While literacy outcomes vary widely for deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) children, many learn to read successfully. We need to understand more about what enables some DHH children to become good readers, and how and when the reading process breaks down for other children. Understanding these strengths and weaknesses is crucial to developing effective interventions to support those DHH children who struggle with learning to read. This three part workshop will explore the latest developments in reading development in DHH children across the range of language backgrounds (spoken language, sign language or both).

Workshop session 1 will explore what we know about current reading outcomes for DHH children and consider the extent to which overall literacy levels have improved. There will be a focus on understanding the precursors to reading development for DHH children, including emergent literacy, language skills and the home literacy environment. Throughout this session, we will consider how these factors may differ with different language backgrounds.

Workshop Session 2 will cover reading development in older DHH children and the cognitive and language factors that are important for successful reading. We will focus on reading comprehension ability and explore the role of language skills, such as the ability to make inferences, and breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge, regardless of the language modality.

Workshop session 3 will focus on reading interventions for DHH children. We will consider what makes a good reading intervention and how to assess the effectiveness of any intervention. We will take a look at several theoretically-driven reading interventions for DHH children and discuss the evidence base and implications of the results.

This event will be held at the Australian Hearing Hub, 16 University Avenue, Macquarie University. Accommodation and transport details are located here.