Reading online in deaf and hearing young people: Do differences exist?

This pilot study explored effects of hearing loss on deaf children’s reading comprehension in an online context. Eighteen deaf secondary students, ages 12–14 years (11 with British Sign Language as their dominant language, seven with English as their dominant language) engaged in an online research comprehension task. Six age-matched hearing spoken language bilingual students served as a comparison group. All participants were identified as confident readers by their teachers. Participants were asked to “think aloud” during an online search task to provide insights into their strategies. Additionally, participants completed a battery of assessments related to reading comprehension, vocabulary, non-verbal IQ, and working memory. Overall results showed similar use of strategies across all students. Strategies applied by the most skilled readers involved drawing on prior knowledge sources, e.g. informational websites or search engines, prior knowledge of the topic, and taking the time to read and evaluate website headings before deciding which one to use as source. Participants also made use of working memory skills. Findings highlight the importance of teaching online search and evaluation skills as part of the reading curriculum in schools.