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Open research questions in Hearing Impairment and Communication

98 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 3,318 Hearing Impairment and Communication papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.

What the literature leaves open

  • Future studies could consider omitting the sign-vocal tact topography from the ongoing probes to prevent extended exposures to the signs dur- ing baseline. Conclusions regarding the generality of these findings are limited by inclusion of only three participants and choices related to participant characteristics and settings.

    The Use of Self-Study and Matrix Training to Teach Sign Language · 2026 · DOI

  • This review highlights a significant gap in the literature and provides the evidence-based foundation for the proposed REBT BiVR model, a novel intervention framework designed to bridge this communicative and technological divide.

    REBT BiVR: a bibliometric and systematic review of virtual reality-based sign language therapy for deaf women survivors of sexual violence · 2026 · DOI

  • Participants' ASL age of acquisition ranged widely (see Table 3) but the analysis does not examine whether age of ASL acquisition or native versus non-native ASL status moderated the effects of concept-motivated versus engagement-motivated signing on STEM learning outcomes, despite acknowledging variation in language backgrounds across the sample.

    Producing concept-motivated signs supports learning of STEM in American Sign Language · 2026 · DOI

  • The study provided ASL translations of all pre- and post-test questions at the top of each test page but does not report whether participants actually accessed or relied on these translations, or whether reliance on written English translations versus ASL-only assessments differentially impacted learning outcomes for D/deaf versus hearing participants in concept-motivated versus engagement-motivated signing conditions.

    Producing concept-motivated signs supports learning of STEM in American Sign Language · 2026 · DOI

  • Participants in Study 2 were recruited exclusively from the Washington, D.C. metro area and screened for advanced ASL fluency, creating a restricted sample that may not represent deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) students with varying ASL proficiency levels or those learning STEM in other educational contexts (K-12 vs. higher education, residential schools for the deaf vs. mainstream inclusion). The effectiveness of concept-motivated versus engagement-motivated ASL signing across different proficiency levels and educational settings remains unexplored.

    Producing concept-motivated signs supports learning of STEM in American Sign Language · 2026 · DOI

  • The study was limited to two STEM topic areas (acids/bases and one additional topic), with both topics receiving identical 8-question assessments with only minor wording modifications between pre- and post-tests to reduce familiarity effects. Future work should expand concept-motivated and engagement-motivated signing video validation across diverse STEM topic domains (e.g., genetics, physics, chemistry) to determine whether signing style effectiveness generalizes or varies by content complexity and conceptual difficulty.

    Producing concept-motivated signs supports learning of STEM in American Sign Language · 2026 · DOI

  • Study 2 employed pre- and post-tests assessing only the first three levels of Bloom's taxonomy (remember, understand, apply) for STEM learning outcomes in ASL. Higher-order cognitive assessment levels (analyze, evaluate, create) were not measured, limiting the ability to determine whether concept-motivated versus engagement-motivated ASL signing differentially impacts deeper learning and transfer of STEM concepts.

    Producing concept-motivated signs supports learning of STEM in American Sign Language · 2026 · DOI

  • The external video validation study (Study 1) recruited only 30 participants after screening, with a demographic composition skewed toward hearing (67.7%) and White (73.3%) respondents. The generalizability of findings about whether naïve reviewers accurately describe differences between concept-motivated (CM) and engagement-motivated (EM) ASL signing styles needs validation with larger, more demographically representative samples of STEM teachers, ASL-English interpreters, ASL linguists, and ASL teachers across different geographic regions.

    Producing concept-motivated signs supports learning of STEM in American Sign Language · 2026 · DOI

  • For its development, the prototyping methodology was used, which is based on building functional versions of the software when the requirements are unclear or not fully defined (Pressman, 2010).

    Web application for learning Mexican sign language · 2025 · DOI

  • Abstract How do Māori deaf people use and perceive variable features of New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) to invoke ethnolinguistic identity? Previous research has documented motivation among Māori deaf people to signal ethnic identity linguistically within and outside the NZSL community (McKee, McKee, Smiler, & Pointon 2007), but how this plays out in situated language practices has not been explored.

    Constructing Māori deaf identity in New Zealand Sign Language · 2025 · DOI

  • Although research evidence reveals that work structure and other commitments may be responsible for fathers’ limited involvement in the education of their children, there is limited research evidence in existence on the involvement of fathers of LDHH in remote education during the COVID-19 lockdowns.

