We Need to Communicate! Helping Hearing Parents of Deaf Children Learn American Sign Language Kimberly A. Weaver and Thad Starner SchoolofInteractiveComputing GeorgiaInstituteofTechnology Atlanta,GA,USA30332-0760 [email protected], [email protected] ABSTRACT the higher chance deaf children will have of succeeding in schoolandbeyond. Thelanguageskillsofdeafchildrenwith Language immersion from birth is crucial to a child’s lan- hearingparentslagfarbehindthoseofhearingchildrenwith guage development. However, language immersion can be hearing parents and deaf children with deaf parents [11, 7]. particularly challenging for hearing parents of deaf children The slower development of deaf children of hearing parents to provide as they may have to overcome many di(cid:14)culties hasbeenattributedbothtoincompletelanguagemodelsand while learning American Sign Language (ASL). We are in less parent-child interaction [8, 2]. the process of creating a mobile application to help hearing In order to improve parental language ability in ASL, we parents learn ASL. To this end, we have interviewed mem- have been developing SMARTSign. The goal of SMART- bersofourtargetpopulationtogainunderstandingoftheir SignistoprovideparentswithASLpracticeviathemobile motivations and needs when learning sign language. We phone. Prior research has been focused on validating the found that the most common motivation for parents learn- viability of a mobile phone as the content delivery system ing ASL is better communication with their children. Par- [3, 10]. Henderson-Summet demonstrated that novice sign ents are most interested in acquiring grammar knowledge language learners can learn to recognize more vocabulary through learning to read stories to their children. when using a mobile phone as the content delivery system as opposed to a computer. However, participants had dif- CategoriesandSubjectDescriptors (cid:12)culty across both platforms in producing the signs they K.3.1 [Computers and Education]: Computer Uses in learned[3]. Weaveretal. demonstratedthatamodernmo- Education|Computer-assisted instruction bile phone display possesses a su(cid:14)ciently large screen area to enable novices to reproduce signs from example videos GeneralTerms with high accuracy [10]. ToensurethatSMARTSignisprovidingappropriatetypes Human factors ofassistancetohearingparentsattemptingtolearnASLfor theiryoungdeafchildren,wehaveconductedinterviewswith Keywords members of our target population. These interviews were focused on understanding parents’ motivation for learning AmericanSignLanguage,mobiledevices,computerassisted ASL,existingmethodsandsupportforlearning,reactionsto language learning the SMARTSign prototype, and current mobile technology usage. 1. INTRODUCTION IntheUnitedStates,from90to95percentofdeafchildren 2. RELATEDWORK areborntohearingparents[6]. Typically,theseparentshave Two similar interview studies have been carried out with had no exposure to American Sign Language (ASL), the parents of deaf children on a number of relevant topics [4, mostaccessiblelanguagetodeafAmericans,beforethebirth 5]. No one has explicitly interviewed parents about their of their deaf child. Parental involvement plays a large role learninghabitstounderstanddi(cid:14)cultieswhenlearningsign in a deaf child’s language development. Maternal commu- language. nication in particular, is a signi(cid:12)cant indicator of language Jackson et al. carried out interviews with nine parents of development, early reading skills, and social-emotional de- eightchildren[4]. Thechildren’sagesrangedfromonetoto velopment[1]. Thebetterthelanguageskillsoftheparents, nineteen. Thegoaloftheinterviewwastomakerecommen- dations to service providers on how best to serve families with deaf children in early interventions. Parents’ reliance on oral methods and their child’s hearing ability had the Permissiontomakedigitalorhardcopiesofallorpartofthisworkfor personalorclassroomuseisgrantedwithoutfeeprovidedthatcopiesare mostimpactonparentalwillingnesstolearnASLasacom- notmadeordistributedforprofitorcommercialadvantageandthatcopies munication method. One key (cid:12)nding from the interviews bearthisnoticeandthefullcitationonthefirstpage.Tocopyotherwise,to was that parents said time demands from caring for their republish,topostonserversortoredistributetolists,requirespriorspecific deaf child was\equivalent to caring for two to three chil- permissionand/orafee. dren." We had already assumed that demand on parent ASSETS’11,October24–26,2010,Dundee,Scotland. time was one reason why it was di(cid:14)cult for them to learn Copyright2011ACMX-XXXXX-XX-X/XX/XX...$10.00. ASL. Managing the doctor and therapist meetings for their participating in the interview. She is a regular user of an deaf child can also put a signi(cid:12)cant limit on parental free early web-based iteration. time. 3.2 ParticipantDemographics Meadow-Orlans et al.’s data comes from a mixed meth- ods approach including surveys, individual interviews and Elevenparentswererecruitedfortheinterviewstudy,nine focus group interviews [5]. The purpose of their study was mothersandtwofathers,representingtendi(cid:11)erentfamilies. togainbasicunderstandingoftheexperiencesofparentsof One of the participants is currently a single parent and one young deaf children. They focused on reactions to identi- oftheotherparticipantswasasingleparentwhenherchild (cid:12)cation, communication method decisions and reactions to was born but is now married. The other eight families rep- care providers. Parents sometimes had no choice over what resented two-parent households. Due to recruitment at a communication methods they used. Instead they were lim- national conference, participants represented eight di(cid:11)erent ited by the opportunities available to them based on their states from three geographic regions of the United States, placeofresidence. Tworeasonsforparentsdecidingtosign the Southeast, Northeast, and Midwest. A summary of the includedgivingtheirchildrenanychancetheycouldtocom- participant demographics is shown in Table 1. municate and leaving as much choice in the hands of their The parents interviewed had between one and seven chil- children when they were older. Mothers rated their skills dren ((cid:22) = 2:5, (cid:27) = 1:84). All of the participants were the in sign language better than the fathers 95 percent of the parents of at least one deaf or hard of hearing child. One time. An interesting area for investigation could be explor- mother had two children who were hard of hearing. Three ing the opportunities for supporting fathers’ learning ASL of the parents only had one child. using SMARTSign. The ten families included eleven deaf or hard of hearing VaccariandMarsharkwroteasummarypaperontheim- children. Theiragesvariedbetween10monthsand16years pact of parental communication ability on a deaf child’s ((cid:22) = 5:26 years, (cid:27) = 4:04 years). The age of their child’s development [9]. They found that the deaf children who hearing loss identi(cid:12)cation also varied between birth and 3 aremostcompetentinsocialandlinguisticdevelopmentare years ((cid:22) = 11:18 months, (cid:27) = 12:65 months). Four of the those whose parents engaged them actively in linguistic in- children were identi(cid:12)ed at birth. Many of the parents re- teractionfromayoungage. Linguisticinteractionisdi(cid:14)cult ported that their children had initially failed their neonatal forhearingparentswithdeafchildrenwhohavesolittlefor- hearing tests, but passed on follow up tests which lead to mal sign training that they cannot use it for daily needs, delayed diagnosis. Despite the late identi(cid:12)cation of deaf- feel uncomfortable signing, and only sign when directly ad- ness for some of the children, only one child’s deafness was dressing their child. The goal of my interview study is to not congenital or acquired shortly after birth. This child determine how to address these three problems. became deaf after su(cid:11)ering from meningitis at 13 months. Threeoftheelevenchildrenhadotherseriousmedicalcondi- tions. This ratio is consistent with the (cid:12)ndings of Meadow- 3. METHOD Orlansetal. [5]. Thetwodeafsiblingshavecysticleukoen- The study took the form of a semi-structured interview cephalopathywhichisaprogressivedegenerationofthebrain’s with hearing parents of deaf children. The interview topics whitematter. Anotherchildisautistic. Onechildisadopted, followedfourcategories: family,ASLlearning,prototypere- and the birth mother abused drugs: high levels of bilirubin actions, and phone ownership. The goal of the family topic (extremejaundice)causedthedeafnesswhichwasnotdiag- was to understand basic background information about the nosed until the child was 3 years old. parents and their deaf children to determine the level of Allofthechildrenpossessedsomeformofsensorydevice: support parent and child had for learning ASL. Conversa- hearingaidorcochlearimplant. Fiveofthechildrenhadat tion about ASL learning was directed towards uncovering least one ear with a cochlear implant although two parents currentdi(cid:14)cultiesparentsexperiencewhilelearningASLin reported that their children did not like to wear their im- order to determine if SMARTSign can be designed to alle- plants. Five of the children wore hearing aids. One of the viate those di(cid:14)culties. Parents were shown the prototype children wore a cochlear implant and a hearing aid. SMARTSign system to gauge reactions and determine util- ity and desirabilty of the existing functions. Because the 4. MOTIVATIONFORLEARNINGASL ultimategoalofthisresearchprojectistodeployaworking Discussions with educators and social workers early in systemlongtermtoparents, thephoneownershiptopicwas the SMARTSign development process indicated that par- important for understanding what devices were favored by ents had no interest in learning ASL. In our interviews, parents and availability of data plans. we learned parents had a number of reasons for deciding tolearnASL.Theprimaryreasonwascommunicationwith 3.1 ParentalRecruitment theirchildwhichisconsistentwithpreviousparentinterview Parents were recruited through a number of methods. E- studies. Some parents also expressed an interest in provid- mails were sent both to the SKI-HI (Sensory [Kids] Im- ing their children with a bilingual education and access to paired Home Intervention) coordinator at Georgia PINES, the deaf community. Parents also related some negatives the state-wide early intervention program for Georgia and that made their decision more di(cid:14)cult. tothesocialworkerattheAtlantaAreaSchoolfortheDeaf. 4.1 Communication Parents were also recruited from the 10th Annual Early HearingDetectionandInterventionConference(EHDI2011) Eight of the ten families said that a desire for commu- in Atlanta, Georgia. EHDI is a national conference with nication with their child was a reason for their decision to tracks for both practitioners and parents. Only one parent learn ASL. One mother said that when her parent mentor wasalreadyacquaintedwiththeSMARTSignprojectbefore came to her home and told her all of the potential options Table 1: Summary of participating family demographics Family Interviewed Region Children Child Identi(cid:12)ed Sensory Device Medical Issues Learning (Hearing:Deaf) Age Duration 1 mother Southeast (0:1) 8 yrs 2 yrs cochlear implant 6 yrs 2 mother Northeast (2:1) 3.5 yrs 3 mos hearing aid 2.5 yrs 3 mother Southeast (1:1) 16 yrs 13 mos cochlear implant meningitis 13 yrs (does not use) 4 mother Southeast (2:2) 3.5 yrs 18mos& hearing aids cystic leukoen- 1.5 yrs &2yrs birth cephalopathy 5 mother Northeast (6:1) 