Hearing Screening Failure in Reading Impairment (Werfel et al., 2020)

Abstract

Background: The purpose of this preliminary study was to explore one potential underlying factor that may contribute to poor reading outcomes: minimal hearing loss. Additionally, we compared decoding and comprehension deficits in students who passed or failed the hearing screening. Method: Forty-three school-age students completed a hearing screening and a literacy assessment. Results: Fifty-four percent of children with reading impairments failed the hearing screening, compared to only 21% of children with typical reading. Additionally, students who failed the hearing screening were more likely to exhibit decoding deficits; comprehension skills between the hearing screening groups did not differ. Conclusions: Thus, children with reading impairments are more likely to fail hearing screenings than children with typical reading, and the deficits of those who fail hearing screenings appear to center on decoding rather than comprehension skills.Supplemental Material S1. Pattern of hearing screening fails across participants.Werfel, K. L., Peek, L., Reynolds, G., Bassard, S. (2020). Hearing screening failure among students with reading impairment: Rate and Relation to specific reading deficits. Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1044/2020_PERSP-19-00163