mactoph
I haven't read through all the posts, so forgive me if this has already been said.
While it's true that many prelingually deaf read at the 3rd or 4th grade level , people seem to conveniently leave off the second half of those studies, which shows that many hearing people read (in their primary language) at a 5th grade level!
Research shows that the reason that many Hoh and deaf people struggle with written language actually has very little to do with the fact that we are Hoh/d/Deaf and much more to do with the fact that we aren't given constant examples of fluent language during the most critical language acquisition stage ( 0-6years old). The Language one is surrounded by makes little difference, it's that the language is fluently delivered that seems to matter the most.
Therein lies the problem ... See, many hoh/deaf infants and children aren't caught immediately (even with infant screenings), leading to periods of weeks, months or years where the access to language is limited, or missing entirely. Once the infant/child is found to be hoh/deaf - unless the parents are already fluent in Signed Language (ASL/BSL/Auslan etc), or in Cueing the child continues to miss out while the parents start learning. Ideally one would immediately look for peer play groups, individuals looking to be mentors etc where the parents/caregivers/fluent signers (or cuers) and their children are using that language constantly as well as child friendly videos displaying fluent ASL/BSL or cued language models.
The reality is that while hearing aids are helpful for amplifying sound - unless the child has mild loss, they are still missing key speech sounds (critically important when learning a first spoken language). If parents are adamant that they do not want to give their child access to Signed Language, they should at the very least learn and constantly use cued speech to absolutely ensure that they are providing full access to the spoken language they are using with their hoh / deaf child. During the vital language acquisition stage is when children need as much access to fluent language examples as possible. Regardless if a parent hopes that their hoh/deaf child will one day be able to be "oral only", in this pre-lingual and peri-lingual stage of life it is far more important (for that child long term) that they be immersed in a language they can fully access, than it is to attempt to "train the to listen better" and pretend to be "like hearing kids".
It's worth noting that in Deaf families, where the parents are Deaf and are able to provide fluent language models from the day the child is born, and the child is taught to read English from a fluent ASL signer (hoh/deaf or hearing) in a typical "Deaf language modelling" style , that the deaf child typically reads on par, or better than their hearing peers. The reason - they've been properly immersed in a fluent language that they have complete access to constantly from birth.
It's also very important to say that just because an infant/child is immersed in ASL , does not mean they can't ALSO be immersed in English (supported by Cuing). This is the same as any other bilingual family speaking English & French/Spanish/German etc. The critical thing is that each language be grammatically etc correct when it is used.
It's not having a hearing loss that "causes" illiteracy /poor reading skills in hoh/d/Deaf ... It's our limited exposure to proper fluent language models during those critical first years when the brain is learning how to learn and understand language (which is why children who become hoh/deaf after 5-7 typically have the same literacy rates as their hearing peers, even if they aren't allowed access to signed language or cuing).
Good point.
