Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education Advance Access originally published online on July 2, 2007
The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 2008 13(1):37-54; doi:10.1093/deafed/enm030
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The Signed Reading Fluency of Students Who Are Deaf/Hard of Hearing
Georgia State University
Atlanta Area School for the Deaf
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Reading fluency in deaf children whose primary mode of communication is visual, whether English-like or American Sign Language, is difficult to measure since most measures of fluency require a child to read aloud. This article opens the discussion of a new construct, namely, signed reading fluency (i.e., rendering of printed text in a visually fluent manner) in children with hearing loss whose primary means of expressive language includes some form of sign. Further, it describes the development of an assessment rubric to measure signed reading fluency. A comparison of fluency scores and scores on tests of vocabulary and text comprehension of 29 middle school students who attended a school for the deaf indicated that signed reading fluency, as defined and measured by this instrument, correlates highly both with word and passage comprehension.
Correspondence should be sent to Susan R. Easterbrooks, Pryor Street, Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30302-3979 (e-mail: seasterbrooks{at}gsu.edu).
Received December 7, 2006; revised May 1, 2007; accepted May 6, 2007