection was found between the level of hearing loss and the quality of writing.

Pisani govor ima neprocenjivu vrednost u životu savremenog čoveka. Zbog komunikacione barijere koja prati gluve i nagluve osobe, pisanje za njih dobija potencijalno još značajniju ulogu komunikacije, sredstvo za sticanje znanja, ali i važan činilac koji doprinosi njihovom celokupnom govorno - jezičkom razvoju. Međutim, potencijal pisanog oblika komunikacije za osobe sa oštećenim sluhom često ostaje neiskorišćen. Njihova govorno - jezička nerazvijenost i siromašna iskustvena baza odražava se i na kvalitet pisanja. Karakteristikama pisanja gluvih i nagluvih učenika bavilo se ovo istraživanje. Ispitivali smo kvalitet samostalnog pisanog izražavanja učenika na zadatu temu, prateći nivo izražavanja i broj upotrebljenih reči i rečenica u sastavu. Zanimalo nas je da li na istaknute elemente pisanja utiču uzrast, stepen slušnog oštećenja, uspeh iz srpskog jezika i pol učenika. Istraživanje je sprovedeno u decembru 2010. godine, na uzorku od 30 učenika sa oštećenim sluhom, uzrasta od III do VIII razreda. Testiranje je vršeno u Osnovnoj školi 'Jovan Popović' u Novom Sadu i u Školi za oštećene sluhom - nagluve 'Stefan Dečanski', u Beogradu. U uzorak su uključene i dve devojčice koje pohađaju nastavu u redovnim novosadskim školama. Kao instrument istraživanja korišćeno je samostalno pisano izražavanje učenika na temu 'Moja porodica'. Rezultati istraživanja su pokazali slab uspeh gluve i nagluve dece u samostalnom pisanom izražavanju. Njihovi pisani radovi su siromašni u pogledu rečnika, obima i načina izražavanja. Istraživanje je pokazalo da uzrast, ocena iz srpskog jezika i pol učenika imaju delimičan uticaj na pojedine segmente pisanja. Nije uočena korelacija između stepena oštećenja sluha i kvaliteta pisanog izražavanja.