This article describes how teaching deaf students to read has been challenging and contentious, yet, one crucial attribute to developing reading skills is early exposure to American Sign Language (ASL). ASL seemed to serve as a bridge to achieving English literacy and academic success partly because early use of ASL enables deaf students to activate a variety of strategies to successfully develop reading skills. These include: (1) Sign language phonology; (2) Skill of eye gaze; and (3) Fingerspelling. The article describes how teachers can use these pre-literacy reading skills. As young deaf children embark on their literacy journey in the classroom, these pre-literacy skills enable them to more easily succeed in learning how to read and write.