When caregivers decide to use Auslan within a Bilingual-Bicultural (Bi-Bi) approach with their children who use cochlear implants (CI/s), the feasibility aspect is more easily addressed for caregivers who are deaf or hard of hearing who are, themselves, fluent in Auslan. Some caregivers who have hearing within the typical range who may have no…

With regard to parents making communication approach decisions for their children with hearing loss, Crowe et al. (2014) suggested that key themes were: feasibility; sources of information; child characteristics; and, future opportunities. For children using cochlear implants (CI/s), the present study aimed to understand parental preferences…

To explore the factors influencing parents' choice of communication mode during early education of their child with hearing loss. Qualitative descriptive analysis of semi-structured interviews with parents of children with hearing loss. Fourteen parents of children who participated in the Longitudinal Outcomes of Children with Hearing Impairment…

The communication journey of a child with hearing loss is often a complex, interwoven process in which the child's use of language or method of communication may change numerous times. As there has been limited research exploring the caregiver decision-making process behind making such changes, this qualitative descriptive study aimed to explore…

Background: Language outcomes for children with cochlear implants (CIs) vary widely, even for those implanted before 2 years of age. Identifying the main influencing factors that account for some of the variability is important in order to provide information to guide appropriate clinical and intervention services for young children with CIs.…

Many Australian Aboriginal people use a sign language ("hand talk") that mirrors their local spoken language and is used both in culturally appropriate settings when speech is taboo or counterindicated and for community communication. The characteristics of these languages are described, and early European settlers' reports of deaf…

Understanding the cultural and linguistic diversity of young children with hearing loss informs the provision of assessment, habilitation, and education services to both children and their families. Data describing communication mode, oral language use, and demographic characteristics were collected for 406 children with hearing loss and their…

This article reports on the experiences of a group of deaf and hard-of-hearing alumni of Griffith University in south-east Queensland, Australia. Participants completed a survey answering questions about their communication patterns and preferences, working lives, career barriers or difficulties anticipated and encountered, and workplace…

This paper explores discourse features of Australian Sign Language (Auslan) and the need for sign language interpreting students to acquire an understanding of, and skills in, a range of discourse genres in Auslan in order to effectively carry out the work required in their profession. Discourse features of spoken English are outlined and compared…

Discusses the issue of the use of signed language dictionaries in the standardization of signed languages with reference to the Australian Sign language (Auslan) dictionaries. Details the structure of the Auslan dictionaries and argues that bilingual, bidirectional dictionaries of this type must be produced if communities are to encourage language…

A group of 21 hard-of-hearing and deaf children attending primary school were trained by their teachers on the production of selected consonants and on the meanings of selected words. Speech production, vocabulary knowledge, reading aloud, and speech perception measures were obtained before and after each type of training. The speech production…