Work

Contribution of Lexical Quality and Sign Language Variables to Reading Comprehension

Year: 2022

Type: article

Abstract: The lexical quality hypothesis proposes that the quality of phonological, orthographic, and semantic representations impacts reading comprehension. In Study 1, we evaluated the contributions of lexical quality to reading comprehension in 97 deaf and 98 hearing adults matched for reading ability. While phonological awareness was a strong predictor for hearing readers, for deaf readers, orthographic precision and semantic knowledge, not phonology, predicted reading comprehension (assessed by two different tests). For deaf readers, the architecture of the reading system adapts by shifting reliance from (coarse-grained) phonological representations to high-quality orthographic and semantic representations. In Study 2, we examined the contribution of American Sign Language (ASL) variables to reading comprehension in 83 deaf adults. Fingerspelling (FS) and ASL comprehension skills predicted reading comprehension. We suggest that FS might reinforce orthographic-to-semantic mappings and that sign language comprehension may serve as a linguistic basis for the development of skilled reading in deaf signers.

Source: The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education

DOI: 10.1093/deafed/enac018

Authors: Zed Sevcikova Sehyr, Karen Emmorey

Institution: San Diego State University

Language: English

Topic: Hearing Impairment and Communication

Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: National Science Foundation, National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

Awards: Assessing the contribution of lexical quality variables to skilled reading in profoundly deaf adults, Language, Modality and the Brain, Assessing the neural dynamics of reading in deaf adults