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Over the past two decades there have been major developments in deaf education in many countries: medical and technical advances have made it possible for more deaf children to hear and speak successfully, and most deaf pupils learn in ordinary classes in mainstream schools. In this article we explore patterns of achievements of deaf pupils to see if these reforms have improved attainment outcomes. International surveys such as PISA do not include deaf pupils. This article describes two independent large-scale surveys about deaf pupils in Sweden and Scotland. The similar results from both countries show that deaf children, after two decades of social reform and technical advances, still lag behind their hearing peers. The results also show how large-scale surveys can contribute to a greater understanding of educational outcomes in a small, vulnerable group and make it possible to continue to reform the field to narrow the achievement gap further. The results further suggest that differing methods in two contrasting educational contexts can lead to some similar results and point to the need for different support to children with hearing loss and language disadvantages

Few published research papers concern the study of communication and language development among children with congenital deafblindness. The aim of this study is to explore and discuss linguistic features of what may be considered as tactile languages. By analysing one pilot video observation of a five year old congenital deafblind child communicating with his mother about a slide experience tactile linguistic features of phonology, morphology, semantics and syntax were explored. The linguistic features of tactile language were found to involve a potential unique and complex structure based on direction, speed and acceleration of movements, pressure, and body position. It is discussed how tactile languages, if they exist, can be studied from its unique bodily-tactile nature and not as a modification of visual sign languages.

Research on children with cochlear implants (CI) has documented positive outcomes, but also that many still experience language delays. The aim of this article is to explore how research on children with cochlear implants cover topics of early language development compared to research on children with typical hearing and children with hearing impairment without CI. Published research in the period 1990-2013 on language development was analysed with respect to frequency of selected search terms reflecting different language acquisition themes among children with typical hearing, children with hearing impairment without CI, and children with CI, respectively. Results showed a relatively lower number of articles which included themes such as pre-verbal language (imitation, joint attention and gestures), extra lingual abilities (social interaction), and later language skills (semantic, syntactic, grammar and pragmatic) in research on children with cochlear implants compared to research in children with typical hearing. A need for more research with focus on pre-lingual themes in language acquisition is discussed.

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