Debbie Golos

Debbie Golos

Debbie Golos PhD, is an assistant professor of Deaf Education at Utah State University where she teaches literacy methods and development courses from a Bilingual-Bicultural perspective. Her areas of research include emergent literacy, the development and analysis of the Peter’s Picture video series, and the portrayal of Deaf characters in media and literature from a cultural perspective.

Deaf Children Learning Langauge and Literacy from the Peter’s Picture Video Series.

There is a lack of children’s educational media that portrays Deaf characters from a cultural perspective. Peter’s Picture, is an original educational video series in ASL designed to both portray Deaf characters from a cultural perspective as well as target specific language and literacy skills. Starring Peter Cook and including Deaf child actors, each of the videos in the Peter’s Picture series is targeted toward the visual learner, particularly preschool deaf and hard of hearing children.
Previous studies (Golos, 2010a; Golos, 2010b) indicate that preschool deaf children between the ages of 3-6 engage in and learn both ASL and printed English vocabulary from an educational video in ASL regardless of their exposure to ASL. Results from a follow up study (Golos, & Moses, 2011) suggest that literacy related engagement behaviors increase with teacher mediation. Since that time, three additional videos in the Peter’s Picture series have been developed. In our current study, pre-post test assessments were expanded to measure comprehension, sequencing and knowledge of Deaf culture, in addition to vocabulary. Preliminary findings indicate significant results.
During this paper presentation, the results from the previous studies will be highlighted and I will share preliminary results from the current study regarding the development and effectiveness of the series. I will also discuss the potential for Deaf role models in media. Excerpts from the Peter’s Picture video series will be shown and implications for parents and teachers will be discussed.