The Role of Parents in Improving the Reading Ability of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children Through Story Reading

Parents play an important role in improving the reading and writing skills of their deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children. As this research aimed, reading stories to their children at home is an important part of such improvement efforts. The study sample consisted of 341 male and female schoolteachers, 14.7% of whom were DHH teachers. In general, the results reported that parents play an important role in improving the reading and writing skills of their DHH children. Also, the results revealed that pre-reading practices play a significant role in improving the reading and writing skills of DHH children, as assessed by their teachers. In addition, during reading practice, parent skills, and post-reading practice strategies are important for DHH literacy skills. Children’s reading and writing skill improvement, as rated by teachers, was significantly greater for those children whose parents were older, more experienced, and more educated; however, no differences emerged in teachers’ ratings of the children’s improvement in reading and writing skills as a function of their parents’ gender. Suggestions and recommendations for future research are provided.