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Photography in the Language Development of Deaf Children
Dianne Davis
Children's Center of Montgomery, Inc., Montgomery, Alabama
Subject: Special Education
Grade: Elementary (Deaf Education)
"The photographs were definitely the motivating factor. Enthusiasm
for language and reading lessons was so improved, the children
could hardly sit still long enough for their turn."
Purpose and Description of Project
Dianne Davis made use of photography to create a visual learning
aid that would stimulate student interest and a desire to learn.
Her project was designed to develop the language and reading skills
of her deaf students by exposing them to a variety of new experiences,
and to photography as a means of recording their experiences.
Language and reading lessons were intended to become more exciting
and relevant as photos of the students in action were used to
introduce new vocabulary words and to serve as inspiration for
creating simple descriptive sentences.
Activities
Davis's students focused on verb expansion and the use of these
new words in sentences. She used a
camera
to take action
pictures of the students in natural settings. Then the class discussed
what was happening in each photo in relation to the word being
introduced, and practiced using the word in a sentence. The action
pictures were reviewed daily to reinforce learning. During the
next step, students were given a series of pictures, each with
a descriptive sentence, and gradually they learned how to ask
and answer questions about the pictures and sentences.
The students participated in similar activities during reading
lessons. They drew their own illustrations, labeled them with
the action words being studied, and compiled them in a notebook
to study. Finally, the students began reading the sentences they
had created during their language classes. Students reviewed the
illustrated sentences frequently, during lessons and independently.
At the completion of the project, they succeeded in writing simple
original sentences about the action pictures, and in writing and
answering questions about their sentences.
The action photos were also used for reading and language games,
including a Concentration-type game that required students to
match each picture with a descriptive word or sentence.
During their social studies unit, Davis took 35 mm black-and-white
photos of each student for a personal data card. The students
helped a local photographer develop these prints.
Materials, Resources, and Expenses
School staff and students posed for numerous action photos, and
a Girl Scout leader helped provide them with new experiences to
photograph. A teacher/ photographer at a nearby school offered
his darkroom and helped students develop and print their personal
pictures. Davis used her own 35 mm camera and one roll of black-and-white
film
for the data cards. A Kodak camera and 10 packs of
20-exposure color film were needed for the action photos. A photo
album and extra pages were created.
Outcomes and Adaptability
Davis used the curriculum for the development of language and
reading skills among deaf children found in Lotto Language
Principles and Practices (Brown, Whitt, and Lott, 1982). Photography
complemented this particular approach, the goals of which were
to make concepts as visible and obvious as possible and to teach
concepts in context. Language and reading skills showed significant
improvement, and some students even learned to alphabetize the
illustrated verbs. Before completing the personal data cards,
only one child knew her address and phone number; afterward, only
one child was unable to give his personal information .The project
was a success for Davis: "In my opinion all of [my] goals
have been achieved as were documented by the improved test scores
obtained at the end of the school year." She found just as
important the pleasure and enthusiasm her students expressed during
the project activities.
Davis advises that a similar program with a longer implementation
period could also cover simple storywriting, again using pictures
as the basis for the writing. Not limited to use with deaf students,
the project could be used to develop writing and vocabulary skills
in any language class or other academic area.