6 yrs 2 yrs cochlear implant 4 yrs (does not like) 6 mother Northeast (1:1) 4 yrs birth cochlear implant 3 yrs 7 mother Southeast (1:1) 5 yrs birth cochlear implant autistic 5 yrs & hearing aid 8 mother Midwest (0:1) 10 mos 5 mos hearing aid 4 yrs 9 father Midwest (1:1) 5 yrs birth hearing aid 3 mos 10 mother & Southeast (0:1) 4 yrs 3 yrs cochlear implant maternal drug 2 yrs father usage, adopted herdecisionwasbasedonhowhersoncouldlearnlanguage family said that they and their son were frustrated because the fastest. Other parents felt like they had no choice. For theydidn’tknowwhathewanted,andtheydidn’tknowhow others it was less of a conscious decision and more the only torespondtohim. Anothermothersaidthatknowingsingle optiontheyhad. Communicationwasnothappeningbyany words wasn’t enough to ease the communication barrier. other method, and they\had to do something." IfparentswaittoolongtolearnASL,thenthey(cid:12)ndthey Onemotherrealizedthatshehadtoworkhardertolearn have to play catch up with their child’s language abilities. after an experience at an amusement park. Her son was Onemotherreportedexperiencingthissituation. Thechild fourandplayinginthepoolsowasnotwearinghiscochlear became the language model for the parent. This situation implant. The lifeguard was whistling at him to tell him becomesfrustratingnotjustforthechildbutfortheparent not to climb over the edge. Without his implant, the son as well. couldn’t hear the whistle. The mother had no idea how to attract her son’s attention and she felt embarrassed when 4.2 LinguisticandCulturalBenefits alltheotherfamiliesturnedtostareather. Whenshetried Parents also made the decision to learn ASL for more to take her son away, he could not understand her. than just communication. Three parents expressed interest The Baby Sign movement is having a positive e(cid:11)ect on in ASL as a way to provide their children with a bilingual parents’ willingness to learn sign language. Two mothers education. Onemothersaid\wealwaysconsidereditanop- stated that they had already planned on using sign lan- tion because if nothing else, we (cid:12)gured he’d be bilingual." guage with their child before identi(cid:12)cation as deaf. One This sentiment is evidence that old ideas of learning one mother had already used Baby Sign successfully with her language impairing the ability to learn a second language two older children. She said it didn’t feel as\scary"as she arebecominglessprevalent. Bilingualismisnowthoughtof feels it might be for others because of her prior exposure. as an advantage rather than a disadvantage. Another par- Another mother said that she had always wanted to teach ent said a bilingual education would help her child\learn her children sign language and her husband pointed that as much as possible." One father took his son to Gallaudet desire out when they learned their child was deaf. Her re- (the university for the Deaf) in Washington DC shortly af- action was to say\that’s not the point." Familiarity is not ter his child was identi(cid:12)ed. Despite pressure from those in everything, there is a di(cid:11)erence between learning a handful his community who wanted him to focus on one communi- ofvocabularyasatemporarymeasurewhileachildisyoung cation method, either oral or signing, the father said that by choice and learning a new language as a primary means theywantedto\empowerhim[theirson]withchoices."The of communication. father said that their son would then have the opportunity Some parents treat sign language as a temporary mea- to choose his desired communication method later. sureuntiltheirchildgetsimplanted,theirhearingaidsallow Two families mentioned the role of the Deaf Community themtolearnlanguage,ortheirhearinggetsbetter. Insome in their decision process. One parent said that he wanted casesa transitiontooralcommunicationmightbe possible. to learn ASL because it was the language of choice for the One mother related how as her son masters a spoken word, Deaf Community. Another parent said the experiences of a he will drop the use of the relevant sign. This viewpoint Deaffriendwholearnedsign(cid:12)rstandthenstartedlearning can also back(cid:12)re. One mother said they had started learn- oral convinced them to learn sign language. In the (cid:12)rst ingASLandthentheystoppedwhenhewasimplanted. At example the father is learning ASL to help his child gain age three, their son had behavioral problems due to lack of access to the Deaf Community. In the second example, the communication. They then decided to start signing again Deaf adult served as proof that sign language did not hurt and have been doing so for 13 years. a child’s chances to eventually learn to speak. In two other cases, this lack of communication became ASLhasoneotherbene(cid:12)tforparentsasexpressedbyone so apparent that their child became very frustrated. One ofthefathers. Inthisfather’sstate,thedominantlanguage promoted by early education providers is Signed Exact En- Table 2: Summary of Learning Tools glish (SEE). SEE is another visual language but is based Learning Tool Positive Neutral Negative Total on English grammar. SEE goes farther than just sign lan- guageinEnglishwordorderandalsoincludessignsforword Early Interven- 4 1 1 6 endings such as\-ed"and\-ing." The father said that SEE tion Services was unnatural, too di(cid:14)cult to learn, and his son had given DVDs 4 2 2 8 up using it. The feeling of dislike for SEE’s di(cid:14)culty and Websites 2 6 1 9 appreciation for ASL was shared by another mother. Classes 3 1 3 7 Two of the parents made a point to emphasize how their Mobile Phone 0 2 0 2 children were normal, though deaf. These parents focused Books 1 2 4 7 notjustoncommunicationwiththeirchildbutinclusionin family life. One mother, after listening to stories by a deaf individuals who spent