10 Things You Should Know about Reading

Fluency in Students who are Deaf and Hard of

Hearing

Dr. Susan EasterbrooksProfessor, GSU

Dr. Nanci ScheetzProfessor, VSU

I. Students with hearing loss CAN learn to be

fluent readers.

• Average deaf readers have slower ratesslower rates than skilled deaf readers.

• The more automaticautomatic the decodingdecoding processes are, the better readers students with hearing loss are and the more fluently they read.

• Temporary storage capacity, or working memoryworking memory, and the ability to process the separate bits of information found in reading passages are important precursors to the literacy success of DHH students.

• Repeated readingRepeated reading is an effective tool for promoting fluency in deaf readers.

http://www.deafed.net/Forums/ForumsList.asp

Content Competence

II. However, their weaknesses with vocabulary and

grammar will require teachers to modify what and how they

are teaching fluency.

• For deaf children (and all children), fluency is a LANGUAGE issue.

• Fluent readers must map spoken language onto print rapidly and

easily.

(National Reading Panel, 1999)

• The same holds true when the language is sign language, but in

addition, the reader must code-switch between the two code-switch between the two

languageslanguages.

• This is why it is essential to collaborate with the teacher of the deaf.

Relationship between language an fluency

patterns.

• “Chunking” or focusing on language patterns is important because the English language is based on phrase and clause units (i.e., patterns, groupings, or chunks of information).

• English is modular. English is modular. Sentences are made Sentences are made up of the following up of the following modules:modules:– noun phrases – verb phrases – adjectival phrases – adverbial phrases– prepositional phrases– adverbial clauses – relative clausesfluency is a

language thing

Example

• Who went to the store?

• She is the lady who went to the store.

While these “chunks” are the same, they sound very different when spoken, look very different when signed, and mean something altogether different in the context of their sentences. The ability to produce these different patterns facilitates fluency. They are language patterns, and fluency is a language issue for children who are deaf and hard of hearing.

III. Some students learn fluency skills

through the auditory pathway.

• Children who can become fluent through the auditory pathway need:– Careful monitoring of their hearing aids

– Careful examination of the sounds they hear easily versus the sounds they don’t hear so well

– Early and extra attention on fluency patterns (often beginning at the pattern differentiation level such as “ouch” versus “hop-hop-hop”)

– Careful collaboration between the

general education teacher and the teacher of the deaf.

IV. Some students learn fluency skills

through the visual pathway.

Signed reading fluencySigned reading fluency correlates highly with passage comprehension.

Children who sign may actually be rendering the printed English into fluent signed expression. The more clearly a signer code-code-switches between the languagesswitches between the languages, the more likely he is to be a fluent reader.

Consult very closely with the teacher of the deaf and with the interpreter to make sure the student is connecting English print connecting English print to his own language.to his own language.

V. In all approaches you must consider

all 3 components of fluency.

Fluency is the ability “to read orally with speedspeed, accuracyaccuracy, and

proper expressionexpression.”

(National Reading Panel, NICHHD, 2000)

OR…as is the important difference for students with hearing lossthe important difference for students with hearing loss

“to read one’s languageone’s language with speed, accuracy, and proper expression”

The least well understood component of fluency

(both for hearing and for deaf) is expressionexpression.

• Expression reflects the mood and emotion

of the written word and includes…

– Tone of voice

– Tone of “face” (in ASL users)

– Patterns of duration, intensity, and pitch

– “Chunking” or expression of the different

“modulesmodules” of language

VI. Visual approaches depend on the

student’s primary language.

• If the student’s primary language is American Sign Language, then the student needs instruction in both languagestudent needs instruction in both language as well as instruction in code-switching between the languages.

• If the student’s primary language is a signed form of English, then the student needs to learn the grammar as well as the vocabularystudent needs to learn the grammar as well as the vocabulary of the language while simultaneously learning visual decoding strategies (See phonological awareness and phonics presentation.).

