Exploring Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students’ Engagement in Reading Comprehension Strategies in Elementary School

Abstract: The reading level of a number of students who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) is lower than that of non-DHH students because DHH children generally experience delays in their exposure to language and may also be diagnosed with learning disabilities. This study explored the reading comprehension strategies that first-grade DHH students adopted, with specific attention to the roles that both explicit and implicit instruction play. Using an ethnographic qualitative approach, a teacher and four first-grade DHH students were observed and interviewed to provide insight into the instructional practices and strategies most commonly used by students and teachers of DHH children. The findings revealed that the strategies DHH students employed varied depending on their cultural background and fluency in Saudi Sign Language (SSL). During implicit instruction, students frequently used strategies such as thinking together, activating prior knowledge, and translating Arabic texts into SSL. In contrast, explicit instruction was associated with more structured strategies, such as summarizing in SSL and writing responses based upon the texts. The results demonstrated that retelling and summarizing activities using SSL emerged as a particularly significant strategy for reading comprehension. Future research should examine instructional methods that provide effective support to develop DHH learners’ summarization writing skills.