Abstract
Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) children show difficulties in reading aloud and comprehension of texts. Here, we examined the hypothesis that these reading difficulties are tightly related to the syntactic deficit displayed by DHH children. We first assessed the syntactic abilities of 32 DHH children communicating in spoken language (Hebrew) aged 9;1–12;2. We classified them into two groups of DHH children—with and without a syntactic deficit according to their performance in six syntactic tests assessing their comprehension and production of sentences with syntactic movement. We also assessed their reading at the single word level using a reading aloud test of words, nonwords, and word pairs, designed to detect the various types of dyslexia, and established, for each participant, whether they had dyslexia and of what type. Following this procedure, 14 of the children were identified with a syntactic deficit, and 15 with typical syntax (3 marginally impaired); 22 of the children had typical reading at the word level, and 4 had dyslexia (3 demonstrated sublexical reading). The main experiment examined reading aloud and comprehension of 6 texts with syntactic movement (which contained, e.g., relative clauses and topicalized sentences), in comparison to 6 parallel texts without movement. The results indicated a close connection between syntactic difficulties and errors in reading aloud and in comprehension of texts. The DHH children with syntactic deficit made significantly more errors in reading aloud and more comprehension errors than the DHH children with intact syntax (and than the hearing controls), even though most of them did not have dyslexia at the word level. The DHH children with syntactic deficit made significantly more reading errors when they read texts with syntactic movement than on matched texts without movement. These results indicate that difficulties in text reading, manifesting both in errors in reading aloud and in impaired comprehension, may stem from a syntactic deficit and may occur even when reading at the word level is completely intact.
Highlights
To read a text correctly, the reader needs both word-level reading abilities as well as syntactic and lexical abilities [1]
10, 896 dependent word-level reading abilities as well as linguistic abilities. Looking through this window of the multiple abilities required for text reading, we examine the difficulties of some children who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) in text reading and text comprehension
We describe assessment of their reading aloud at the single word level, according to which we determined for assessment of their reading aloud at the single word level, according to which we determined for each each participant whether theyahave a syntactic deficit in syntactic (Whandmovement verb-) movement and participant whether they have syntactic deficit in syntactic (Wh- and verb-)
Summary
To read a text correctly, the reader needs both word-level reading abilities as well as syntactic and lexical abilities [1]. The comprehension of written texts is dependent on word-level reading abilities as well as linguistic abilities. Looking through this window of the multiple. 10, 896 dependent word-level reading abilities as well as linguistic abilities Looking through this window of the multiple abilities required for text reading, we examine the difficulties of some children who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) in text reading and text comprehension
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