childhoods sitting at the dinner ta- is more likely to help his child develop the skills necessary ble not being engaged by their family and not knowing the to succeed in a hearing society. names of their aunts and uncles, resolved that her child’s Anotherbarriertolearningsignlanguageislackofoppor- experience would not be the same. Another father went to tunities to practice. Two mothers talked about this. One visit Gallaudet to make sure he explored all of the oppor- motherhasexperiencedfrustrationbecausehersonisautis- tunities his son could have and to ensure that all possible tic. She feels that the response from her son is not enough. avenues were open for his child to choose. Both of these Later on she did state that he does surprise her sometimes parentsareworkingtomakesureto(cid:12)ndwaystomaketheir when he uses a sign that she was unaware he knew. The children’s childhood \the best possible experience" as one mother whose child is still an infant talks about how di(cid:14)- mother expressed. cult it is when she cannot use her sign language every day. Herchilddoesnotyethavethecapacitytolearnmorecom- 4.3 Disincentives plex language, so she has to work and focus on learning so she is ready to teach when her child is ready. Thereareanumberofdisincentiveswhichmakethedeci- sion to learn ASL di(cid:14)cult. One mother related her annoy- 5. LEARNINGTOOLS ance of going out and having people stare at them. Kids would come up to her and ask what was wrong with her Participantswereaskedaboutthetoolstheyusedtolearn son. Using a visual language automatically singles you out and practice their sign language skills. While most parents as being di(cid:11)erent which can be uncomfortable for parents. agreed that classes were the most bene(cid:12)cial, they reported Lackofpriorexperiencewithdeafnesscanmakeitdi(cid:14)cult using a wide range of tools including books, DVDs, and toembraceanewlanguageandculturefortheirchild. Only websites. Some parents even talked about tools they used oneparenthadpriorexperiencewithDeafindividualsbefore while they were mobile. Many states provide services for their own child’s identi(cid:12)cation. One mother was a special parents where an educator will come into the home to help education teacher even before her child was identi(cid:12)ed. She parents and family members. Table 2 shows a summary said that all she was taught about deafness in school was of participant use of and reaction to a number of di(cid:11)erent \deaf is bad." toolsforlearningASL.Wewillstartbyinvestigatingcharac- ASL is not an easy language to learn. Even parents who teristics of the tools which had the most positive reactions have been learning ASL for many years are hesitant to say (Early Intervention Services) and the most negative reac- theyknoworuseASL.Amotherclaimedthatthesignthey tions (books). usedinthehousewasmoreofapidginofASL.Onemother, 5.1 Interventions whoworksinherson’sschool,saysthatsheisuncomfortable when she is asked to read\aloud"at school because she is EarlyInterventionServicesreceivedthemostpositivecom- constantly worrying about whether she is signing correctly. mentsofanyoftheotherlearningtools. Ofthetenfamilies, She also said that when she (cid:12)rst started signing she was six had access to early intervention services. These services afraidtosigninthegrocerystoreforfearthatpeoplemight are typically provided for the family while the child is be- see her doing it wrong. One father stopped signing because tween the ages of zero and three and can provide many dif- his child said his signing was bad and was embarrassing. ferent forms of assistance. One parent was matched with a Nowthefatherdoesn’thavethecon(cid:12)dencetouseASLwith deafmentor. Thementorplayedasigni(cid:12)cantroleinhelping his Deaf friends. themotherwithhercon(cid:12)denceinlearningsignlanguageand Treating sign language as if it is a temporary language with helping her feel comfortable interacting with the Deaf before oral English is acquired can be another disincentive community. Otherhomeprovidershelpparentsbyteaching to learning ASL fully. As technology for hearing aids and them ASL in their homes. One home provider taught the cochlear implants advances there are some who are able to extended family as well as the parents in their home once gain enough ability to interact in society without the need a week. Home providers can also help parents learn event- forsignlanguage. Religioncanalsoplayaroleinthebelief speci(cid:12)cvocabulary. Onemotherwhosehomeprovidervisits thatASLknowledgeisonlyatemporarynecessity. Noneof twice a month talked about looking ahead at the calendar the parents expressed this belief personally but one father and asking her to help with vocabulary related to visiting related an experience he had with his father. The grandfa- thedentisto(cid:14)cesothathersonwouldnotbenervous. An- ther quoted how Jesus healed the deaf, the blind, and the other service can be helping parents keep pace with vocab- mute implying that faith could heal his grandson as well. ulary related to the topics their child is learning in school. The father’s reply was\My son is not broken. He is whole. A third way home providers can assist parents is by help- Hejusthappenstobewholeandnothearing."Thisattitude ing them with the transition to communicating in a more visual language. One parent talked about how his early werenotbeingpresentedtogethertocreatefullphrases. One childhood educator did a good job of teaching about com- parentsaidtherewastoomuchextraintheDVDsandthey munication and turn-taking to help them understand how just wished they could get to the vocabulary. Another dis- to convey the signi(cid:12)cance of the signs to their child. Inter- advantage with the DVDs is that there was no assistance if ventionsarelargelypositiveexperiencesforparentsbecause you