Phonology Matters: A Comprehensive Investigation of Reading and Spelling Skills of School-Age Children with Mild to Moderate Sensorineural Hearing Loss

• Published in: American annals of the deaf (Washington, D.C. 1886) Vol. 158; no. 1; pp. 20 - 40
• Main Authors: Park, Jungjun, Lombardino, Linda J, Ritter, Michaela
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Gallaudet University Press 2013
• Subjects: Accuracy; At Risk Students; Awareness - physiology; Case-Control Studies; Child; Children; Children & youth; Control Groups; Dyslexia; Dyslexia - physiopathology; Early Reading; Education of Hearing Disabled; Female; Grade 4; Gray Oral Reading Test; Hearing disorders; Hearing Impairments; Hearing loss; Hearing Loss, Sensorineural - physiopathology; Humans; Interrater Reliability; Language Acquisition; Language Skills; Language Tests; Literacy; Male; Matched Groups; Multiple Regression Analysis; Multivariate Analysis; Naming; Oral Language; Orthographic Symbols; Phoneme Grapheme Correspondence; Phonetics; Phonological Awareness; Phonological processing; Reading; Reading accuracy; Reading Achievement; Reading Comprehension; Reading Fluency; Reading Rate; Reading Skills; Sensorineural hearing loss; Severity (of Disability); Spelling; Statistical Analysis; Studies; United States (Southeast); Vocabulary; Wide Range Achievement Test 3; Woodcock Reading Mastery Test Revised; Word Recognition
• ISSN: 0002-726X; 1543-0375
• DOI: 10.1353/aad.2013.0013

The investigators measured 7 literacy skills in a group of 21 school-age children with mild to moderate sensorineural hearing loss (MSNH group), and compared the scores to those of 2 age-matched groups: children with dyslexia (DYS group) and, as a control, typically developing hearing children (CA group). The MSNH group performed consistently below the CA group but better than the DYS group, an indication that differences in the groups' phonological processing profiles might be an important discriminating feature. Interestingly, the MSNH group showed a selective impairment in word reading accuracy only, whereas their reading rate was relatively unaffected. Children with MSNH who show weak phonological awareness skills seem to compensate by relying on orthographic recognition associated with rapid naming ability. To determine which children with MSNH are at high risk for depressed reading achievement, testing across a wide range of literacy skills should be considered.