Fifty severely to profoundly deaf students (grades 4-8) were given a forced-choice picture selection test to investigate the effects of context on comprehension of difficult sentences. For one-half of the items, students matched pictures to isolated active, passive, or relative-clause sentences; for the other half, students performed the same task…

The study, which assessed the practicality of influencing the construal of grammatical relations by manipulation of a nonsyntactic variable, plausibility, indicated that the referential meaning of individual words can influence the construal of word combinations though the deaf need further training in the denotative and connotative meanings of…

The speechreading performance of 22 hearing impaired students (mean age 6.3 years) was analyzed to determine differences in performance acros word, phrase, and sentence stimuli. Ss speechread words more easily than sentences or phrases. (CL)

Determines whether mental imagery could be used as a metacognitive reading comprehension strategy by deaf elementary-level children. Finds that when encouraged to engage in mental imagery, students exhibited four qualities of thinking (recollection, representation, inference, and evaluation) during and after reading that revealed how they were…

Details a study of the reading development of seven- and nine-year-old deaf children. Concludes that the children progressed satisfactorily in the early stages of reading but had not attained the ability to extract meaning from sentences by age nine. (FL)

In the study, 36 fourth and second reader level deaf students matched for age were assessed on comprehension of truncated passive sentences under two task conditions. Contrary to prior research, neither age nor reading level were significant factors in deaf Ss' understanding of truncated passive sentences. (Author)

Describes the development and field-testing of Cornerstones, an approach to classroom literacy instruction for young deaf children that utilizes an educational television program and other engaging media components. Focuses on word-knowledge aspect, because of its influence on the development of background knowledge and reading comprehension.…

Demographic studies and educational research document that deaf readers encounter world knowledge, linguistic, and metacognitive difficulties as they learn to read and read to learn at the interpretive level of understanding. A collaborative "externally guided thinking" approach may help deaf literal readers learn to read at the evaluative level.…

The study compared comprehension of American Sign Language (ASL) between 12 deaf subjects in a program using Signing Exact English (SEE-2) and 14 deaf subjects in a residential program using Signed English, Pidgin Signed English, and ASL. Students exposed to SEE-2 could comprehend ASL as well as residential school peers. (Author/DB)

Seven deaf elementary school students read fables in printed English that had previously been summarized in American Sign Language (ASL) and read other fables without the intervention. The ASL summary technique increased the quantity and quality of students'"retelling scores"; it also improved readers' comprehension of the moral lessons of the…

A study involving 16 elementary students with deafness examined whether the use of signed English pictures in association with printed text enhances students' reading comprehension. Results found that comprehension was significantly enhanced by the use of signed English reading books, with poorer readers deriving greater benefits than better…

This study examined the effects of teaching prelingually deaf, elementary school children specific strategies to use when reading. Strategies addressed the skills of inferring, predicting, analyzing, attending, associating, synthesizing, and monitoring. Five of six children made significant gains in both reading levels and specific metacognitive…

Although knowledge of multimeaning words is important for reading comprehension, deaf readers may know only the most common meanings or nuances of high-frequency multimeaning words. Results of a study are reported in which 33 profoundly hearing impaired students stratified into three equal age groups (ages 10, 11, and 12) were administered a…

Because prediction plays such a vital role in reading comprehension, predictable books are essential in the teaching of beginning readers. Prediction involves a three-step cycle: sampling, predicting, and confirming. Steps in using predictable books with hearing-impaired students are outlined, and a list of predictable and repetitive books is…