had di(cid:14)culty learning a sign. You just had to watch theyarelargelycustomizedtothefamily,providingrelevant the section of the DVD over and over again until you un- and timely information. derstood. DVDs are meant to be played and watched for a Notallreactionstothehomeproviderswerepositive. One duration, they are not as useful for quick referencing. parentcommentedaboutthewiderangeofpotentialperson- One parent reported having an ASL story DVD and said alities and styles. She commented that one home provider hecouldfollowthesignsgenerallywordforword,butwhen will argue with parents about the proper way to perform the video showed a classi(cid:12)er it would make him confused. signs. Giventhatparentsarealreadyexperiencinglowcon- Classi(cid:12)ersaresignsthatrepresentageneralcategoryofob- (cid:12)dence with their sign language skills, this confrontational jects. Classi(cid:12)ers in ASL are similar to pronouns in English style could discourage them further. Parents may also feel in that what they are referring to depends on their con- overwhelmedbytheamountofinformationprovidedbytheir text of use. They can be used to represent an object, how homeprovidersatonce. Despitetheseproblems,theparent it moves, or how it relates to other objects. This ambigu- admittedthatsheknewthehomeprovidersmeantwelland ity is understandable for parents who have had a largely that it was better than not having any support like those vocabulary-based ASL education. who lived in more rural regions of her state. The disadvan- tageofEarlyInterventionServicesthenliesinthevariability 5.4 Websites of the home providers. Websites are becoming more popular with parents. Only one family reported not using websites to help them learn 5.2 Books sign language. Most families use dedicated sites for ASL Parents reacted to books the most negatively. Seven of such as ASL Pro, lifeprint.com or SigningOnline. All of the the ten families reported using books to help them learn websitesprovideadictionary. Somearenotbrowsablewith- sign language. Of those seven families, four of the parents out acquiring a login which may cost money. Lifeprint.com were not happy with the books they had. Parents found provides di(cid:11)erent workbooks and practice tools. Signing- them di(cid:14)cult to understand. Because motion plays a large Online provides access to course material for a fee. Two role in the meaning of a sign, it can be di(cid:14)cult to convey families reported using generic search strategies for (cid:12)nding a complete sign through static images. One mother said it signvideosonline. OnefamilyusesYouTube. Anotherfam- was di(cid:14)cult to look at a single picture with lots of arrows ily searches for signs using Yahoo! and the search terms pointing in\seemingly random"directions and (cid:12)guring out \sign language for"to (cid:12)nd vocabulary. The problem with whattodo. Onefathersaidthathedoesnotknowthesign the Yahoo! strategy is that sometimes she gets videos that for FOREVER because of the two dimensional representa- arenotwhatsheislookingfor. Itcanbeaveryslowprocess tion. Heknowshowthesignendsbutcannot(cid:12)gureouthow to weed out the inappropriate videos. to start the sign. Theadvantagesanddisadvantagesofthewebsitesaresim- ParentsreportedowningbigASLdictionaries,pocketdic- ilar to those of the DVDs. Parents like seeing the videos tionaries for quick reference while mobile, text books, and of the actual signs instead of the illustrations they (cid:12)nd in otherreferencebooks. Allofthesebooksarefocusedonvo- books. But they also feel like they want to see more than cabulary acquisition. One parent who reported not owning just vocabulary. Support for more connected speech is lim- anybookslamentedthelackofrealbooksinASLtoenable ited. Websites have one advantage over DVDs in that they her to tell stories to her child. can immediately (cid:12)nd the sign they are looking for. Some parents felt that it was di(cid:14)cult to spend a lot of time on- 5.3 DVDs line. DVDs, while still focusing primarily on vocabulary, do 5.5 Classes haveanadvantageoverbooksintheirabilitytopresentsigns in a more understandable format. DVDs were employed Classes received the most divided responses of all of the by eight of the ten families. The Signing Time series was tools discussed. Seven of the families have attended formal the most popular with (cid:12)ve of the families reporting its use. classesatsomepointintheirattemptstolearnASL.Classes SigningTimeistargetedathelpingchildrenlearnsigns,but are typically o(cid:11)ered through three di(cid:11)erent sources: higher manyoftheparentsfelttheylearnedalotfromthemaswell. education institutions, schools for the deaf, and churches. Onemothersaidthatthefactthatthevideoshadsoundwith Two families attended classes at higher education institu- them helped because she could put the DVD on and then tions. OnemothertookASL1attheUniversityofGeorgia when the DVD said a word she was interested in learning whileshewasastudent. UnfortunatelyASLwasnotconsid- she could pay attention. With DVDs without an auditory eredalanguagebytheuniversitysoitdidnotful(cid:12)llherlan- component it was easy to start playing one and then get guagerequirement. AnotherfamilytookASL1atthelocal distracted and realize an hour later they were supposed to communitycollege. Thismothertalkedabouttheexpenseof be learning. Parents liked DVDs because they were able to takingtheclasswhentheywerenotinterestedinthecourse see the whole sign and how it was performed, unlike with credit. Three families attended classes at their local school the books. for the deaf. Reactions to these classes were largely posi- ParentssometimesbecamefrustratedwiththeDVDsbe- tive. Parents talked about the fun games they played, the cause they were mostly focused on vocabulary. The songs camaraderie they gained from