title: The relative contributions of speechreading and vocabulary to deaf and hearing children's reading ability.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Vocabulary knowledge and speechreading are important for deaf children's reading development but it is unknown whether they are independent predictors of reading ability.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This study investigated the relationships between reading, speechreading and vocabulary in a large cohort of deaf and hearing children aged 5 to 14 years.
  
  
  METHODS
  86 severely and profoundly deaf children and 91 hearing children participated in this study. All children completed assessments of reading comprehension, word reading accuracy, speechreading and vocabulary.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Regression analyses showed that vocabulary and speechreading accounted for unique variance in both reading accuracy and comprehension for deaf children. For hearing children, vocabulary was an independent predictor of both reading accuracy and comprehension skills but speechreading only accounted for unique variance in reading accuracy.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Speechreading and vocabulary are important for reading development in deaf children. The results are interpreted within the Simple View of Reading framework and the theoretical implications for deaf children's reading are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Deafness, Cognition and Language Research Centre (DCAL), Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, UCL, London, UK. Electronic address: Fiona.kyle.1@city.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Fiona Elizabeth
authors.initials: FE
authors.lastname: Kyle
authors.affiliation: Deafness, Cognition and Language Research Centre (DCAL), Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, UCL, London, UK.
authors.forename: Ruth
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Campbell
authors.affiliation: Deafness, Cognition and Language Research Centre (DCAL), Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, UCL, London, UK; Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, UCL, London, UK.
authors.forename: Mairéad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: MacSweeney
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D012048:Correction of Hearing Impairment / Q000379:methods / Q000523:psychology; D003638:Deafness / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation; D060345:Education of Persons with Hearing Disabilities / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D006310:Hearing Aids; D006320:Hearing Tests / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D007807:Language Tests; D008085:Lipreading; D008297:Male; D019986:Persons with Hearing Disabilities / Q000523:psychology; D010700:Phonetics; D011932:Reading; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D014825:Vocabulary
keywords: Deaf; Reading; Speechreading; Vocabulary