Abstract

ARAUJO, Claudia Campos Machado  and  LACERDA, Cristina Broglia Feitosa de. Esferas de atividade simbólica e a construção de conhecimento pela criança surda. Rev. bras. educ. espec. [online]. 2008, vol.14, n.03, pp.427-446. ISSN 1413-6538.

This study is grounded on a bilingual approach and it aims to explore and to approach the symbolic spheres of language - gesture, drawing, narrative and writing - concomitantly to sign language in deaf children's language development and to the building of new knowledge. Theoretical and methodological constructs stemming from the Historic-Cultural perspective and its articulation with the microgenetic analysis were used in this qualitative analysis. Research subjects were two deaf boys who were in the process of bilingual language acquisition - Brazilian sign language and the written modality of Brazilian Portuguese; both were in the second grade of Brazilian elementary education level, with ages between 9 and 10 years and both had audiological diagnoses of profound bilateral deafness. The focus of the analysis highlighted the emergence of changing processes in the dynamics of interactions between the research subjects, taking into account the particular and global aspects in their occurrence and constitution. Symbolic activities enable the broadening of sign language and beginning access to writing, which in turn promote the consolidation of signing and language development. The priority given to sign language use associated with working with semiotic activities which take into account linguistic particularities and semiotic mediations were vital for language development of these deaf children and for the construction of knowledge, in a way that is both satisfactory and adequate to their constitution as active subjects and participants in language.

Keywords : Language; Children's Drawing; Writing; Bilingualism; Deafness; Special Education.

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