A Longitudinal Investigation of Code-Related Emergent Literacy Skills in Children Who Are Deaf and Hard of Hearing Across the Preschool Years.
Krystal L Werfel, Gabriella Reynolds, Lisa Fitton
PMID 36749751WHAT IT FOUND
Children who are deaf or hard of hearing start preschool behind in phonological awareness, memory, and print concepts.
They learn at the same rate as hearing peers but never catch up. Alphabet knowledge and rapid naming are strengths. Separate these from print concepts in assessment.
Key findings
01Children who are DHH scored significantly lower than hearing peers on phonological awareness (0.46 SD) and phonological memory (0.77 SD), but showed no difference in growth rates.
02When print knowledge was split, children who are DHH had a strength in alphabet knowledge (no difference from peers) but a significant deficit in conceptual print knowledge (0.62 SD lower).
03Phonological recoding (rapid naming) showed no difference between groups, confirming it as an area of strength for children who are DHH.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The groups were not perfectly matched; the DHH group had lower average maternal education and nonverbal IQ scores than the CTH group, which may influence the magnitude of the observed gaps. The sample size was small (61 children), limiting the ability to detect subtle interactions or child-level predictors. Information on the specific nature of speech-language services received by the DHH children was not collected, so the impact of current therapy intensity or type is unknown. The study did not measure actual reading outcomes, only the precursor code-related skills.
Declared interests
The work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (R03DC014535). The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that because children who are DHH learn at the same rate as hearing peers, they will eventually catch up. The study shows a persistent gap from age 4 to 6. Also, do not rely on a single 'print knowledge' score from standardized tests, as a strength in letter names can hide a significant weakness in understanding how print works.