ABSTRACT
The presence in a child of a severe sensori-neural hearing loss has been described by some as a ‘promissory’ for reading failure (Brooks 1978). Varied research evidence from Pintner and Paterson in 1916 to Conrad in 1979, confirms what for many teachers of hearing-impaired children is the reality of the classroom, i.e. that large numbers of hearing-impaired children have left school without achieving functional literacy. More recent researchers in the UK (Lewis 1996) and the USA (Geers and Moog 1989) have, however, reported higher levels of attainment among pupils educated within an oral/aural approach. All three groups of researchers report mean reading levels of approximately 13 years for deaf school leavers within such approaches, with one third of Geers and Moog's sample and a quarter of Lewis's sample reading at or above chronological age.