learning with other parents provided a little bit of (cid:13)ow, but for the most part the signs in similar situations. One mother said she took ASL 1 and 2 multiple times each because every time she experienced learning from di(cid:11)erent deaf adults. One family attended classes at their church. They felt that there was too much information at once. They were more interested in learning the basics. Another mother who did not specify the location of her classes said that she registered for ASL classes twice but dropped them. She felt that the class took too much time. The teacher spent most of the time talking and the mother felt that she just was not learning enough to justify the (a) Express (b) Alert (c) Practice amount of time spent. Over all it appears that the classes attheschoolwerethemostaccessibletotheparents. More Figure 1: The three SMARTSign components generalclasseswerefrustratingtoparentswhoweremostin- terestedinimmediatecommunicationneedswiththeirchil- dren. scribed and parents re(cid:13)ected on the impact or importance 5.6 Mobile of the proposed additions to their own learning. Five of the parents talked about using some form of lan- 6.1 CurrentComponents guage learning tool while outside of their homes or class- The prototype of SMARTSign has three components fo- room. Twomothershadsmalldictionariestheywouldcarry cused on ASL vocabulary acquisition. These components with them to look up unknown signs. Another mother re- are shown in Figure 1. The system is designed to function portedthateverytimetheywereinthecar,shewouldplay without the need for an active Internet connection as much oneoftheSigningTimeDVDs. Twofamiliesreportedusing aspossible. The(cid:12)rstcomponent,Express,allowsparentsto a mobile phone for looking up new signs. One mother used searchforandwatchASLvideosbytypingorsayingtheas- theSMARTSignwebsiteonhersmartphonetolookupvo- sociated English word. The second component, Alert, gives cabulary. Another mother would search for words on the parentsthechancetolearnnewvocabularythroughaquiz- ASL Pro website. No parents mentioned using any of the based interface. The (cid:12)nal component, Practice, takes ad- applicationsavailablefortheAndroidoriOSoperatingsys- vantageofadevice’sfront-facingcameratoprovideparents tems. Alloftheparentswereveryinterestedinanall-in-one with the ability to record themselves signing and compare application for learning ASL such as SMARTSign. with the source video. 5.7 OtherSources Parentsreactedpositivelytoallthreecomponentsandto the system as a whole. Parents saw the system not just as Otherpeoplealsoprovidesupportforparentsattempting a tool for them to learn sign language, but something their to learn sign language: their deaf children, church commu- whole family including siblings and extended family could nity, deaf adults, and other professionals. Three parents use to learn. Two parents talked about how the interface talked about acquaintances with adults. The advantage of was easy for them to use and understand. Two parents beingarounddeafadultsisthatparentsareabletogainex- commentedonthequalityofthevideosandhoweasyitwas periencewithfullconversations. Asonemothersaid,talking to see the motion in them. One mother said it was a good withadeafadultismuchdi(cid:11)erentthanaconversationwith system for people without access to classes. Two parents theirchild. Twooftheparentsmentionedtheimportanceof expressed the sentiment that it would have been good for immersion in acquiring their language skills. Both of these them when they started learning\and now too." mothers have become involved with their child’s school in Although nothing negative was said about the Express order to improve their language. component, the search functionality had the least amount One mother who has struggled with learning ASL says of positive reactions (six of the ten families). This lack of thatnowthefamilyismostlylearningfromtheirchild. They reaction may be due to the fact that basic search function- arenowplayingcatchupwithhislanguageskills. Thefamily ality is something that parents are familiar with on the In- is not always sure that the signs he is teaching them are ternet and with books. One mother mentioned the desire correct. to incorporate English phrases. She noted that sometimes Parentswillfrequentlyaskothersaroundthemiftheyare only\onesignisneededtoconveyfourEnglishwords"asin unsureofaword. Twomotherstalkaboutaskingdeafadults English idioms and some negated signs like DON’T-LIKE. they know. One mother said she will talk to the speech ThemotherwhousedYahoo! asherprimarysourcefornew pathologist at the school if she is unsure of a sign. The sign information liked Express because it was a lot faster church community can also be helpful for parents learning than using the Internet and because you could just type in sign language. One father said that three people from his a few letters to get the sign instead of the whole word. church immediately started learning ASL when his son was The(cid:12)rstparticipantmadeanumberofusefulsuggestions identi(cid:12)ed. Twoofthemaretrainingtobecomeinterpreters. thatledtothepositivereceptionoftheAlert componentby He is now learning ASL from one of those individuals. therestoftheparticipants. Heroriginalimpressionwasthat Alert was useful for practicing vocabulary that had been 6. SYSTEMPROTOTYPERESPONSE learnedelsewherebutdidnothavevalueindiscoveringnew During the interview, parents were presented with a pro- vocabulary. She suggested that when parents selected an totype of the SMARTSign system. They were asked for re- incorrectEnglishwordtheyshouldbeshownthevideoofthe actionstothecurrentcomponentsaswellassuggestionsfor sign they selected. This modi(cid:12)cation to the original system improvement. Possible expansions of the system were