Fingerspelling as a pathway to deaf children's reading: a scoping review.

This scoping review examines research on fingerspelling (manual alphabet) and its role in helping deaf and hard-of-hearing children learn to read. The authors reviewed 26 studies to understand how fingerspelling abilities support reading development and can be used as a teaching tool. Most studies used quantitative methods and focused on American Sign Language (ASL) and English settings. The review synthesizes what decades of research tells us about fingerspelling as a pathway to reading for deaf children.

Key points

• A larger proportion of identified studies used quantitative research methods
• Most research on fingerspelling and reading was conducted in ASL/English settings
• 26 studies were identified, screened and summarized according to publication characteristics
• The review explored three main questions: the relationship between fingerspelling and reading, how fingerspelling abilities promote reading skills, and uses of fingerspelling in reading instruction

Limitations

As a scoping review, this work maps the research landscape rather than conducting a meta-analysis, so it cannot provide quantitative synthesis of effect sizes or definitive conclusions about fingerspelling's effectiveness. The geographic and linguistic focus on ASL/English settings limits what can be generalized to deaf children in other sign language communities.