Abstract
In this longitudinal case-study (Kolen, 2009), 11 deaf children took part: 5 boys and 6 girls in the age range of 3 to 6 years. These children were prelingually deaf (hearing loss of minimally 80dB Fletcher Index on the best ear), and did not have any mental restrictions. The study focused on the bilingual language and communication development of these young deaf children in Sign Language of the Netherlands (SLN) and Dutch. The central part of the data collection was formed by semi-structured conversations of the children with deaf and hearing adults. The conversations were video recorded (SLN and Dutch). Per recording five minutes were selected and transcribed in a CHAT-like format (97 recordings). Furthermore, two narratives were administered: one from the Nijmeegse Observatieschaal voor Kleuters (NOK, Nijmegen Observation Scale for Infants; SLN and Dutch) and the Spider Story (SLN and Dutch). The results of these tasks were processed and coded in SPSS. This also applied to the Reynell Test for language comprehension (SLN and Dutch) and the Dutch version of Assessing British Sign Language Development (SLN).
