Reading and Dyslexia in Deaf Children
About the project
Many deaf children have reading difficulties but there are no reading tests designed specially for deaf children. Our research will produce scores for deaf children in Year 6 on a number of deaf-friendly reading tests. This will hopefully be the first step in developing a standardized reading test for deaf children which teachers may use in the future to check on the reading progress of deaf children in their class.
As part of the same project, we are investigating dyslexia in deaf children which is currently difficult for teachers to spot. This means that deaf children with dyslexia are not identified and cannot benefit from the specialist help that other dyslexic children receive.
Children and families who take part in the project will be contributing to a bank of data which we hope will help deaf children in the future receive the help they need at school. Participants will also be provided with a summary of the project's overall findings at the end of the study.
The project is being run by Ros Herman, Penny Roy, Fiona Kyle and Zoë Shergold with funding from the Nuffield Foundation.
The next steps
We are currently recruiting children from all over the UK for the project and would like to get in touch with families interested in taking part. Children must:
- Be in Year 6 (aged 10-11)
- Be oral deaf children (children who use spoken English as their main means of communication)
- Be deaf from birth or before they learned to talk
- Have been educated in English since Year 1
- Have no other significant medical or developmental conditions (such as autism, cerebral palsy, visual impairment).
If you are a parent or a professional who knows a child fitting the description above and would like to get involved, please contact Zoë Shergold.
Useful Information
Recommended guidelines for use when assessing the reading skills of children who are deaf or hard of hearing. Download the article "Guideline for Assessing Deaf Children".
About this webpage
*This project is in the very early stages of development. As the project progresses, this website will be updated with news and links to further information. Please continue to check this website for upcoming news and project progress reports.*