Emergent Literacy Skills During Early Childhood in Children With Hearing Loss: Strengths and Weaknesses

Abstract

90We are very excited about the future of The Volta Review , to build on its greatness and continue its revered position as a first-rate publication. Just as the African proverb proclaims, "it takes a village to raise a child," it takes the AG Bell membership to keep The Volta Review at the forefront of research and scholarship related to children who are deaf and hard of hearing. This work involves the parent members, the professional members, and the members who are deaf and hard of hearing. Katie and I welcome your comments, your suggestions, your ideas, and most importantly any manuscripts that you feel address the concerns of the membership. With your help, The Volta Review will grow and prosper as it undergoes transition and transformation in maintaining its premier role in the field of research related to deafness. Sincerely,The difficulties for students with hearing loss in gaining proficient literacy skills are well documented. However, studies describing the nature and variability of emergent literacy skills for students with hearing loss or the rate at which progress occurs at young ages are limited. We assessed emergent literacy skills and outcomes at the beginning and end of a school year for 44 young children (mean age = 5.2 years) who are deaf and hard of hearing and who had some speech perception skills. These children generally showed gains similar to their peers with typical hearing in knowledge of letter names and common written words, but lagged in phonological awareness skills. Correlational analyses suggest that these skills were systematically related to the children's literacy development, similar to what has been found in children with typical hearing. The results show that children participating in this study progressed on some phonological awareness skills (alliteration, blending, and elision) but not on others (rhyming, syllable segmentation). This article discusses the relevance of the findings for an emergent literacy curriculum .

Literacy and Phonological Skills in Oral Deaf Children and Hearing Children With a History of Dyslexia

“…Like individuals with dyslexia, deaf children frequently have been reported to have weaker phonological skills in comparison with typically developing hearing peers, in terms of both phonological awareness and phonological coding (Cupples, Ching, Crowe, Day, & Seeto, 2014;Johnson & Goswami, 2010; Kyle & Harris, 2006;Nittrouer, Sansom, Low, Rice, & Caldwell-Tarr, 2014). Despite overall lower levels of ability, there is increasing evidence that better phonological skills are associated with higher levels of reading in deaf children, in the same way that they are in hearing children (Campbell & Wright, 1990;Colin, Magnan, Ecalle, & Leybaert, 2007;Cupples et al, 2014;Dyer, MacSweeney, Szczerbinski, Green, & Campbell, 2003;Easterbrooks, Lederberg, Miller, Bergeron, & Connor, 2008;M. Harris & Beech, 1998;Lederberg, Schick, & Spencer, 2013;Mayer, 2007), particularly in OD children and children with cochlear implants (Dillon, de Jong, & Pisoni, 2012;Johnson & Goswami, 2010;Spencer & Tomblin, 2009).…”

Emergent Literacy Skills in Preschool Children With Hearing Loss Who Use Spoken Language: Initial Findings From the Early Language and Literacy Acquisition (ELLA) Study

“…These deficits span the three categories of emergent literacy, although some skills have been reported to be similar to those of children with normal hearing (described below). There is initial evidence that emergent literacy skills predict later reading and spelling for children with hearing loss (Easterbrooks, Lederberg, Miller, Bergeron, & Connor, 2008;Harris & Beech, 1998). Easterbrooks et al additionally reported that children with hearing loss exhibited growth across a full school year on measures of phonological awareness (except rhyming) and alphabet knowledge, but not vocabulary.…”

“…First, the development of phonological awareness in children with hearing loss lags behind their peers with normal hearing (Kyle & Harris, 2011;Most, Aram, & Andorn, 2006;Sterne & Goswami, 2000). Indeed, Easterbrooks et al (2008) reported that phonological awareness is the hallmark of early literacy deficit for children with hearing loss. In addition, children with hearing loss perform more poorly on measures of phonological memory than children with normal hearing (Briscoe et al, 2001).…”

Investigation of Early Literacy Skills in Preschool Children With Deaf and Hard of Hearing

“…It is thought that children in both groups will get higher scores if knowledge of alphabet takes more places in education programs. Easterbrooks et al, states in his study that children with severe hearing loss between 9 and 14 years of age showed high performance in matching letters, supporting the importance of education in letter knowledge (Easterbrooks, Lederberg, Miller, Bergeron, & Connor, 2008).…”

“…Recent studies have shown that young children with deaf and hard of hearing and with proper language, develop phonological awareness but are less likely to develop than those with normal hearing. Easterbrooks, Lederberg, Miller, Bergeron and Connor (2008) investigated the phonological awareness skills of children aged 5-10 years with cochlear implants and hearing aids; for children with cochlear implants, hearing test results which are compatible with hearing loss have been obtained. It was stated that children with cochlear implant surgery after preschool period showed more syllable, phonemic and alert awareness than the children who had implanted at an older age.…”