In Brief:
Delayed reading development has been reported in most studies of academic achievement in the prelingually deaf population. In this study, reading scores averaged mid-2nd grade, which is close to an age-appropriate level compared with hearing children. There was, however, a wide range of individual performance, from 1st to 10th grade level. Characteristics of the children and their families accounted for 25% of this variance. There was a significant advantage for 9 year olds over 8 year olds, for girls over boys, for children with acquired over congenital hearing loss, for children with greater intelligence and from families with higher incomes/education. This study highlighted the importance of controlling for these characteristics before analyzing any other sources of variance in reading outcome. The use of phonological coding strategies and longer memory spans also was conducive to early reading acquisition. However, the largest amount of added variance in reading scores was accounted for by the children's speech and language skills. Children with the most intelligible speech and highest level of syntactic complexity and lexical diversity in their language were the best readers.
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