Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center
The Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center has partnered with the original creators and research team of the Fingerspelling Our Way to Reading (FOWTR) program to ensure the program stays accessible to educators across the United States. The Clerc Center will provide the platform for this program and maintain support for product management, technical assistance, evaluation, and dissemination (e.g., teacher training workshops). However, the research team maintains the intellectual property rights and legal rights to the FOWTR program.
Center on Literacy and Deafness
The U.S. Department of Education–Institute of Education Sciences (IES) funded the establishment of the National Research and Development Center on Literacy and Deafness (CLAD), the first of its kind, to focus on deaf and hard of hearing children. CLAD aims to identify child and instructional factors that affect reading growth in this population and to develop individualized interventions specifically designed for deaf and hard of hearing struggling readers in kindergarten to second grade.
CLAD collaborated with researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder, Georgia State University, the University of Arizona, the Rochester Institute of Technology, and the University of California–Irvine.
According to the investigators, the focus on deaf and hard of hearing children is important given that poor literacy outcomes have long characterized the deaf and hard of hearing population, despite the fact that most of these students have typical intellectual potential.
The deaf and hard of hearing population is diverse, requiring researchers to investigate different ways deaf and hard of hearing children learn to read. A FOWTR study done by the research team included students from various linguistic backgrounds, including those who use cochlear implants or have auditory access, with varying levels of access to sound sufficient for learning to read using spoken phonological-based approaches. It also included deaf and hard of hearing students who use American Sign Language (ASL) as a first language learning to read through print alone. Each population faces challenges associating their language of communication (spoken English or ASL) with printed English.
Research Team
IES, through a five-year grant, authorized the establishment of the Special Education Research and Development Center on Reading Instruction for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students. CLAD’s FOWTR research team is a collaboration between two institutions: the University of Colorado-Boulder and Georgia State University
University of Colorado–Boulder
Brenda Schick, PhD, Professor
Nancy Bridenbaugh, MA, Project Director
Rachel Boll, MA, Research Associate
Georgia State University
Amy Lederberg, PhD, Professor
Victoria Burke, PhD, Research Scientist
Melissa Brasic, MA, Research Associate
Other Contributors
Susan Easterbrooks, PhD, Georgia State University
Shirin Antia, PhD, University of Arizona
Carol Conner, PhD, Arizona State University
