Language Abilities, Phonological Awareness, Reading Skills, and Subjective Fatigue in School-Age Children With Mild to Moderate Hearing Loss

Abstract

Although reading outcomes for children with hearing loss are improving, too many of these children continue to display persistent reading difficulties. Because of these difficulties, there is an ongoing need to understand the nature of the relationships among decoding abilities, language skills, and reading achievement in this population more fully. Coincidentally, there has also been an emerging literature on the subjective fatigue in children with hearing loss, which could be directly or indirectly linked to reading ability. The purpose of this study was to examine associations among language abilities, reading skills, and subjective fatigue in 56 children with mild to moderate hearing loss (CMMHL). The results indicated that both phonological awareness and receptive language ability predicted reading achievement in CMMHL, which replicates findings for children without hearing loss. The results also indicated that CMMHL who had poor reading skills reported significantly higher levels of subjective fatigue relative to the other children with mild to moderate hearing loss in the sample.