Comparing guided, dialogic, and sign language instruction in deaf and hard-of-hearing students' narrative comprehension
Year: 2026
Type: article
Study design: Clinical Trial
Abstract: Purpose This study compared guided reading, dialogic reading, and sign language instruction for improving narrative comprehension among deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) students and examined teachers' perceptions of students' engagement and comprehension processes. Methods A mixed-methods design was conducted in Türkiye with 30 DHH middle school students enrolled in Grades 6 and 7. Students were assigned to guided reading, dialogic reading, or sign language instruction groups ( n = 10 per group). The 8-week intervention used narrative texts and a common story-map framework addressing setting, time, characters, problem, solution, outcome, reaction, and main idea. Students' comprehension was assessed at baseline, weekly during instruction, immediately after the intervention, and 1 week later. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six teachers. Results All three groups demonstrated significant improvement over time, but the trajectories differed. Dialogic reading produced earlier and larger gains in higher-level narrative comprehension, particularly for problem, outcome, and main idea. At follow-up, both the dialogic reading and Sign Language Instruction groups outperformed the guided reading group on total comprehension (three-group omnibus test; ε 2 = 0.75); the dialogic reading and Sign Language Instruction groups did not differ significantly from one another. Teachers described greater participation, elaborated responses, and increased attention to relationships among narrative events during dialogic reading. Conclusions Accessible linguistic and visual supports may provide a common foundation for narrative comprehension, whereas dialogic interaction may offer additional opportunities for explanation, prediction, causal reasoning, and integration of narrative information.
Source: Frontiers in Psychology
Author: Necla Işıkdoğan Uğurlu
Institution: Zonguldak Bülent Ecevit University
Language: English
Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,801
OpenAlex ID: W7223053383