de- wasappreciatedbytwoofthelaterparticipants. Oneofthe participants said that guessing the signs would help them providedsuggestionsfortheselessons. Shethoughtitwould learn. One of the parents appreciated the Alert component be interesting to give information about technology for the because reception of signs was the hardest thing for him to Deaf such as lights that (cid:13)ash when the doorbell rings. She master. emphasized that for these tips to be useful they needed to ParentsseemedthemostimpressedwiththePracticecom- be really\parent friendly." ponent of SMARTSign. One mother said that in her class Parents were also asked about their interest in lessons they were asked to record themselves signing so it was re- aimed at helping them interact with their child. Half of allyusefultoincorporatetherecordingmodetohelppeople the parents were interested in these lessons. Two parents perfectwhattheyaredoing. Anotherparentwasimpressed said that they’ve known for many years about their child’s with the opportunity to compare his signs with the exam- hearing status and they still did not know anything. An- ple sign. He did stipulate that he tended towards being other parent said that this would especially be useful for over-exacting. One mother thought that the Practice com- parents whose children had recently been diagnosed. One ponent might be useful for her child as well who liked to parentsaidthathewasnotinterestedininteractionlessons act out movies. A number of interesting applications were because early intervention had done a good job telling him discussed. Because it is possible to record anything, other theinformationheneeded. Twoparentssuggestedpotential suggestions that arose from the interviews included record- lessons. One mother talked about getting her child’s atten- ing stories for their children in sign and leaving messages. tion, and another talked about reminding herself to sign. Oneparentaskedifthesystemcouldevaluatethesigns. Al- though a desirable addition, sign recognition is beyond the 7. PHONEOWNERSHIP current capabilities of the system. ThenextphaseoftheSMARTSignprojectwillinvolvede- ploying software for parents to use in their daily life, there- 6.2 ProposedAdditions fore the last portion of the interview was intended to learn Four potential extensions were described to the parents about current technology ownership. Four of the parents to obtain feedback. These extensions are aimed at helping already owned smart phones. Five parents also paid for parentsadvancepastsimplevocabularyacquisitionandhelp monthlydataplans. Alloftheparentswerewillingtoswitch them to learn grammar and (cid:13)uency. phones in order to be able to use the SMARTSign system. The extension that seemed most exciting to parents in- Parents provided valuable information about what was volved teaching vocabulary and grammar with the goal of important to them in a phone. Two mothers were really learning how to read a story to their children. All ten par- interested in the devices with front-facing cameras. One ents expressed interest in this capability. Two parents also mothersaidthatsincehersonisgettingolder,hewillstart suggested nursery rhymes. One mother talked about want- goingoutalonetoplaywithfriends. Ifshewantstobeable ing to read Bible stories to her child but not having access tocommunicatewithhim,signlanguagewouldbethemost to anything at the appropriate level. Another mother said convenient. Phones alsoserve an added bonus asentertain- thatadialoguewithsomeonetalkingandaskingyoutoan- mentfortheirchildrenwhilewaiting. Doctors’o(cid:14)cesdon’t swer a question which you could record might be useful as usuallyactivatecaptioningontheirTV,somotherscangive well. Parents were very interested in a system that would their phones to their children to play games as entertain- help them with their production skills and improve (cid:13)uency. ment. Parents are also excited about potential educational Smallgrammarlessonswerelessinterestingtotheparents. opportunities for their child that can be provided by smart One mother said that they are important, but she did not phones. Parents noted the convenience of having access to feel parents would use them because it might make it feel SMARTSign on a mobile phone. As one mother said she toomuchlikeschool. Otherssaiditwouldbegreattoknow wouldbeabletousethesoftwareanywhere:\public,home, or be useful information. library, shopping." She said she would probably be on the DeafCulturelessonsreceivedevenmoremixedreactions. phone all of the time. Two parents stated explicitly that they were not interested in Deaf culture tips. One said it would be more useful for 8. DISCUSSION Deaffamilies. Athirdpersonwasunsureoftheirusefulness. She was not interested in general Deaf culture, but she was Inthispaperweinterviewedhearingparentsfromtendif- interested in information about politeness when interacting ferent families who had deaf children to better understand with Deaf adults. She wondered whether it was rude to their needs when learning ASL. Based on what we learned approachtwosigningadultsyoudidnotknowandwhether aboutparental motivation, the mainaimof ourtoolshould itwasrudetowatchpeoplesigninginthesamewayitwould beprovidingassistancetoincreaseparent-childcommunica- be rude to listen in on someone else’s conversation. tion. Five parents were in favor of Deaf culture lessons. Three 8.1 CreatinganIdealLearningTool of them said that they did not know anything so any infor- mation was good. One parent said as long what was being Lookingatthereactionstothevariouslearningtoolsdis- shown was understandable, the Deaf culture lessons would cussed in the interviews, we can gain an impression of the be interesting. The comment about understandability led characteristicsthatmakeasuccessfulorunsuccessfullearn- toadiscussionofhowtopresentinformation. Parentsliked