Researchers study reading and written comprehension skills of deaf youngsters

A group of researchers at Seville University, headed by Isabel de los Reyes Rodríguez Ortiz, is analysing the reading comprehension processes of deaf youngsters, a factor closely linked to their level of expression, both verbal and using sign language. The project is being funded by the Regional Ministry of Innovation as a 2007 excellence project, with an amount of €53,891.72; it is scheduled to finalise in 2011.

The starting hypothesis of the project is based on the fact that, initially, people with higher levels of verbal language have better reading comprehension. Furthermore, and this is a new area of study, the research also includes analysis of the relation between lip-face reading levels and comprehension of written texts.

To verify this, the researchers are working with a sample that covers the deaf population between 10 and 18 years old, residing in Andalusia. The study of this sample population deals with aspects such as the supervision strategies they use to understand the text read, the predictive inferences (or deductions) they carry out or how they interpret grammatical anaphors (grammatical elements such as the Spanish "lo", which refers to a part of the discourse already stated), among other factors.

"For our project we need to find deaf youngsters who can read a text with certain fluency, but unfortunately we have found a very large number of individuals that find it difficult to develop fluid reading skills", the researcher points out. Due to this the study is also working on the development of tests for those children who can read a few phrases but not a text, in order to determine and analyse their reading comprehension processes.

Reading problems

According to Isabel Rodríguez, most of the reading difficulties among people with hearing problems are due to the fact that they have to deal with a written language that they have not yet mastered verbally. "If the degree of hearing loss is significant, it prevents normal speech development, which takes longer and they find it more difficult, meaning that when they come to deal with written texts they have not mastered the language and they have difficulty in recognising it," affirms the researcher.

Another of the variables to be taken into account is the significant lack of incidental information compared to that at the disposal of hearing people. Indeed, with hearing loss the person not only ceases to hear what other people say, but he or she is also not exposed to a large amount of information that is present in the environment and which is essential for interpreting a text. This is the case of messages broadcast by the media, and those that come from the family, other children at school, in conversations that are heard indirectly, etc.

"When we read, we relate what is on the paper to our prior knowledge. If this is missing, it is difficult to establish this kind of connection. This is why it is difficult for hearing people to put themselves in the skin of people with hearing problems, because on many occasions we are totally unaware that we are receiving the information," explains Isabel Rodríguez.

In view of this situation, the researchers at Seville University propose reconsidering the current negative attitude commonly found regarding learning sign language at an early age. According to the researcher, "There are those that consider that if the child uses sign language he or she will never talk, but there is no study that endorses this hypothesis; the only fact that has been demonstrated is that there is a relation between the level of verbal language and level of reading skills."

However, Isabel Rodriguez considers that sign language is important due to two factors. In the first place, despite the fact that its structure is very different to that of verbal language, the sign language system provides access to information in the environment that constitutes a store of knowledge with which to link up what is being read. The second aspect is that sign language also provides information about narrative structures, which in turn contributes towards improving reading.

"If we delay introducing language until the middle of childhood or until adolescence, we are depriving the person of any kind of means to mentally represent the world, to think about themselves, to communicate with others", says Isabel Rodriguez, who adds, "this is what we are finding now - children of parents who put full trust in the verbal language and who are having great difficulty in acquiring language skills and have mastered neither verbal nor sign language."