Speechreading Ability Is Related to Phonological Awareness and Single-Word Reading in Both Deaf and Hearing Children.

CHI-squared test; CONFIDENCE intervals; HEARING; PHONETICS; READING; RESEARCH funding; DEAFNESS in children; PHONOLOGICAL awareness; STATISTICAL models; DESCRIPTIVE statistics; CHILDREN

Purpose: Speechreading (lipreading) is a correlate of reading ability in both deaf and hearing children. We investigated whether the relationship between speechreading and singleword reading is mediated by phonological awareness in deaf and hearing children. Method: In two separate studies, 66 deaf children and 138 hearing children, aged 5-8 years old, were assessed on measures of speechreading, phonological awareness, and single-word reading. We assessed the concurrent relationships between latent variables measuring speechreading, phonological awareness, and single-word reading. Results: In both deaf and hearing children, there was a strong relationship between speechreading and singleword reading, which was fully mediated by phonological awareness. Conclusions: These results are consistent with ideas from previous studies that visual speech information contributes to the development of phonological representations in both deaf and hearing children, which, in turn, support learning to read. Future longitudinal and training studies are required to establish whether these relationships reflect causal effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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