    ‘Were the Fathers Available?’: An Evaulation of Fathers’ Involvement in Emergency Remote Eeducation of Learners who are Deaf/Hard of Hearing · 2023 · DOI

  • Yet the measures developed to date are insufficient for tracking bimodal bilingual development in DHH children, particularly as children progress through the later school years.

    Assessments of Sign Language Development · 2022 · DOI

  • A barrier attributed to this D/HH student performance is the lack of standardized methods in sign language to effectively communicate the organic chemistry terminology.

    Sign Language Incorporation in Chemistry Education (SLICE): Building a Lexicon to Support the Understanding of Organic Chemistry · 2021 · DOI

  • This qualitative study aims to address a gap in the research literature by investigating what stakeholders consider to be the implications for deaf CYP from Welsh-speaking homes when educated in English medium resource units.

    Minority within a minority: Stakeholders’ perceptions of deaf education in Wales · 2020 · DOI

  • Additionally, there are very few intervention studies and even fewer that aim to intervene upon language with the explicit goal of impacting literacy; therefore, there is little known about whether and how interventions that aim to support language development may have direct or indirect impacts on literacy within this population.

    Language Development and Deaf/Hard of Hearing Children · 2019 · DOI

  • In this essay, we review evidence from the literature and, where data are lacking, contribute the expert opinions of the authors, most of whom are deaf scientists themselves, to identify strategies to best support deaf students in university STEM education.

    Welcoming Deaf Students into STEM: Recommendations for University Science Education · 2018 · DOI

  • Thematic analysis banded findings from 52 case studies into common themes, identified important considerations for the field, ways case study can enrich the field’s use of other research methodologies, and noted gaps in the knowledge base for the education of children and young people who are deaf/hard of hearing.

    Generating new knowledge for the field of deaf/hard-of-hearing education: A meta-synthesis of case study research · 2018 · DOI

  • To date, no studies have surveyed teachers of the d/Deaf serving DHH children using these communication modes to determine whether TODs read different amounts of text during read alouds.

    How do communication modes of d/Deaf and hard-of-hearing prereaders influence the amount of storybook text teachers report reading during read alouds? · 2018 · DOI

  • Drawing on claims in the literature and some limited evidence from research involving deaf children, the study also considered the possibility that the use of sign language and/or the use of cochlear implants and spoken language might facilitate deaf college students' estimation skills and mathematics achievement more broadly.

    Numerical and real-world estimation abilities of deaf and hearing college students · 2018 · DOI

  • Long-term influences of cochlear implantation in the social domain largely have not been explored, but were examined in the present study in terms of social maturity, as it might be related to EF and communication variables.

    Relations of social maturity, executive function, and self-efficacy among deaf university students · 2018 · DOI

  • Even though the majority of teachers believed writing to be important for success in their disciplines and feasible to integrate into their classrooms, they reported that teaching students with delayed expressive and receptive language, diverse reading levels, and limited knowledge of academic language presented challenges.

    A National Survey of Teachers of the Deaf on Disciplinary Writing · 2018 · DOI

  • To date, no studies have surveyed teachers of the d/Deaf (TODs) serving DHH children using these communication modes to determine whether they have different read-aloud goals.

    How do communication modes of deaf and hard-of-hearing prereaders influence teachers' read-aloud goals? · 2017 · DOI

  • The results of the study suggest that deaf adolescents appear to be at risk for insufficient information about HIV/AIDS due to barriers such as literacy difficulties, language barriers and limited access to information.

    “Some of the things I understand but not all of it”. A group of deaf adolescents’ sources of knowledge and concerns regarding the adequacy of their level of knowledge about human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome · 2011 · DOI

  • AbstractAbstractDeaf instructors of American Sign Language have taught ASL in formal institutions of higher learning for several decades now, yet little is known of the challenges they face within those contexts.

    Two Cultures, One Programme: Deaf Professors as Subaltern? · 2009 · DOI

  • NOTING THAT there are no standardized manual communication curricula or proficiency assessments available to teacher preparation programs, the author used a case study to describe how preservice teachers of the deaf are taught to incorporate American Sign Language and various forms of signed English as effective communication tools for students who are deaf and hard of hearing.

    Teaching Manual Communication to Preservice Teachers of the Deaf in an Accredited Comprehensive Undergraduate Teacher Preparation Program · 2006 · DOI

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98 open questions have been extracted from the limitations and future-work passages of 3,318 Hearing Impairment and Communication papers in our library. Each one below links back to the study that raised it, so you can read the original claim in context.

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