Reading comprehension: a comparison of typically hearing and deaf or hard-of-hearing children

Much has been written about the components that contribute to reading success, such as vocabulary knowledge, phonological awareness, orthographic knowledge, syntax, and inference and integration skills. But much less is known about how these skills contribute to reading comprehension in learners who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH). With the spread of universal hearing screening of newborns, and the new generation of technologies in hearing compensation (i.e., digital hearing aids and cochlear implants [CIs]), the prospects for children with hearing loss with regard to successful reading comprehension should be substantially improved. However, despite these developments, reading and writing often remain a challenge for DHH children. The chapter begins with a summary of the skills required for successful comprehension in typically hearing readers, and then considers what we know about reading comprehension in DHH children. It concludes with a discussion of where researchers should be focusing their future investigations in order to serve educators and learners most effectively.