About the Project

• There is a rising prevalence of hearing impaired individuals in the USA. In addition, there any many aphasic, apraxic, autistic, and individuals with other types of language disorders who cannot form speech, and communicate using ASL.

• As of 2020, about 17% of people experience some sort of hearing loss

• In addition, 2 to 3 out of every 1000 children are born with hearing loss in one or both ears (NIDCD 2020)

• Importance: With this growing rate of hearing impaired, there is a need for increasing teaching of American Sign Language(ASL) 

•  While ASL is currently the 4th most taught language in schools, it is still an under researched and under-developed field, with no standard pedagogy. Researchers are still unsure what is the best way to effectively teach and help people retain and learn sign language.

• The goal of this project is to examine what modes of learning have the most powerful effect on learning and retaining sign language. I will attempt to research this through examining which is more effective at retaining and recognizing ASL signs; showing the sign with a picture elaboration technique or with a word elaboration technique (no picture) before viewing the actual sign. I am also going to examine accuracy at immediate and delayed testing, to further understand the memory of students in regards to retaining ASl sign information.

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