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The aim of the study is to describe the performance of deaf and hearing people while speechreading Spanish, a language with transparent orthography, and to relate this skill to reading efficiency. Three groups of 27 participants each were recruited: a group of deaf participants, a chronological age‐matched hearing group and a reading age‐matched hearing group. All three were tested on vocabulary, phonological awareness, reading speed, speechreading and, only in the group of deaf people, speech intelligibility. The results indicate that deaf people are better speechreaders than younger hearing people, but they are no better than their age‐matched peers, and that speechreading is related to reading only in deaf people.

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This article presents the adaptation of the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory (CDI; Fenson et al., 1993, Guide and technical manual for the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories. San Diego, CA: Singular Press; Fenson et al. 1994, Variability in early communicative development. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 59, 1–173) to Spanish Sign Language (LSE). Data were collected from 55 participants (32 boys and 23 girls; 17 deaf signers, 38 hearing signers) who, evaluated by their caregivers every 4 months, presented a total of 170 records. The parents reported the signs that the children could understand or produce between 8 and 36 months. Results suggested that the CDI adapted to LSE is a valid and reliable instrument. Signing children could understand more signs than they produced at this early developmental stage. There were no significant differences between boys and girls, or between deaf and hearing children. The development of LSE is similar to other sign languages, although with a lower production of signs in the early stages, perhaps due to the bilingualism of most of the children of our study.

BackgroundReading comprehension is a complex process influenced by many factors. However, the abilities that are known to influence reading comprehension may not contribute equally for children with different levels of oral language.AimsHere we examined the relationship of two factors known to influence reading comprehension (morphology and syntax) in a group of children who varied in their levels of oral vocabulary.MethodTwo hundred seventy‐three typically developing Spanish‐speaking fourth graders were assessed on non‐verbal intelligence, word and pseudoword reading, oral vocabulary, morphological awareness and syntax, along with reading comprehension ability. Standardised oral language scores within this group ranged from the first to the 99th percentile. Mediated multiple regression with moderation was used to assess (1) whether the influence of oral vocabulary on reading comprehension was mediated by decoding, morphology or syntax and (2) whether the effects of syntax on reading comprehension varied as a function of oral vocabulary levels.ResultsThere was a direct positive relationship between vocabulary and reading comprehension, and this was mediated by word reading and syntax, but not by pseudoword reading or morphology. Furthermore, the relation between syntax and reading comprehension was moderated by oral vocabulary such that the strength of this relationship diminished as oral vocabulary levels increased.ConclusionsThese findings suggest that longitudinal research is necessary to explore the possibility that a syntax intervention might be beneficial for readers with low oral vocabulary.