• If the student’s primary language is a spoken language other than English, then the student might benefit from one of the visual approachesvisual approaches used in phonological awareness and phonics instruction (See phonological awareness and phonics presentation.).

VII. A really great assessment helps you decide

what skills the student needs to learn.

• To identify reading level (independent, instructional, frustration) and document progress in the areas of:– Word recognition in lists

– Word recognition in context

– Comprehension

• To assess text difficulty– Too easy

– Too difficult

– Just right!

• To observe reading behaviors and strategies

VIII. ASL visual approaches involve the

visual envelope and visual grammar.• Definition of accuracy for signing deaf childrenDefinition of accuracy for signing deaf children

– the ability of the signer to translate the concepts in English print text into a signed format that has equivalent conceptual meaning. This component can be measured with miscue analysis, either while completing a running record or an informal reading inventory. Therefore, we felt no need to duplicate this component.

• Definition of fluency envelopeDefinition of fluency envelope

– the overall visual appearance of an individual who is signing while reading, with or without voice, which gives the visual impression that he or she is a good reader or not a good reader.

• Definition of visual grammarDefinition of visual grammar

– those key elements of signing, whether in an English-like mode or ASL, which demonstrate to the observer that the reader is visualizing the meaning of the story.

See Easterbrooks & Huston (2007) for a detailed description of signed reading fluency.

IX. Some really great materials that

others have found helpful are…

• Visualizing and Verbalizing

• Reader’s Theater– http://www.aaronshep.com/rt/books/ReadersOS.html

– http://loiswalker.com/catalog/teach.html

– http://www.teachingheart.net/readerstheater.htm

X. Some useful strategies that work with

DHH students are:

• Repeated readingRepeated reading

• Teacher modelingTeacher modeling

• Dyad readingDyad reading

• Echoic readingEchoic reading

• Listening to and mimicking pitch differences (pattern pattern practicepractice)

• Listening to and mimicking loudness patternspatterns

• Listening to and mimicking differences in durational patternspatterns

• Study of verb idioms and figurative languageverb idioms and figurative language

• ASL grammargrammar instruction.

• English/ASL comparative structure study.

• ASL grammar videos.

• Conversation Conversation time with deaf adults, hearing adults, and other students.

• Study English grammar patterns in formal and in context situations.

• READ, READ, READREAD, READ, READ.

• Morphographemic study

• Read for an audience

Sources and Resources

• Easterbrooks, S., & Huston, S. (2007). Signed reading fluency in students who are deaf and hard of hearing. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education.

• Kelly, L. (1995). Processing of bottom-up and top-down information by skilled and average deaf readers and implication for whole language instruction. Exceptional Children, 61(4), 318-334. ).

• Kelly, L. P. (2003). The importance of processing automaticity and temporary storage capacity to the differences in comprehension between skilled and less skilled college age deaf readers. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 8(3), 230-249.

• Ensor, A. D., & Koller, J. R. (1997). The effect of the method of repeated readings on the reading rate and word recognition accuracy of deaf adolescents. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 2(2), 61-70.

• Other sources:

– Garrison, Long & Dowaliby, 1997;

– Kelly, 1993;

– King & Just, 1991

– http://www.deafed.net/Forums/ForumsList.asp• Content Competence

• 1. Students with hearing loss CAN learn to be fluent readers

• 2. However, their weaknesses with vocabulary and grammar will require teachers to modify what and how they are teaching fluency.

• 3. Some students learn fluency skills through the auditory pathway.

• 4. Some students learn fluency skills through the visual pathway.

• 5. In all approaches you must consider all 3 components of fluency.

• 6. Visual approaches depend on the student’s primary language (L1).

• 7. A really great assessment helps you decide what skills the student needs to learn

• 8. ASL visual approaches involve the visual envelope and visual grammar.

• 9. Some really great materials that others have found helpful are:

• 10. Some useful strategies that work with DHH students are: