THE USE OF SIGNED ENGLISH PICTURES TO FACILITATE READING-COMPREHENSION BY DEAF STUDENTS

Many deaf students have severe difficulty acquiring literacy and devel oping reading comprehension beyond an elementary school level. This di fficulty apparently results from a combination of perceptual, communic ation, instructional, linguistic, and experiential deficits. Although some deaf students develop a degree of signed English proficiency, thi s does not necessarily translate into reading proficiency. Recent stud ies examining the possible association between signed English pictures and comprehension of printed text present some support for facilitati on of students' word recognition in a format combining those two eleme nts. Whether this format enhances comprehension remains unclear from p revious studies. The present study, involving 16 severely or profoundl y deaf students across two reading-proficiency groups, examined whethe r the use of signed English pictures in association with printed text enhances students' reading comprehension. The study found that compreh ension was significantly enhanced by the use of signed English reading books, with poorer readers deriving greater benefit than better reade rs. Practical implications of the findings are discussed.