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David R. Schleper is the coordinator of Training Development and Literacy Projects at the Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center. He can be reached at David.Schleper@ gallaudet.edu. “This should have happened 100 years ago.” 4 S H A R E D R E A D I N G — A H I S TO R Y changing lives one family at a time By David R. Schleper “It seems to me,” said a mother, “that this should have happened 100 years ago!” The mother was talking about the Shared Reading Project, a program designed to teach parents and caregivers how to read to their deaf and hard of hearing children using American Sign Language. I agree. It took us a long time to realize that parents and caregivers are the key to reading for deaf and hard of hearing children—and that having tutors who are deaf make the learning process successful. The History of the Shared Reading Project In 1993, I spent a year teaching at the Hawai’i Center for the Deaf and Blind. As I was looking at research on teaching reading to deaf and hard of hearing children, I noticed that: • Deaf children read, on the average, at the fourth-grade level when they graduate from high school (Gallaudet Research Institute, 2005) • We know that early experience with books and reading contributes to higher reading ability in school (Trelease, 2001) • Most hearing parents do not know how to read books and share stories with their young deaf and hard of hearing children (Andrews & Taylor, 1987; Lartz & Lestina, 1993) I also noticed that children who had deaf parents did better with reading, and I realized that if hearing parents could learn how to Photography by John T. Consoli & Courtesy of David Schleper O DY S S E Y FALL/WIN 2006
FA L L / W I N 2 0 0 6 O DY S S E Y 5
Page 1 and 2: N E W D I R E C T I O N S I N D E A
Page 3 and 4: The Shared Reading Project Reading
Page 5: 3 0 …IN N E W D I R E C T I O N S
Page 9 and 10: We were determined to represent the
Page 11 and 12: their tutors, to the site coordinat
Page 13 and 14: Translate stories using American Si
Page 15 and 16: Sharing the Book As a tutor, my mai
Page 17 and 18: FA L L / W I N 2 0 0 6 O DY S S E Y
Page 19 and 20: children who sign.” Recent survey
Page 21 and 22: Sometimes Michaela would join Jimmy
Page 23 and 24: References Aardema, V. (1975). Why
Page 25 and 26: I found a class and slowly began le
Page 27 and 28: management. She became a mentor and
Page 29 and 30: to travel, mileage is provided, and
Page 31 and 32: children on the weekends. A teacher
Page 33 and 34: Within a week of arrival, Alison ha
Page 35 and 36: Ap p ro a c h e s The site coordina
Page 37 and 38: In Search of… Tutors, Tutors, Tut
Page 39 and 40: Our first year in Seattle was both
Page 41 and 42: girl appeared in a nice dress with
Page 43 and 44: to implement the Shared Reading Pro
Page 45 and 46: and children: reading, sign languag
Page 47 and 48: Resources Galore Participants in th
Page 49 and 50: was the only option. •“Who will
Page 51 and 52: N E W S R A I S I N G F L O W ERS A
Page 53 and 54: evacuees had also traveled all thro
Page 55 and 56: Summer Camp Opportunities It’s no
Page 57 and 58:
EARLY CHILDHOOD June 19-21. . . . .
Page 59 and 60:
Shared Reading Bookmarks! Share the
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