Variation in second-grade reading in children who are deaf and hard-of-hearing.
Sascha Couvee, Loes Wauters, Harry Knoors and 2 others
PMID 40111190WHAT IT FOUND
Kindergarten letter knowledge and vocabulary predict later reading struggles in deaf and hard-of-hearing children.
Early screening of these specific skills helps identify which students are at risk for delays in word decoding and comprehension by second grade.
Key findings
01Second-grade word decoding was correlated with kindergarten phonological awareness, letter knowledge, and spoken vocabulary.
02Reading comprehension was correlated with phonological awareness, speechreading, sign vocabulary, and spoken vocabulary.
03Children with lower letter knowledge, spoken vocabulary, and sign vocabulary in kindergarten were at extra risk for delays in both word decoding and reading comprehension.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
Small sample size (n=23) limits statistical power and generalizability. No first-grade measurements due to COVID-19 restrictions, so the trajectory of development between kindergarten and second grade is unknown. The sample included children exposed to spoken language; results may not apply to children who use sign language exclusively. Detailed language background information, such as age of sign language exposure, was not collected.
Declared interests
Funded by Royal Kentalis. No other conflicts of interest reported.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that fingerspelling or speechreading alone will predict word decoding success in this group, as the study found no correlation between these skills and second-grade word decoding.