ingtool. ClassesandEarlyInterventionssharethetraitsof the idea of signed video lessons with subtitles, but wanted being regularly scheduled and interactive, but Early Inter- to see more than just a direct English translation in the ventions received more positive reactions. One reason for subtitles. Parents liked the idea of subtitles with a literal the positive comments is the fact that Early Interventions transcriptionfromthesignglossessotheycouldunderstand aremoreindividualizedthanclassesandveryspeci(cid:12)ctothe the grammar and vocabulary in the videos. One mother needs of an individual parent and child. A successful inter- ventionshouldfocusonthespeci(cid:12)cneedsofhearingparents lary lessons to parents on their mobile phones through an andshouldnotfocusongeneralsignlanguagelearning. This in-the-wildstudy. Thisevaluationwillhelpinformasecond aimisalsore(cid:13)ectedincommentsparentsmadeaboutclasses studywhichwillincorporatebothvocabularyandgrammar notfocusingonwhatwasimportantforthemtolearntosat- lessons. These lessons will be based on aiding parents in isfy their immediate needs. Learning material needs to be learning to read stories in ASL to their children, which was as relevant as possible to reducing the communication gap. foundtobethemostcompellingmotivatorforincreasing(cid:13)u- Anothercharacteristicoflearningtoolsthatleadtomore ency and grammar ability. Through this research we hope positive reactions is dynamic presentation of signs in the to increase hearing parents’ ASL language skills and com- form of videos instead of static images. DVDs, websites, munication ability with their child. With hearing parents andmobilephonesallsharedthistrait. Websitesandmobile betterabletocommunicatewiththeirchildinanaccessible phone users had similar response patterns which is consis- language,wehopetoreducethelinguisticgapbetweendeaf tent with the fact that parents used their mobile phones to children of hearing parents and other children their age. access the websites and not standalone applications. DVDs had more positive reactions, perhaps due to the fact that 10. REFERENCES they are usually designed around themes and accessible to [1] R. Calderon. Parental involvement in deaf children’s whole family. Books, which present static images, are not education programs as a predictor of child’s language, desirable. early reading, and Social-Emotional development. J. A learning tool should not focus on vocabulary. The vo- Deaf Stud. Deaf Educ., 5(2):140{155, Apr. 2000. cabulary focus was a commonly stated negative of many of [2] H. Hamilton and D. Lillo-Martin. Imitative the learning tools: DVDs, websites, and books. While the production of ASL verbs of movement and location: A current version of SMARTSign does only focus on vocabu- comparative study. Sign Language Studies, 1986. lary,wehopethatwiththeadditionofsomeofourproposed components we can help parents improve not only their vo- [3] V. Henderson-Summet. Facilitating Communication cabularyabilitybutalsotheir(cid:13)uencyandunderstandingof for Deaf Individuals with Mobile Technologies. the ASL language as a whole. Doctoral thesis, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA, 2010. 8.2 ImprovingSMARTSign [4] C. W. Jackson, R. J. Traub, and A. P. Turnbull. Parents were generally satis(cid:12)ed with all three of the ex- Parents’ experiences with childhood deafness. isting SMARTSign components, so the discussion here will Communication Disorders Quarterly, 29(2):82 {98, focus mainly on the four suggested additions. The parents Feb. 2008. we interviewed were unanimously in favor of a tool that fo- [5] K. P. Meadow-Orlans, M. Sass-Lehrer, and D. M. cusedonprovidinggrammarandvocabularyassociatedwith Mertens. Parents and their deaf children: the early reading a story to their children. This desire aligns with years. Gallaudet University Press, Apr. 2003. a number of characteristics noted in the previous section. [6] R. E. Mitchell and M. A. Karchmer. Chasing the One of the biggest advantages is the focus on more than mythical ten percent: Parental hearing status of deaf just vocabulary. Story telling would also be, by de(cid:12)nition, and hard of hearing students in the united states. Sign interactive because it would require the parents to produce Language Studies, 4(2):138{163, 2004. the signs in order to tell the story to their child. It also [7] H. S. Schlesinger and K. P. Meadow-Orlans. Sound ful(cid:12)llsanimmediateneedthatparentssaidtheyhad. 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Communication receiving these lessons so they can get the information that between parents and deaf children: Implications for is most relevant to them. social-emotional development. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 38(7):793{801, 1997. 9. CONCLUSION [10] K. A. Weaver, T. Starner, and H. Hamilton. An Hearingparents’desiretolearnASLisbasednotonmas- evaluation of video intelligibility for novice american teryofthelanguageforitsownsake,buttoful(cid:12)llaspeci(cid:12)c sign language learners on a mobile device. In Proc. of needofimprovingcommunicationwiththeirchild. Thepar- the 12th international ACM SIGACCESS conference entsweinterviewedexpressedstrongmotivationtolearnand on Computers and accessibility, ASSETS ’10, page useASLmore,buttheystillonlyexperiencelimitedsuccess. 107{114, New York, NY, USA, 2010. ACM. ThefocusofSMARTSignwillnotbeonconvincingparents [11] G. Wells. Language Development in the Pre-School ofthenecessitytolearnASL,butinprovidingparentswith Years. Cambridge University Press, June 1985. the appropriate tools to help them gain more experience with a di(cid:14)cult language. Initialreactionstotheprototypesystemaimedatvocab- ulary acquisition were positive. The next step in this re- search will be to evaluate a method for presenting vocabu-