
Reading Comprehension Delays – An Expectation for Most Students with Hearing Loss

1. Decoding 2. Fluency 3. Vocabulary 4. Reading comprehension 5. Higher order thinking skills (HOTS)1
For students who have access to linguistic information through listening, the team should also consider listening comprehension needs. Often students will demonstrate comprehension of what they have heard at a higher grade level while they continue to work on improving grade level reading comprehension skills.2 It is also important to look at the accommodations page of the IEP and document anything the team agrees will support the student. Following are some examples of possible accommodations that may be added to the IEP:1. Directions interpreted, read out loud, simplified, or clarified 2. Questions and answer choices interpreted or read out loud 3. Pre- and Post-teaching of key concepts and vocabulary 4. Development of a student generated vocabulary book 5. Opportunity to use pictures to define vocabulary words 6. Text to speech captioning or audio books
For all children, regardless of level of hearing loss, research has shown that “early cognitive and linguistic development predict later achievement.”3 The results of Betty Hart and Todd Risley’s 1995 study3 can be extremely effective in helping the IEP team members understand the importance of on-going and intensive attention to addressing all aspects of literacy. Hart and Risley studied children from 7 months to the age of 3 in order to determine how many words they were exposed to prior to entering school. This was not a special education study. Participants were divided by socio-economic status, and what was found was a 30 million word gap between the lowest socio-economic group and the highest socioeconomic group. Specifically, the higher socio-economic group were exposed to 45 million words, the middle socio-economic group heard 26 million words, and the children in the low socio-economic group heard 13 million words. These numbers resonate with educators who are not experts in teaching children who are deaf and hard of hearing. Additionally, these researchers followed up with approximately half of the families when their children were in 3rd grade. The results indicated that “measures of accomplishment at age three were highly indicative of performance at the ages of nine and ten on various vocabulary, language development, and reading comprehension measures.”4 For the IEP teams to understand the unique needs of our children with hearing loss, as well as the potential, we must continue to educate the educators. Teams should continuously gather actual data separate and apart from the grade reports. Parents and teachers of the deaf/hard of hearing can help to support the other IEP team members regarding the importance of closing this language gap for students with hearing loss. No matter which mode of communication the family has chosen, it is imperative that teams continue to address all levels of the foundations for reading, work to close the gaps, and provide meaningful access to language. Sample Goals:
Good versus Poor Readers: Before, During, and After Reading2 |
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GOOD READERS | POOR READERS |
Before Reading |
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-Use test features (e.g., headings, illustrations) to get a sense of what they will read and help themselves set a purpose for reading. -Set goals and ask questions that will help them be selective in the focus of their reading. -Consider what they already know about the topic. -Observe how text is organized, which prepares them to make connections between and among concepts. | -Begin reading without a purpose for reading. -Do not consider (or do not have) background knowledge about the topic. -Do not recognize how text is organized and therefore do not have a plan for how to approach reading it. -Lack motivation or interest in reading. |
During Reading |
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-Read fluently (quickly and accurately) and use word identification strategies to decode unfamiliar words. -Use strategies (i.e., context clues, prior knowledge) to figure out the meaning of vocabulary and concepts. -Recognize and use text structures to make connections between the meanings of sentences and/or concepts. -Ask and answer questions while they are reading. -Make predictions about what will happen next and evaluate their predictions as they read further. -May make mental images of what they are reading to help them visualize what they read. -Identify the main ideas as they read to determine what is important, what is supportive, and what is less important. -Monitor their reading by recognizing comprehension problems and using fix-up strategies to repair their understanding. | -Have difficulty decoding words, particularly multisyllable words, resulting in slow labored reading that detracts focus from comprehension. Laborious reading is also likely to result in frustration and a desire to just “get it done.” -Have limited vocabulary and lack strategies to figure out new words. -May not have background knowledge of the topic of the text, which impedes their ability to make connections between the text and what they already know. -Do not recognize text structures. -Move through the text, even if they do not understand what they have read. -May be easily distracted because they are not actively engaged with the text. -Are not aware when comprehension has broken down and/or lack strategies to repair comprehension problems when they do. |
After Reading |
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-Reflect on content that was read. -Summarize important points from the reading. -Draw inferences. -May go to other sources to clarify concepts they did not understand. -Believe success is a result of effort. | -Do not use strategies to reflect on reading. -Cannot summarize important points. -Do not seek out information to help them understand what they read. -Think success is a result of luck or some other external variable rather than strategic effort. |