This paper proposes a psycholinguistic reflection on the conceptual constructions of deaf children in what regards writing. Based on a dialogue with the ideas of Emília Ferreiro and Ana Teberosky, this work reveals that the psychogenesis of writing experienced by deaf children who have sign language as their first and instruction language, occurs in a different way than that of hearing children in the initial process of constructing writing. The main specificities of this acquisition are related to the non-phonetization of writing, to an intense exploration of the visual-spatial aspects of writing and to the usage of the phonologic parameters of sign language as a regulating and organizing element of writing. Such peculiarities thus demand that school and alphabetizing teachers revise their conceptions on the process of writing of the deaf, thinking of (new) pedagogical practices that take into account the bilingual reality and its soundless relationship to writing.
Deafness; Psychogenesis of writing; Sign language
