Foundations for literacy: An early literacy intervention for deaf and hard-of-hearing children (original) (raw)
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Evaluating the Structure of Early Literacy Skills in Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children.
Better understanding the mechanisms underlying developing literacy has promoted the development of more effective reading interventions for typically developing children. Such knowledge may facilitate effective instruction of deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children. Hence, the current study examined the multivariate associations among phonological awareness, alphabetic knowledge, word reading, and vocabulary skills in DHH children who have auditory access to speech. One hundred and sixty-seven DHH children (M age = 60.43 months) were assessed with a battery of early literacy measures. Forty-six percent used at least 1 cochlear implant; 54% were fitted with hearing aids. About a fourth of the sample was acquiring both spoken English and sign. Scores on standardized tests of phonological awareness and vocabulary averaged at least 1 standard deviation (SD) below the mean of the hearing norming sample. Confirmatory factor analyses showed that DHH children's early literacy skills were best characterized by a complex 3-factor model in which phonological awareness, alphabetic knowledge, and vocabulary formed 3 separate, but highly correlated constructs, with letter-sound knowledge and word reading skills relating to both phonological awareness and alphabetic knowledge. This supports the hypothesis that early reading of DHH children with functional hearing is qualitatively similar to that of hearing children.
Early Literacy in Children with Hearing Loss: A Comparison Between Two Educational Systems
Volta Review, 2006
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Journal of deaf studies and deaf education, 2016
This study evaluated the effectiveness of intervention for developing deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) preschoolers' phonological awareness (PA) skills. Thirty children (mean age 57 months) with aided, bilateral hearing loss (and who primarily communicated using spoken English) were recruited in the year prior to commencing formal schooling. The study used an experimental design with participants assigned to one of two intervention conditions-vocabulary instruction, or explicit PA instruction. Both intervention programs were based around items drawn from a common word set and presented over six short weekly sessions by a researcher using a computer tablet. Overall, participants showed greater knowledge of word items used in interventions and improved performance on rhyme-based PA skills following intervention. However, the PA group showed significantly greater improvement than the vocabulary group for both overall PA performance and for consonant-vowel-consonant blending. DHH chil...
Evaluating the Structure of Early English Literacy Skills in Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children
Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 2015
Better understanding the mechanisms underlying developing literacy has promoted the development of more effective reading interventions for typically developing children. Such knowledge may facilitate effective instruction of deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children. Hence, the current study examined the multivariate associations among phonological awareness, alphabetic knowledge, word reading, and vocabulary skills in DHH children who have auditory access to speech. One hundred and sixty-seven DHH children (M age = 60.43 months) were assessed with a battery of early literacy measures. Forty-six percent used at least 1 cochlear implant; 54% were fitted with hearing aids. About a fourth of the sample was acquiring both spoken English and sign. Scores on standardized tests of phonological awareness and vocabulary averaged at least 1 standard deviation (SD) below the mean of the hearing norming sample. Confirmatory factor analyses showed that DHH children's early literacy skills were best characterized by a complex 3-factor model in which phonological awareness, alphabetic knowledge, and vocabulary formed 3 separate, but highly correlated constructs, with letter-sound knowledge and word reading skills relating to both phonological awareness and alphabetic knowledge. This supports the hypothesis that early reading of DHH children with functional hearing is qualitatively similar to that of hearing children.
Schooling effects on early literacy skills of young deaf and hard of hearing children
American Annals of the Deaf, 2019
Already well documented for hearing children, schooling's effects on early literacy skills for young students who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) were examined for the first time in the present study. Piecewise growth curve modeling was used to describe 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old students' growth in phonological awareness, letter-word identification, and vocabulary during 2 years of schooling and the intervening summer (N = 56). Amplification mode was cochlear implants for 45% of the sample and hearing aids for 54%. Classroom communication mode was spoken language only (for 61%) or sign language (39%). Across all skills, significant growth occurred during the 2 years of schooling but not during the summer. These findings underscore early education's importance in promoting DHH children's critical early skills. Universal preschool intervention, including during summer, may be important in ensuring that DHH children have an adequate foundation when schooling begins.
Early Literacy Predictors and Second-Grade Outcomes in Children Who Are Hard of Hearing
Child development, 2018
This study contrasted the early literacy outcomes of children who are hard of hearing (CHH) with children with normal hearing (CNH). At age 5, prereading skills of oral language, phonological processing, and print knowledge were examined in CHH (N = 180) and CNH (N = 80). The CHH had poorer oral language and phonological processing abilities than the CNH but comparable knowledge of print. At age 8, measures of word reading, and reading comprehension yielded no differences between CHH (N = 108) and CNH (N = 62) except for reading comprehension for the moderately severe CHH. Reading achievement in CHH was found to exceed predictions based on prereading performance. This resilience was associated with gains in oral language during the early school years.
Predictors of Early Reading Skill in 5-Year-Old Children With Hearing Loss Who Use Spoken Language
Reading research quarterly, 2014
This research investigated the concurrent association between early reading skills and phonological awareness (PA), print knowledge, language, cognitive, and demographic variables in 101 5-year-old children with prelingual hearing losses ranging from mild to profound who communicated primarily using spoken language. All participants were fitted with hearing aids (n = 71) or cochlear implants (n = 30). They completed standardized assessments of PA, receptive vocabulary, letter knowledge, word and non-word reading, passage comprehension, math reasoning, and nonverbal cognitive ability. Multiple regressions revealed that PA (assessed using judgments of similarity based on words' initial or final sounds) made a significant, independent contribution to children's early reading ability (for both letters and words/non-words) after controlling for variation in receptive vocabulary, nonverbal cognitive ability, and a range of demographic variables (including gender, degree of hearing...