Enhancing time-connectives with 3D Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR)

This study sought to test the most efficient representation mode with which children with hearing impairment could express a story while producing connectives indicating relations of time and of cause and effect. Using Bruner's (1973, 1986, 1990) representation stages, we tested the comparative effectiveness of Virtual Reality (VR) as a mode of representation on children's production of time-connectives with four other modes of representation: pictorial, oral, signed, and textual. One hundred thirty-four participants aged 4-10, 69 children with hearing impairment and 65 hearing children, divided into two age groups, pre-school and elementary school children, took part in this study. The study examined their ability to express time and cause-connectives, using the different modes of representation. The findings demonstrate substantial differences in producing time-connectives with the various modes of representation. The leading mode of representation is 3D IVR among the hearing children, and signed representation and 3D IVR among the children with hearing impairment.