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Exploring letters in a bimodal, bilingual nursery school with deaf and hearing children

ABSTRACT For young deaf children a co-enrolment setting with hearing children in nursery school is recognised as a useful provision for inclusive education. The aim of the study reported in this article was to gain knowledge about pathways into literacy for young deaf children in a co-enrolment setting. The questions raised in this article are: How are letters introduced to children in a co-enrolment setting? and How do the children explore letters in free play? Data were collected through video recordings, field notes and interviews with teachers. Findings were that mostly auditory and to a lesser degree visual resources were in use in the introduction to letters led by the teachers. In free play all children were eager to explore letters on their own. However, while hearing children made use of the whole range of these resources, deaf children as visual learners, were left with a more limited range of resources in their exploration of letters. We argue that more emphasis on ‘visual awareness' and on how visual resources may be applied, would create a common ground for participation and interaction in a co-enrolment setting.