NTID lands language study grant

From: Rochester Business Journal - Rochester,NY,USA - Feb 21, 2007

By JANICE B. PIETERSE
Rochester Business Journal
February 21, 2007

A researcher at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf at Rochester Institute of Technology has received a five-year, $482,947 grant from the National Science Foundation to study how visual and gestural languages help people learn written English.

Peter Hauser of the Research and Teacher Education Department at NTID will be part of an international team investigating language and the brain; language structure and visual modality; and developmental and sociocultural processes of visual learning, NTID officials said.

Other partners in the program include Georgetown and Rutgers universities, and the Center for American Sign Language-English Bilingual Education and Research.

Experts hope to understand how people learn through visual methods—and improve language and literacy development for deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals.

Much of the research will be led by deaf scientists.

Studies at NTID will show how the brain develops different networks to help deaf individuals navigate through the world when relying on vision more than hearing individuals, college officials said. The research will explore methods for teaching based on unique strengths developed by placing a greater reliance on vision.

(c) 2007 Rochester Business Journal.