1. Dr. Susan Easterbrooks Professor, GSU Dr. Nanci Scheetz Professor, VSU
10 Things You Should Know about Reading Fluency in Students who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing
Dr. Susan Easterbrooks
Professor, GSU Dr. Nanci Scheetz
Professor, VSU

2. I. Students with hearing loss CAN learn to be fluent readers.
Average deaf readers have slower rates than skilled deaf readers.
The more automatic the decoding processes are, the better readers students with hearing loss are and the more fluently they read.
Temporary storage capacity, or working memory, and the ability to process the separate bits of information found in reading passages are important precursors to the literacy success of DHH students.
Repeated reading is an effective tool for promoting fluency in deaf readers.
Content Competence

3. II. However, their weaknesses with vocabulary and grammar will require teachers to modify what and how they are teaching fluency.
For deaf children (and all children), fluency is a LANGUAGE issue.
Fluent readers must map spoken language onto print rapidly and easily.
(National Reading Panel, 1999)
The same holds true when the language is sign language, but in addition, the reader must code-switch between the two languages.
This is why it is essential to collaborate with the teacher of the deaf.

4. Relationship between language an fluency patterns.
“Chunking” or focusing on language patterns is important because the English language is based on phrase and clause units (i.e., patterns, groupings, or chunks of information).
English is modular. Sentences are made up of the following modules:
noun phrases
verb phrases
adjectival phrases
adverbial phrases
prepositional phrases
adverbial clauses
relative clauses
fluency is a language thing

5. Example
Who went to the store?
She is the lady who went to the store.
While these “chunks” are the same, they sound very different when spoken, look very different when signed, and mean something altogether different in the context of their sentences. The ability to produce these different patterns facilitates fluency. They are language patterns, and fluency is a language issue for children who are deaf and hard of hearing.

6. III. Some students learn fluency skills through the auditory pathway.
Children who can become fluent through the auditory pathway need:
Careful monitoring of their hearing aids
Careful examination of the sounds they hear easily versus the sounds they don’t hear so well
Early and extra attention on fluency patterns (often beginning at the pattern differentiation level such as “ouch” versus “hop-hop- hop”)
Careful collaboration between the
general education teacher and the teacher of the deaf.

7. IV. Some students learn fluency skills through the visual pathway.
Signed reading fluency correlates highly with passage comprehension.
Children who sign may actually be rendering the printed English into fluent signed expression. The more clearly a signer code- switches between the languages, the more likely he is to be a fluent reader.
Consult very closely with the teacher of the deaf and with the interpreter to make sure the student is connecting English print to his own language.

8. V. In all approaches you must consider all 3 components of fluency.
Fluency is the ability “to read orally with speed, accuracy, and
proper expression.”
(National Reading Panel, NICHHD, 2000)
OR…as is the important difference for students with hearing loss
“to read one’s language with speed, accuracy, and proper expression”

9. The least well understood component of fluency (both for hearing and for deaf) is expression.
Expression reflects the mood and emotion of the written word and includes…
Tone of voice
Tone of “face” (in ASL users)
Patterns of duration, intensity, and pitch
“Chunking” or expression of the different “modules” of language

10. VI. Visual approaches depend on the student’s primary language.
If the student’s primary language is American Sign Language, then the student needs instruction in both language as well as instruction in code- switching between the languages.
If the student’s primary language is a signed form of English, then the student needs to learn the grammar as well as the vocabulary of the language while simultaneously learning visual decoding strategies (See phonological awareness and phonics presentation.).
If the student’s primary language is a spoken language other than English, then the student might benefit from one of the visual approaches used in phonological awareness and phonics instruction (See phonological awareness and phonics presentation.).

11. VII. A really great assessment helps you decide what skills the student needs to learn.
To identify reading level (independent, instructional, frustration) and document progress in the areas of:
Word recognition in lists
Word recognition in context
Comprehension
To assess text difficulty
Too easy
Too difficult
Just right!
To observe reading behaviors and strategies

12. VIII. ASL visual approaches involve the visual envelope and visual grammar.
Definition of accuracy for signing deaf children
the ability of the signer to translate the concepts in English print text into a signed format that has equivalent conceptual meaning. This component can be measured with miscue analysis, either while completing a running record or an informal reading inventory. Therefore, we felt no need to duplicate this component.
Definition of fluency envelope
the overall visual appearance of an individual who is signing while reading, with or without voice, which gives the visual impression that he or she is a good reader or not a good reader.
Definition of visual grammar
those key elements of signing, whether in an English-like mode or ASL, which demonstrate to the observer that the reader is visualizing the meaning of the story.
See Easterbrooks & Huston (2007) for a detailed description of signed reading fluency.

13. IX. Some really great materials that others have found helpful are…
Visualizing and Verbalizing
Reader’s Theater

14. X. Some useful strategies that work with DHH students are:
Repeated reading
Teacher modeling
Dyad reading
Echoic reading
Listening to and mimicking pitch differences (pattern practice)
Listening to and mimicking loudness patterns
Listening to and mimicking differences in durational patterns
Study of verb idioms and figurative language

15. ASL grammar instruction.
English/ASL comparative structure study.
ASL grammar videos.
Conversation time with deaf adults, hearing adults, and other students.
Study English grammar patterns in formal and in context situations.
READ, READ, READ.
Morphographemic study
Read for an audience

16. Sources and Resources
Easterbrooks, S., & Huston, S. (2007). Signed reading fluency in students who are deaf and hard of hearing. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education.
Kelly, L. (1995). Processing of bottom-up and top-down information by skilled and average deaf readers and implication for whole language instruction. Exceptional Children, 61(4), ).
Kelly, L. P. (2003). The importance of processing automaticity and temporary storage capacity to the differences in comprehension between skilled and less skilled college age deaf readers. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 8(3),
Ensor, A. D., & Koller, J. R. (1997). The effect of the method of repeated readings on the reading rate and word recognition accuracy of deaf adolescents. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 2(2),

17. Other sources:
Garrison, Long & Dowaliby, 1997;
Kelly, 1993;
King & Just, 1991
st.asp
Content Competence

18. 1. Students with hearing loss CAN learn to be fluent readers
2. However, their weaknesses with vocabulary and grammar will require teachers to modify what and how they are teaching fluency.
3. Some students learn fluency skills through the auditory pathway.
4. Some students learn fluency skills through the visual pathway.
5. In all approaches you must consider all 3 components of fluency.
6. Visual approaches depend on the student’s primary language (L1).
7. A really great assessment helps you decide what skills the student needs to learn
8. ASL visual approaches involve the visual envelope and visual grammar.
9. Some really great materials that others have found helpful are:
10. Some useful strategies that work with DHH students are: