ABSTRACT
Probably the single most important problem facing deaf children in the United States is the acquisition of the English language. For many years, failure in this area has been defined by poor written English skills and low reading levels. The reading level of deaf high school graduates in the United States continues to remain at the third-or fourth-grade level (Allen, 1986). However, the relationship between deafness and depressed levels of ability in English language and literacy is complex. The problem is not related to intellectual abilities because, as has been pointed out by educators and researchers in the field of deafness, the distribution of nonverbal intelligence among deaf persons is well within the average range recorded for hearing persons. In fact, when nonverbal, performance-type tests of cognitive ability are used to measure deaf persons’ intelligence, there is no difference between deaf and hearing individuals in performance IQ (Braden, 1989, 1992; Furth, 1966; Vernon, 1967).
